Abstract
Ken McConnell has had birds since 1964. He retired from business as a rather young man and he and his wife did a lot of traveling together. After a few big game safaris and other travels they settled down on 14 acres overlooking the Sacramento River in Red Bluff, California. McConnell's first birds were chukar that he released on his property hoping they would stay put. They didn't.
A short time later while in Southern California McConnell saw some swans on a pond and became totally entranced with the beautiful birds. Back home he worked out and built a fantastic system of ponds and channels designed to keep and breed swans. He then commenced to buy up all the swans he could find and began what is probably the world's most successful swan breeding project.
The swan ponds are a few feet above the normal level of the Sacramento River so water had to be pumped up into the ponds and moats. At present over one million gallons of water are pumped every 24 hours. This fresh water circulates through the small breeding ponds and the larger channels and eventually returns to the river, providing ideal conditions for captive waterfowl.
From McConnell's home on a high bluff overlooking the river and the ponds, the overall effect is very beautiful. In the collection there are several species of swans including the Australian black, and the black-necked, two of my favorites. It is delightful to watch these naturally elegant and grand birds swim with such dignity and selfassurance.
For his outstanding work in breeding swans McConnell has been given a place in the Federation's Aviculrural Hall of Fame, and he has received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Wild Waterfowl Association. He has many other awards and honors gracing his trophy room.
Although for many years McConnell advertised "Swans are my only business'' he no longer does so. During the past few years he has acquired a number of psittacine birds to add to his collection. Very nice birds, too, I might add, including Asian, Australian, and South American species.
These lovely birds are housed in a complex of aviaries that are of unique design. The aviaries are situated on the flat table of ground between the river and the steep bluff upon which McConnell's house is located. The various aviaries are designed to the contours of the land so have no precise geometric pattern. In fact, the complex is difficult to describe and even more difficult to photograph en toto.
I shan't give precise details and measurements as they wouldn't be applicable anywhere else anyway. I will, however, try to explain some of the general concepts of the construction which many readers may find useful. First off, there are telephone pole uprights that support a huge overhead netting system that covers almost all of the aviaries. In some instances wire walls are arranged from the ground to the overhead netting to form large pens. Of course these large pens tend to be home for pairs of the larger birds.
In some of these large pens, though, there are banks of individual breeding cages-the large pen serving as a huge safety zone. Some of the individual breeding cages are very unique being built of very heavy planks about 20 feet long. Most of these cages house sun conures which seem to do very well in them. Other individual breeding cages are built of wire along the conventional lines that most of you have seen.
In addition to the huge pens and the individual cages McConnell has a bank of steel framed aviaries that looked to be about four feet wide and eight feet long. Interestingly, he has used a fiberglass fabric to form shelters that give the birds privacy and protection. The fabric is quite strong and flexible-something like sailcloth. The birds, including some notable chewers, do not gnaw on the fiberglass at all according to McConnell.
To visit the McConnell aviaries is to receive a lesson in eclectic construction. McConnell's mind is obviously creative and free from rigid traditionalism. He has designed and built four or five very well constructed types of different aviaries and blended them into a very practical and esthetically pleasing whole. One visit is not enough to comprehend the place.
McConnell comprehends his operarion very well rhough. His breeding results prove ir. He lays his breeding success to a good feeding program, rhe heart of which is sprouted seed. McConnell says it doesn 't matter precisely which seeds you use nor the exact ratio of the mix so long as you use a wide variety. It is rhe soaking and sprouting that boosts the nurrirional value over that of dry seeds.
A simple invenrion grearly simplifies rhe seed sprouring process-anorher roken of the fertility of McConnell's invenrive mind. The device is no more than a refrigeraror that quit cooling. McConnell fined it with low wattage hearing elements and a thermostat so rhe refrigeraror became, in effect, a perfect hearing chamber to hasten the sprouting of the seed rain or shine.
He runs a batch of seed rhrough it every 24 hours and feeds his birds nothing bur rhe sprouted seed (the swans excepted, of course). To prevenr spoilage or mold he uses calcium propionare in the soaking water and he feeds the birds just the amounr of sprouts they' 11 ear in a day. Whatever your personal feelings are regarding chemicals, McConnell's birds thrive on his feeding program and reproduce prolifically, producing happy, healrhy babies. Ir is hard to argue against a successful system.
To treat rhe McConnell aviaries in derail would require a verirable book. This short article can only him at the whole but, in conjunction with rhe accompanying phoros, it is hoped that you now know more than you did a few minutes ago. Ir is always a pleasure to become acquainred with a successful aviculrurist and his aviaries. Ken McConnell is an extraordinary aviculrurist and his aviaries are an unconventional but unquestionable success. It was an outstanding experience ro share some time with him.