Bird nests placed by birds on trees are cute and interesting, but homemade decorative crafts made from twigs like a house for birds are a completely different matter from the design sphere. The popularity of decorating the interior with such “fluffies” with toy eggs or figurines seated in them is becoming more and more widespread, which makes the algorithms for making them yourself more and more in demand.
Anyone can cope with this task, and the photos below of possible nests made from branches, options for using them in the interior, and recommendations for using such decorations will help with this.
Chicken nests
How to make nests for laying hens from boxes. Such short-lived nests are made for temporary housing of birds from clean, high-quality materials.
How to make chicken nests for eggs. The simplest way is to cut an opening in the box, and the birds quickly get used to such nests, in which a different number of cells can be made.
Dimensions
When building nests, it is necessary to take into account the breed of chickens:
- For ordinary laying hens, small structures with the following parameters will be sufficient: 25x35x35 cm.
- Individuals of meat and egg breeds need more spacious shelters with dimensions of 30x40x45.
Each nest (regardless of the breed) must have a threshold with a height of 5 to 8 cm, as well as a special bar designed for birds to take off (located ten centimeters from the entrance and having a cross-section of 5x2 cm).
With a large number of laying hens, it is advisable to place nests in 2-3 tiers, making sure that the height of the nests of the lower tier is at least 30-40 cm from the floor level.
Above the upper tier it is necessary to make a reliable roof with an angle of inclination equal to 45-50 degrees (such a slope is needed in order to wean chickens from the habit of sitting on the roof and soiling nests with their droppings).
duck nest
The duck nest must meet the following requirements: complete sound insulation, minimal lighting, thick, dry bedding.
For construction you will need: screws, a ruler, sheets of plywood, 6 wooden slats, a saw.
Sequence of work:
- Two square blanks 0.4 x 0.4 m are made from a sheet of plywood;
- For the entrance, a square hole of 0.17 x 0.17 m is cut at a height of 9 cm;
- Square side walls with sides of 0.4 and 0.5 m and a roof are manufactured;
- A frame is constructed from slats;
- The parts are attached to the frame;
- Bedding is placed at the bottom, which needs to be replaced regularly. For the bottom material, the use of wood is preferable, but iron is undesirable.
In order to teach a bird to lay eggs only in a built nest, you should put imitation eggs made of plaster or chalk in it and not collect eggs in their presence.
Where can I place it?
After the process of making the craft reaches the finish line, you can think about placing the product. So, the following options are offered:
In the house. You can decorate any room in an apartment or house with a nest - the personification of comfort, family and warmth. The decoration looks especially good with a container of cereal or painted eggs placed in it.
On the street. A decorative nest for the garden is an interesting addition to any fence or a custom feeder for outdoor birds. You can try to find new residents by hanging a nest on the top of a tree.
As a present. A standard packaging box with a bow or a boring package is nothing compared to a bird's nest design. To give it a festive look, all you have to do is sprinkle the craft with glitter and add a shiny ribbon to the weave.
A decorative nest is one of those crafts whose simplicity of manufacture hides originality, practicality and incredible aesthetics. All that remains is to find suitable branches to decorate the interior of the living room or garden with an original accessory.
Geese nests
The goose's nest should be spacious, and the material for it can be unnecessary baskets, boxes and car tires.
The nest is at least 60 cm high and is installed in a dark place so as not to disturb the birds. If several birds are planning to hatch eggs in the nest, it should be divided into several compartments.
Required materials and accessories: saw, hammer, ruler, clapboard, bedding material, plywood.
Stages of work:
- The lining is sawn into strips for walls of 50 and 60 cm;
- Slats are nailed to 4 slats at a distance of 4 cm;
- The bottom is made of plywood;
- Treat the finished nest with a disinfectant solution.
Results of collective creativity
Nest of social weavers
Nest of social weavers
Let us now move from East Africa, in the savannas of which most varieties of true weavers live, to the Namib Desert, which stretches in a narrow strip along the coasts of the Atlantic in the southwest of the African continent, washed by the cold Benguela Current. The local region has a harsh climate and is not rich in birds.
But what ornithologist would refuse the opportunity to visit this inhospitable region, under the gloomy name of the Skeleton Coast? After all, it is here that you can see one of the main wonders of the bird construction industry - the collective nest of social weavers.
The result of collective creativity is noticeable from afar and resembles a large shock of hay, swept up at someone’s whim not on the ground, but in the crown of a tree. Such “heads” are especially often encountered on woody cockerbum lilies with their extremely thick succulent (succulent) trunk, which serves as a reservoir of moisture, and a rounded cap of short and gnarled branches. The “mock” is attached to the thickest branches and is a cone-shaped, tightly compressed mass of dry grass, covered on top with a thick and durable layer of densely packed thorny twigs and rough plant stems, forming a kind of roof.
Nest of social weavers
Residential nesting chambers are located in the lowest layer of soft material. Their entrances face down and are located close to each other, so that when viewed from below, the picture somewhat resembles a honeycomb. Above the residential nests, several floors high, there are old nests, long abandoned by the owners and completely filled with nesting material.
The maximum height (or thickness) of collective nests reaches one meter, the circumference is 3-4 meters. Dozens of generations of weavers are engaged in the construction of these grandiose buildings, which live to be centuries old; up to 500 individuals simultaneously coexist in large nests. Having served its purpose, the “stack” breaks its support and falls to the ground.
The population of the colony is concerned with the delivery and installation of material all year round. In winter, the weavers have little interest in the lower surface and mainly while away the time on the roof, where with great diligence they drag coarse dried stems of weeds and dry and thorny branches of acacias. It is flattering for each to place his offering above the others, which is why the roof inevitably takes the shape of a fairly regular cone-shaped dome.
