Chapter XLVI: Cages and Hutches: and How to Make Them

BY GORDON STABLES, C.M., M.D., R.N.

I.--THE TOOLS AND MATERIALS--USEFUL HINTS.

Candidly, we must admit, that to attempt in this chapter to give anything like a complete and elaborate account of the making of the many different kinds of cages and hutches in which to keep pets of feather or pets of fur would be folly.

But I can give my readers many hints that will be of use to them on the subject in hand, and I may begin by telling them that it is not half so difficult to manufacture a good roomy, healthy, wholesome breeding-cage as may at first appear.

Nor need the cage you make be at all ugly or clumsy; only take pains with it, and do not be in a hurry, and I feel sure you will succeed. Do not let any person dishearten you by saying, ‘You can buy cheaper than you can make.’ I doubt if you could do so, but even allowing this were possible, you could not point proudly to your bought cage and say, ‘I made that.’

Now the first questions of practical moment I have to answer are these: 1, What tools are required in the manufacture of cages? And, 2, What materials?

An answer to the first question will enable you to decide at once whether or not you think it worth your time and trouble to go in for cage or hutch-making. I shall mention the tools that it is indispensable you should possess, and you may either buy them or borrow them, as you please. If you are merely going to make one cage or two, perhaps you had better borrow them. But I take this opportunity of reiterating this advice to all sensible boys who may have some spare time on their hands, to possess themselves of a box of useful tools. Cheap boxes of tools are _worse than want_. If you mean getting tools, get good ones. Do not be caught by the glitter and get-up of the box that contains them, nor by the sheen of the contents either. Be suspicious of articles that are advertised at an exceedingly low price, else you may find yourself possessed of hammers whose heads won’t stop on, saws as brittle as brass, gimlets and awls that burst their handles, planes with pot-metal tongues, and pliers as soft as cheese.

It is far better to fit your own box up, and fill it, buying the articles you require at a respectable ironmonger’s shop, and paying a fair price for them. Then all you have to remember is to keep everything in its place, and keep all steel work free from rust, and the box itself in its own corner and locked, so that Mary Ann, when she wants to break coals, will not have an opportunity of appropriating your axe.

Talking about rust, I find nothing better wherewith to smear tools that are to be laid past for a short time than a little blue ointment. You should keep a morsel of this in a chip box in a handy corner.

Well, now, as to birdcage and hutch-making, you must have, first and foremost, a bench whereon to work. Any old table will do if it be strong enough. But one thing it must have, and that is a contrivance to hold the wood on which you are working with the plane or other instrument. This may either be the wooden screw apparatus, or what is cheaper, the bench-lug.

The tools and things you really want, and must have, to make anything like a job, are (1) a nice sizeable saw, one that will either rip or cross-cut, so it must not have a back to it. (If you go in for fine and ornamental work about your cage it will be better to have a lathe--cost about £3 10s.--and a box of fretwork tools which will run you in to £1 10s. more. So take my advice--be content with what is useful for a time. If you breed some beautiful canaries you can sell them, and having extended the balance at your banker’s, go in for the ornamental afterwards.) (2) A plane or two, one plain plane, and one plough. I do not advise a jack. I know when I was a boy I could not manage the jack-plane nearly so well as the little short one. (3) Some chisels; say three; they are cheap and useful in a thousand ways. Mind, always keep them sharp, and do not use the mallet much on the end of them. (4) A wooden mallet. (5) A hammer or two, with claws at the end. (6) A spokeshave. (7) Pliers and pincers for ironwork. (8) A boring brace and bits to fit. (9) A bradawl or two. (10) A small hand-vice. (N.B.--This last is most essential for holding your wires, etc. Sometimes this vice itself will want holding to enable you to work with both hands. Very well, be handy, fasten it on to the end of your bench by means of the lug or screw apparatus.) (11) A two-foot rule. Do not buy a cheap one; it goes all out of shape in no time; besides, if you have a really serviceable article you can use it as a square. (12) A hone or sharpening stone. (13) Etceteras, in the shape of nails and screws of various sizes (I myself use nothing but the round French nails; they do not split the wood; they go home kindly, and with ordinary care they do not bend); a jam-pot to heat your glue, some glue to heat, a carpenter’s pencil, sand-paper, and a small oil-flask. Other little things may suggest themselves to you; I can’t think of anything else at present. And I would not mind beginning to make either an ordinary breeding cage or a hutch at this moment with the tools I have just named.

But, ‘What a lot!’ you will say, and ‘what a deal of money they will cost!’ Yes, but think of the many useful things you can make with those tools, quite independent of either cage or hutch.

