About myself and my birds

My name is Duane Johnson. I live in Minneapolis Minnesota. I am manager of software development for a large national CPA/Consulting firm. I have been programming PCs for over twenty years. I grew up on a farm in central Minnesota. I have been in Minneapolis since high school graduation.

I have been raising finches for 25+ years. I have had many kinds of finches but the one I have had the entire time is the Zebra finch. I normally have between 50 and 200 birds. Currently I have only Zebra finches. I have had most of the color variations, with the black varieties and orange breast varieties being my favorites.

I have a room in my basement about 10x10 feet. I house my Zebras in home made cages that average 20x20x20 inches. (view cages) They have dividers between each, so I can take out the dividers and make the cages 20x20x40 or 60 or 80 long. I have 36 20x20x20 cages. I use wood nest boxes hanging on the outside of the cage, approximately 5x5x5 inches. (view nest box) I use full spectrum fluorescent lighting with a timer to give 12 to 16 hours of light a day.

If you are interested, here is a picture of me.

A few years ago I discovered the exciting ostrich industry and decided to join in and bought a 100 acre farm. Ostriches are the great new agricultural animal, raised for meat and leather. I purchased three trios (1 male, 2 hens) of breeder ostriches. I had chicks running in their pens, growing very fast. Because of reasons beyond my control I needed to sell the farm and move back to the city. Still being interested in ostriches, I have put some information about them here for you to read and pictures to see. To read and see more about ostriches, go to: www.Ostrichs.net

If you have comments or questions, email me at info@zbirds.com