JohnGalway

Tasty bit of work that. I think my stock might well take a bit of a holiday in 2009.

You're sharper than me, I never even noticed that earlier... Any photos of these shiRts?

Ok folks, a lot later than promised here is how to build what's known as a ladder trap / letterbox trap or Australian crow trap. Mods, please move this if it's in the wrong section. Tools ; saw, hammer, pliers, drill. Material ; I used 2"x1.5" treated timber (don't use creosote, it burns their feet or so I'm told). Small mesh chicken wire (Keep animals away as it breaks easy, also cats play fcuking hell with it), couple of hinges for the door and a bolt maybe, screws, small staples, dowels (round lengths of wood FYI), you may need some single strand wire (I used snare cable as I had it handy), I'll get to that later. Oh yes, cable ties. I made mine to catch Greycrows, I am sure with experimentation it'll catch lots of other winged vermin also. I made mine in sections that I could fasten together with cable ties incase I ever wanted to move it. There were seven sections in all to my trap, four sides, two top roof panels and the ladder section. If I make another I will include a floor section also. Later on I covered one of the roof panels entirely with hardboard and also put hardboard on the top half of the same side, I put a couple of perches inside and this provided shelter to the birds within. I made some mistakes that you should learn from now. I did not include a floor section, my cage blew over in a storm and released some birds. This ruined my day. Also, if there are cats in the area you intend to set this up then you may be in for problems. What I would do is make the bottom couple foot of each side from plywood instead of mesh, as cats made holes in my mesh wire. They also tunnelled in and out under one of the sides. Cats are bastards, but what can ya do only plan ahead. I think my cage was roughly eight feet long, six feet wide, by six feet high at it's highest point. The ladder itself is easy to make. Make sure at each end of the ladder you use about a foot of mesh wire, this stops the birds climbing up the side of the cage and getting out. I wanted to be able to adjust the size of the holes in mine so here is what I did. I drilled holes in the sides of the ladder two inches apart, that way using wooden dowels I could have two, four or six inch gaps depending on what I wanted myself. I put three dowels at either end two inches apart the left the rest six inches apart. To narrow the width of the gaps I used some snare cable as can be seen in the photos, that way I ended up with gaps that were six inches by five inches, works well for greycrows. For where I live I used dead rabbit, white bread, apples etc for bait. I used that as their feed also, supplemented by dry dog food and kitchen scraps (this is all outdoors so all grub will get wet) and they did well on it despite what some people on other sites speculated. They are extremely messy, shitting all over the place. A good way to water them is to use those five litre water bottles. Keep it standing and fill it one third full, then cut a hole just above the waterline and cabletie it to the side on the ground. This way they can drink out of it but when they fly or perch over it they don't that which promotes growth and vigour in it (you'll be surprised where they can aim that stuff). In construction... Close up of the ladder part... You can see in the foreground how I put the dowels as close together as possible. On the far end you can just about see the square I left wired off at each end. Various diagrams and photos below that I trawled the internet for, these are what I based my own trap on.