And now as to the materials. What are these? I answer in two words, wood and wire. The wood may be almost any sort, but it must be very well seasoned, else as soon as it gets wet you will find the bottom of your cage coming off, or the back bulging out, and the whole concern gaping in the most unseemly way. The parts to be polished and stained may be hard wood.

The cage I have had figured is an ordinary two-roomed breeding-cage. It might have been a trifle easier for you to have tried your ‘’prentice han’,’ as Burns calls it, on perhaps a show-cage to begin with, but I cannot forget that the cock canary may have sometimes to be separated for a time from the hen; hence that partition with the hole in it, a hole that may be closed.

Some cagemen recommend this to be a fixture, but do you not think with me that if the partition can be withdrawn, so as to make both cages into one big one when required, it is better?

II.--CANARY BREEDING-CAGES, GERMAN AND ENGLISH.

I have already said that the wood a cage is made of is a matter of secondary importance. The body may be pine, for instance, and the front parts any kind of ordinary hard wood--mahogany to wit. The cage (Fig. 2) which is now before us is one of the German kind, manufactured by Mr. Abrahams, naturalist, St. George Street East. The nest has, however, been put in the drawing in the wrong compartment.

In order to make a breeding-cage like this, you repair to your working shop or garret, and having wood, wires, and tools all handy, you first determine the size you wish it to be. Well, I am of opinion that birds cannot have too much room; therefore, for sake of a little more wood and a little more wire, do not begrudge them space; say, 22 in. long, 11 in. wide, and 14 in. high. You can, I think, get wood wide enough to have the back all one piece, as well as each side and the bottom. If you cannot, just use your ingenuity, and make a neat job of joining.

Measure and cut the wood for the top and bottom first, both exactly the same, then the sides ditto. Now plane the wood very nicely, leaving it about three-eighths to half an inch thick. Do the same by the piece of wood that is to form the back.

No dovetailing is needed, and that is a good thing, is it not? Now cut out your square doorway in each gable. If you do this neatly the pieces that you have sawed out or cut out will themselves form the doors. Size of each door--say four inches square. This is big enough for any one’s hand, and big enough to put the nest in. But never mind fitting the doors at present; we will do that after.

Next proceed to fix the box-work of the cage; that is, fasten sides, back, and bottom in their positions, and we will then turn our attention to the front and the internal fittings. There is a hole in the back part, by-the-way, by which you hang the cage on a nail. You may as well make that before you fix up. Have your small nails, your hammer, and your glue-pot at hand, the latter hot, because before you send the nails quite home you must insert a goodly dose of glue. This is important, because it entirely fills up any crevice that might otherwise harbour vermin, and if these once get into your breeding-cage your prospects of doing any good are very likely to be ruined for one season.

Now nail and glue your sides to the back first and foremost, then turn the cage upside down, and fasten in the same way the bottom to the sides and back, reverse and do the same to the top. If you have previously taken correct measurements of the parts, the body of your cage will now look square and fair and neat. If you have not, you had better take it to pieces again and mend matters before you go any further.

Direct your attention next to the front, but you had better let the work you have already done get firm and dry before doing much more to it. Meanwhile measure and make the piece of hard wood that crosses the cage in front just above the bottom drawer (Fig. 2, A).This should be from two to two and a half inches wide, and an oblong space or opening (B B) is to be left at each end. These are for the little seed-tins to fit in. As soon as you have made this piece of wood (A) and dressed it most neatly, you may place it in position. This must be most carefully done, leaving a full inch of space beneath it for your bottom drawer or false bottom. Nail it from the sides.

You can now proceed to make this false bottom, taking great care that the front part, which is of hard wood (Fig. 2, C), fits the space you left for it exactly, and without a flaw. The mechanism of this false bottom is so simple that instead of describing it or illustrating it, I beg to refer you to your friend Smith’s cage. A glance will suffice. But remember not to spare the glue on that either.

Well, a glance at the complete cage (Fig. 2) will show you that there is a wire partition at D dividing the cage into two compartments, a big and a small. This partition, however, does not go right to the bottom of the cage, because it is a sliding one and draws out. It runs at top and bottom in grooves made by three pieces of wood, one of the pieces of the lower groove being deeper than the others, and quite filling up the vacancy between the false bottom and the wire partition, so as to prevent a bird from creeping through under.