With the arrival of spring, the birds' attention increasingly shifts to the “soft underbelly” of the building, that is, to its lower surface. Having found a place here and hanging on its paws with its back down, the weaver begins to carefully and methodically insert the ends of the grass blades sticking out into the thickness of the material with its beak. This work, needless to say, requires patience. Eventually a hole is formed on the lower surface of the soft layer, which, using the same painstaking technique, deepens and widens until it reaches the volume of the nesting chamber.
At the same time, at some point, the builder begins to bring additional blades of grass to the “construction site” and, acting in the usual way, inserts them into the material around the hole. Thus, the layer of material grows even more, and the nesting chamber sinks faster and faster into its thickness. Thus, the nesting structure of a colony of social weavers increases all year round, but in winter it grows upward, while with the beginning of the nesting season it grows downward.
The most amazing nest is built by the African Remez: being generally similar to the nest of the common Remez, it has two entrances. The false dead-end entrance is clearly visible from the outside, but as for the entrance to the nest room, it is often difficult to see, because it is covered by a soft entrance tube, which is not very easy to penetrate even for the owners.
Construction work at the remez is carried out exclusively by males. A single male lays the foundation of a building and attracts a female by singing. If she is gone for a long time, the male erects a new building nearby and sings near it. The construction technology is unique. Arriving at the construction site with a bunch of soft plant fibers in his beak, the male strengthens them at one end on a supporting branch and begins to quickly circle around it, catching his paws and winding the fibers onto the base, like thread on a spool. In an hour, the “builder” brings nesting material 10-15 times. After 3-4 hours of work, the male connects the wrapped twigs to each other with a crossbar from a bunch of grass, so that the base of the nest is formed in the shape of a triangle or ring. Now the male begins to wear not only elastic plant fibers, which are used to strengthen the base of the building, but also large tufts of fluff, which are stuck in different places between the fibers and gradually form the walls of the nest.
Already at the end of the first day of construction, the nest takes the form of a miniature and neat basket with a handle that is thicker and wider at the base. Subsequently, the side edges of the basket become higher and higher, the holes become smaller and finally the roof arch closes. Now all that remains is to attach the entrance vestibule in the form of a tube, and the nest is ready. Let us note that exactly the same sequence of actions, even down to coincidence in the smallest details, is characteristic of the already mentioned weavers, who also build hanging nests, but use other materials and a different technology for fastening them.
During construction, males are forced to vigilantly guard the territory around their nests, because if they are neglected, buildings, especially unfinished ones, can be destroyed by other males, who consider other people's (as well as abandoned last year's) nests just as a warehouse for nesting material.
The family life of the Remez looks rather bizarre; the marriages of these birds are usually very ephemeral. After the formation of a pair, the male remez quickly completes the construction (sometimes with the participation of the female) and in the future can devote himself to incubating the clutch, or maybe fly off on a trip and in the same summer acquire a new family at a distance of 25-30 kilometers from the previous one.
Many males are so overwhelmed by the building instinct that they often try with all their might to complete the construction of a ready-made nest with clutches, causing displeasure and even direct aggression from females who show well-founded fears for the safety of the eggs. In turn, some females manage to lay up to three clutches in the nests of different males over the summer. Some females leave the clutches in the care of the males, some remain to incubate - alone or with the help of their spouses. Many clutches die because the parents quarrel all the time and cannot “agree” on which of them will be the hen.
Willow nest
How to make a chicken nest woven from willow twigs. Stages of work:
- A cross is woven from willow twigs;
- The cross is braided using the crossing method. In this case, each turn is pressed with force against the previous one. After braiding, the diameter of the cross should be 0.7 m;
- Side rods with pointed ends are inserted and the sidewall is woven;
- The edges are braided. The ends of the rods are fastened in the center with wire;
- A spacer ring is fixed inside the basket;
- At a height of about 20 cm, the previously tied rods are untied and the edges of the basket are braided with them;
- Each rib is wrapped around the next one, and the third is folded 5 cm and cut off;
- After weaving the last rod, the protruding ends of the rods are cut off.
In case of difficulties, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the videos posted on the World Wide Web on how to make a nest from willow branches on your own.
The threatening pose of a goose when a person approaches indicates that the time has come to take care of the nest in which it will hatch eggs.
The nest should be disinfected with a special composition and bedding should be made of hay (straw is not suitable for this purpose).
During the incubation period, there should be enough water and food near the nest. In winter, nests are placed in heated rooms.
If there are several nests with females nearby, their view should be limited by curtains to prevent mutual observation. Adequate ventilation is also necessary.
"Carpenters" and "diggers"
Woodpecker nests
The woodpecker's hollow is yellow (black woodpecker)
What professions have birds not mastered in pursuit of maximum comfort and safety of their nests! Some even had to master the skills of carpenters and diggers. These skills for both are based on the skillful use of the same working tool - their own strong beak, which, depending on the circumstances, can be used as a chisel or instead of a shovel. Therefore, the professions of a carpenter and a digger in the world of birds are quite closely related to each other.
Most of the 200 species of woodpeckers distributed throughout the world are native forest dwellers, and their art of handling trees has no equal. When the main forest "carpenter" - Zhelna - gets excited and gets down to business seriously, chips up to fifteen centimeters long scatter like a fountain around the "construction site". Zhelna is the largest of our woodpeckers, almost the size of a crow, so she needs a spacious “apartment”. The depth of its hollow reaches 40 centimeters, the internal diameter is 25 centimeters.
Interesting: Birds of Russia
