Battery Farms – Part I

The Choice

After months of research, indecision and quotes of all kinds, I finally decided to order rearing crates! It wasn’t easy – should I switch to small-sized rearing cages? Stainless steel? Wood? PVC? And, above all, was it really worth the investment?
Switch to rearing cages? Yes, I had to, but not just any old way. There’s already a minimum size requirement for the birds I’m rearing: 120 cm long by 50 cm deep by 50 cm high! I spent ages wavering between two lengths: 150 cm or 120 cm? So I went for the 120 cm (we’ll see about a future order for 150 cm). What’s more, the drawers absolutely had to have the slatted base option, and as far as I’m concerned, the cages had to be fully enclosed on five sides.  The big advantage of this sort of cage is that it’s easy to clean.
The material used for the cages? Well, ANYTHING but wood – so I was open to all other materials. I’ve had enough of cleaning wood.
Did I need to invest? Yes, I did. I’ve got loads of projects in mind, but to see them through I had to make this investment.

After extensive research online, I narrowed my choice down to two manufacturers.

The first produced top-of-the-range products, with several material options (stainless steel, galvanised steel, epoxy-coated galvanised steel) and different cage sizes – anything was possible! And what can I say about the ‘European Fauna’ options? Simply brilliant! Slatted cage floors, ‘special bullfinch’ nesting boxes! Everything was designed to make life easier for the breeder (cleaning, feeding, etc.) and to improve the lives of our birds!
Their website: http://www.cages-soullier.com

The second manufacturer produced PVC cage sets in various sizes, with slatted cage floors, seed reservoirs and several styles of front panels, but sadly no ‘European Fauna’ options!
His website: http://graf-versand.de/

So I settled on Soullier cages! The only fly in the ointment was, unsurprisingly, the price.
Unfortunately for me, my budget wouldn’t stretch to such a splurge – or rather, it would, but only for half the number of enclosures! So the order was placed with the second manufacturer, Graf Cages in Bavaria. Why make things simple when you can make them complicated? I don’t speak German, so I can’t ring them, and communicating by email still requires a good translator.
A huge amount in postage later, the Graf batteries arrived safely!

My first observation: they’re not exactly a bargain! But bearing in mind my LED dimmer project (with simulations of a full moon, sunset and sunrise), featuring integrated LED lighting strips in each cage, the Graf cages would be easier to modify!
As for this project, it will be the subject of another post on ‘Eleveur de Carduelinés’!

If you’re looking for breeding batteries, I’d therefore recommend these two manufacturers, though there are plenty of others worth mentioning too:
http://www.Vogelparadies-Schuesler.de
http://www.volieres.nl
http://www.gehu.nl/indexes_fr.htm

For quality, sturdiness, aesthetics, modularity and, finally, the materials used, I recommend Soullier cages; and for quality, aesthetics and, finally, the price, I recommend Graf cages!
So here are these long-awaited battery cages; I won’t be using them this year, as for me the breeding season is already well underway, but I can already picture all my little charges in these new cages!
The installation of these new battery sets will be the subject of a future post on our website

Below are photos of the two types of battery sets:

 

Gallery