This wire partition, then, had better be made next. It is simply a carefully measured and carefully adjusted square frame, neatly wired in the same way as the barred front of the cage is wired, of which I shall presently speak. You make the little frame first, then you bore your holes and wire it, and next you nail and glue a little front piece of hard wood on to it with a small wire-work handle in the centre, whereby to pull it out.

The grooves in which this is to run should now be made top and bottom, the lower one fastened to the cross board (A), and the upper to the back of the cage at one end and to the front when finished at the other.

Now for the front. This is to be made separately, and then slipped in. There is another plan, but I think I give the better of the two. Glance again at Fig. 2. Take a look at friend Smith’s cage as well. Now scratch your elbow thoughtfully, gather all your scattered senses together, and all your brains, and proceed to business. There is a top bar and a lower bar, and two strong cross wires; but mark this, please--these cross wires are not continuous all the way, there must be a space left for your wire partition to slip out and in.

Well, you have your wires all ready. Measure the length you want them, and cut them all of a size a little longer than they are actually required. They have to pass right through the upper bar (Fig. 2), and be fastened into the lower (Fig. 2), and as the same space--namely, half an inch--must exist between each wire, before you bore the holes for them you must carefully mark the places on both bars, and this is done either with a pair of compasses, or more surely and securely with the prongs of a two-toed fork. While making or wiring the front, be sure first that the top and bottom bars are exactly the same length, then lay them fair and square on your bench or table, and tack them down with small nails: so shall you do your work firmly and well. Bore the holes very even which you have marked off, then put each wire through separately and snip off with your pliers what is not wanted. The wires, by means of your hand-vice, should previously be made as straight as possible. When you have got all your upright wires in put on your cross pieces. These are simply laid on over the others and whipped in position with a long thread of very fine wire.

Now your front is all ready. Of course you have not forgotten the little ring-like spaces at the bottom, through which the canary pops its head to get a drop of water from the fountains. These last may be glass, and they are slung in wire loops from the cross-board.

The perches are easily put in. It is better to have one cross one as well as two or three from front to back.

When you have your little doors made, and neatly hinged with wire, the greater part of the work is finished.

The polishing and varnishing, and nest and nest material, I will speak about presently. The different types of cages shown in Figs. 3 to 5 need no verbal explanation, the pictures speaking for themselves.

III.--NESTS AND NEST-BOXES--THE GERMAN METHOD OF BREEDING--HUTCHES FOR RABBITS, GUINEA-PIGS, RATS, AND SQUIRRELS.

It will be high time now to return your friend Smith’s cage, for the probability is that, as the breeding season will soon commence, he will want it himself. I gave full directions just now for the completion of your own cage, with one or two little items excepted. Take a glance before you carry it back, then, at the neat way small fastenings and hinges are made for the doors, and little handles to pull out the partition and the false bottom, and the solitary big one on the top for the purpose of lifting the cage. Very natty and neat, are they not? and all made out of wirework. Pliers and pincers, and a little handiness on your part, are all that is wanted, but it is better you should observe how things are done. The wire loops that hold the glass fountains are fastened in the same way--holes made, the wire put through and doubled down behind so that it shall not pull out, and the whole thing is ready.

Two tiny two-inch square or oval tin drawers to slip in at each corner of the lower front of the cage are infinitely better to hold seed and food generally, than those long wooden world-old drawers with holes in them, which make such beautiful receptacles for dust and vermin.

As to the nests, you have plenty of option. These can be bought. There are wooden ones to hang up on a nail at the back of the cage, tin ones, basket or rope ones, and also those which you can make yourself out of half a large cocoanut-shell. The basket and rope nests, it is said--I have not tried them and do not mean to--do very well if previously steeped in petroleum and dried. The tin and earthenware nests are neatly lined with soft felt; a bit of an old hat does very well properly shaped, steeped, and moulded in.

The cocoanut-shell will suit every useful purpose. You can make it yourself, lining it well with warm lambs’-wool. Fasten a loop of wire round the top edge to join in front, and finally extend to form two hooks to fasten the nest on to the cage.

When breeding birds, it is as well to have a small nursery cage to put the fledgelings into. The parent birds then feed them through the bars. Also a bath-cage. Both these are attached when wanted to the main cage. They are very simple in construction, and you can easily make them yourself. Any ordinary small cage will do for the bath, one side being taken out and hooks put on wherewith to fit it to the side of the cage opposite the doorway. The bath is a tin or zinc dish inside the cage, but a large saucer or a soup plate will do very well. Remember, I am not talking now about breeding, but ordinary living cages.

