Moving my canaries
My canaries have been living for several years in an amazing cage in a room that I call the 'bird room.' I designed this cage after one that came from France, built around 1900, probably to house doves or quails. As you can see, it is quite spacious and my canaries have been very happy. Last year, I decided to have another cage built, but with some modifications. One big improvement is a trough surrounding the bottom of the cage, which catches seed hulls, keeping the floor beneath much neater. The front of the trough is hinged and drops down for easy cleanup. I decided to give the birds entirely new surroundings and set up the new cage in my large 'brown room.'
Most of my birds are red factor canaries and I got my first ones eleven years ago from our pet expert, Marc Morrone. We were taping a Christmas special and Marc provided all the birds for a segment called The Twelve Days of Christmas. He brought four red canaries to represent the four calling birds and even trained them to fly and land on a wreath. Those four canaries stayed with me. Marc also acquired red factor canaries for me from a breeder in Belgium. The canaries were imported and quarantined and joined my brood. I really enjoy these birds and their singing adds so much to my home.
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- My canaries have been living in this grand cage for several years and I wanted to give them a new home in a different room.
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- Named after its beautiful plumage, the Red Factor Canary is one of the most popular canaries.
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- As you can see, the inside of the cage provides ample space for exercise.
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- Carlos reaching in to catch a canary
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- One ready for transport
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- Now it’s Laura’s turn.
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- So very delicate – the Red Factor Canary was developed in the early 1900s by crossing a male red siskin with yellow canary.
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- Oops! This one managed to get away, but was soon safely caught.
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- Carlos and Laura have successfully captured all the canaries for transport to another room.
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- They look so beautiful in this sun beam.
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- This is their new home being assembled in, what I call, the brown room.
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- A view from above – I count only 12 canaries – they better get busy and lay some eggs!
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- The canaries love hopping from branch to branch.
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- New branches were cut from my fruit trees.
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- Gyurme mounts the branches inside the cage for the canaries to use as perches.
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- Laura attaches the feeders and calcium rich cuttlebone.
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- Many feeders for many birds
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- I love the way the canaries sound and look in the brown room and they seem very happy here. Notice the seed catch trough around the bottom of the cage? A very good idea.
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