Are Dowel Doors Essential?

[Stu3y]

Are dowels essential over the likes of wire mesh?

 

I'm building the internals of my loft today and was going to use wire mesh fronts, I've read a few posts saying this is a no no...

 

What about the aviary I've made one that's about 2 foot tall that's got wire mesh fronts... Is this a problem, or is it mainly the internal section that's a problem?

[greenlands]

I would use dowels mate the birds tend to hang on wire mesh and make a right mess of their tail feathers.The smaller size slate lathes would do the same job. Aviary OK. as long as the mesh is small enough to keep stoats/rats etc.out.

[showman]

For any internal partitions, I've always favoured dowels or even solid ply (if partitioning off cocks and hens). Some of the best I've made were 6ft high.....the top 4ft were dowelled, and the bottom 2 ft were 5mm transluscent correlex. Using wire, IMO, is a quick fix. It does enable you to get the job done quicker and cheaper, but again is it the best ? Another point is that when wire is used it can be an absolute nightmare, as it traps feathers all over the place and only adds to the cleaning process. So, in my opinion and experience it has to be dowels.OMO.

[Guest stb-]

I have half inch wire on my doors and partitions never get any bother with tails or damage with them , surely the birds would need to be crashing around like nutters to damamge flights and tails ?/

[Yellowman]

What kind of dowel do people use ?....do you just drill holes and glue them in ?

[showman]

9mm dowel with 2" spacing.

[walterboswell59]

never had any problem with half inch chicken wire but have had a wee problem with a stock cock rubbing himself up and down the wee square stuff braking feathers on the breast does when he sees me in the garden