Mr. Abrahams, the well-known naturalist, of 191, George Street East, London, a visit to whose menagerie would well repay any one fond of birds and beasts, writes to me in the following strain about canary breeding. I need hardly tell you that I value his opinions, as they are the result of long experience. He says: ‘I do not hold with the English way of breeding canaries; they will stick to their old style of a hundred years back. They use cages which may be divided, by means of a partition, into two compartments. In one of these compartments there are two small boxes, in which the birds are to build their nests. Outside the cage a bag is fastened containing hair and other building material, which not seldom are far from cleanly, and often already provided with the eggs and germs of insects (vermin).

‘It is rarely that the male and female are of the same opinion in which box the nest should be built. If the hen has begun to build in one box the cock will pull the nest to pieces, and begin to work in the other box, and _vice versâ_. Thus not only is time lost, but the birds are excited and become weak. When at last they have young ones they are often wretched, timid little things, and often both young and parents die from being continually worried by insects.

‘Many tens of thousands of canaries are imported annually into England from the Continent, and of these the Belgian, Dutch, and French canaries especially are strong, bold-looking fellows, and nothing like our timid little creatures that flutter about or creep into a corner if anybody comes near the cage. How can this difference be accounted for? On my many travels in the countries of the Continent I have watched how canaries are bred there. Almost every working man breeds canaries in his workshop. On one side of the room he has his bench or worktable, and round the walls there are cages, parted off by partitions into smaller compartments of about three feet square. Each of these compartments can again be divided into two by a movable partition, which consists simply of a wooden frame covered over with wire. In one compartment the cock is put; in the other one or more hens; also a tin with seed and another with water. Now the moment is watched when the cock and hen become friendly, then the partition is withdrawn, so that both compartments become one. Then a nest--or more, if there are several hens--is hung up in position by hooks to the wire. For small birds, a small one; for longer birds, such as the Belgians, etc., a larger one. They are made of leather, lined with lambskin with wool on it, and ready for use, so that the birds do not receive or want any building material. It cannot be pulled to pieces. When once used it can be washed and be nice and clean for a second nesting, so that there is no fear of insects troubling the birds. Feeding and cleaning of cages takes only a few minutes daily. The eggs and the young ones can be looked at at any time without frightening the birds; they get used to their keeper and lose all fear. Is it to be wondered at, then, that the young also are strong, bold-looking birds?’

Referring to the German cage figured on page 405, he adds: ‘I forgot to mention that the cage is divided into two compartments by a wire partition. When the old birds go to nest a second time the young ones are shut up into the smaller compartment; the old ones will continue to feed them through the wire as long as it is necessary.’

Well now, if you have done all I told you, if you are the proud owner of a good box of tools, many, if not all of which, mind, you can buy for very little, second-hand, at any dealer’s or broker’s, and if you have managed to make a breeding cage, you are capable of making any other kind of cage or hutch either. I do not refer to those dandy all-wire and painted-tin businesses. You can try your hand at these if you like, but as I do not approve of them, on the principle that all birds should have a partially shut-in cage, as they dearly love a little privacy, I shall not describe the process of manufacture. You will, however, naturally wish your cages to look nice. Well, varnish the front with the ordinary mahogany varnish of the shops, having first rubbed the woodwork very smooth.

I have spent so much time over directions for cage-making that my space is small in which to deal with hutches. I do not regret it, however, for the boy that can make a cage can make a hutch. He has only to see one and carefully examine it.

The same kind of hutch that is used for rabbits does excellently well for guinea-pigs.

Now you can make a very serviceable hutch out of that useful article a bacon box.

First it must be thoroughly washed and cleaned and exposed for a day or two to the weather. Then if meant to stand under cover, in, say, an outhouse, you simply make a doorway and cover it with galvanized iron network, price about twopence a yard, and cover all the front, with the exception of about a foot (this to be covered with wood), with the same kind of network. The bottom of the box should be covered with zinc for cleanliness’ sake. This is an ordinary hutch. The breeding hutch is different, as there must be a dark retiring room for the mother and young. The floors of hutches ought to slant a little forwards, and they ought to be always well raised off the ground.

Squirrels’ and rats’ cages are easily made, and a good deal of amusement can be got out of these animals if they are well treated and have plenty of room. Both rats and squirrels like a dark retiring or sleeping compartment; this should have a door behind. Personally, I think the ordinary wheel arrangement is cruel. I do not like to see an animal that contributes to our amusement condemned to penal servitude and the treadmill.

Different kinds of birds require differently arranged cages, but whenever you make up your mind to keep any kind of bird as a pet, go boldly to work and make a cage for it, if needs be, borrowing one as a pattern for the purpose.