March In The Bird Room --- Month by Month Journal

One of my major 2020 goals was to completely REDO my bird room! 
It needed a major DEEP CLEAN, and some CHANGES to my cage system, food storage, and the number of cages!
#1) Get my cages onto wheels! 
For the past 5 years, my cages have been stacked:  a row of cages stacked on top of several other rows of cages, with a sheet of plywood between, and bungee cords to keep the stack secure.  Most 'stack's were 3 high... and I had them tied to the wall to keep them from toppling!
The bottom row was off the floor at least a few inches, and I swept what I could reach nearly every day, but if I wanted to clean up behind the cages, it was a major job to get all the cages apart and moved.
I have been in this room for 7 years.  At first, I put paper on the walls behind the cages, and changed the paper at least once a year.  Recently, I simply had TOO MANY cages and too many birds to take time to clean properly!

*** Another reminder that YES, we can have TOO MANY BIRDS! 😄 ***

#2) Get a shop vac!  This is great.  It made cleaning under and between the stacks so easy and efficient!
#3) All my canary supplies should be IN the bird room.  Up until now, I have stashed various canary things all over my house. I have some good ideas to solve this.

#4) Paint!  Lori sent me a photo of her bird room... and that kept floating around in my brain.  I wanted a green bird room!

#5) Clean:  the laundry appliances, light fixture, window blinds, etc.

#6) Add a few improvements: such as a clock, dry erase board on freezer, etc.

I bought paint early February.

It was early March before I moved the birds out into a spare bedroom.

The birds were returned to the bird room March 30.  I don't have all the new cage stands in the room, and there is much to do as I begin pairing the canaries in April.
But the end is near!  YEAH!!!

I took videos and photos of the process and I will put them all together into a video story, but for now, I will share a few photos. (read complete post)

This photo was taken the morning I began moving in the birds on March 30th.

All painted and clean.... ready to fill with canaries!

Here is a 'before' photo, a reminder to think of room-cleaning, not just cage-cleaning!

The result of too many birds, at least for my life!

The birds spent 3 weeks in a spare bedroom, pushed together, with less light and cooler temps.  I continued with the February diet... nothing to advance breeding, but with vit/min supplements including calcium.  I did feed a grated carrot/kale based softfood twice.

I originally intended to have all the 'moving around' finished quite some time before breeding. But it didn't work that way.  It took me a long time to get the bird room ready, but the canaries kept slowly progressing toward breeding condition.

Just waiting for their new room....

Some of work days:

After scrapping the walls, I washed them TWICE!

Yes, that is a CAT in the bird room!

The painting part was more fun than the cleaning!

The blind cleaning was easier than I had expected!

LOOKING FORWARD TO APRIL!
I will post early in April as I put together the pairs, and as I get my new, improved storage installed!
I have new cages to place in a second 'bird area'.... which I will be able to use if I want to try 'song tutoring'! 

These are used cage units that I FINALLY assembled.
They are still in my kitchen... but soon they will be put to use!

I am hoping to introduce a few pairs in a video, and then follow them through the breeding season.  I am looking forward to the next three months!!!!