New bamboo cage for Hwamei

Just recently bought a bamboo cage for the Hwamei.  The one I bought did not have any kind of treatment to the wood (no paint, no vanish, no protected oil).  I forgot to take the picture of the before untreated bamboo cage, but here is the final finish after a few coat with Formby's tung oil finish (natural color), a coat of Watco danish oil finish (natural color), and thin layer of Helmsman spar urethane for extra protection against water and sun UV ray damage.  According to few woodworkers I asked, one of either three products above is enough to turn raw bamboo cage to a beautiful one and fully protect the cage from water damage; however, I like to protect the bamboo cage from UV ray also.  Depends on type of bamboo to make the cage, even when I use natural color coat (no stain color to the wood), this cage turn out quite beautiful with little darker color than before untreated, but my other cage did not turn darker, just shinier.

Newly build aviary and some update pics of my collection

After 3 weeks of planning, buying, and building, the new aviary for the birds are almost complete. There is total of 7 small aviary (4ft deep x 2 ft wide x 6ft tall) all connect together and divided by a sheet of plywood. The goal is when breeding season come, all i need to do is take one of the divided plywood down and two small aviary become one 4x4x6 breeding aviary. I still need to finish the last mini aviary and clean up.



Close up one each mini aviary:



My H2N1 female: a mom of 14 babies this 09 season. She is starting to molt.



My H3N1 male: a father of 14 babies this 09 season. He is starting to molt.



My H5N1 male: He is born this year 2009 from one of my best friend DV & Andy. Currently is near the end of molting. Tail is about little over 7.5in





My H1N1 male: He is born last year 2008. I acquired him from my best friend Andy. First molt is 8in long tail from tip to end. He is curently on molt.



My H32N2 female: She is born this year 2009 from father H3N1 and mother H2N1






My H4N1 female: She is born this year 2009 also.




Cockroach egg sacks. Cockroach is another souce of food that I feed my bird. I try to raise them instead of buying.