Where our wood comes from

Our Wood Source

We source all of our wood from the west coast of Scotland were the air quality is one of the finest in Europe, and pollution levels are minimal. We work closely with a large private estate, and Local Action Groups set within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park.

All of our timber is harvested from pesticide free land far away from busy roads and large Towns. We never use trees that are adjacent to roads due to the high salt and pollutants that can contaminate the timber.

The majority of our wood comes from either scrub clearance or short rotational coppicing.

Scrub clearance

Birch and Willow trees are prolific colonisers of essential Grassland and Heather habitats. Regular scrub clearance is required to help maintain these important habitats and stop them reverting to woodland.

Short rotational coppicing

Once, a regular practice in Britain’s woodlands, short rotational coppicing involves the cutting down of certain trees then letting the stump regenerate. This produces an abundance of new leaders which are left to grow until they are big enough to be harvested again.

Willow and Hazel react very well to this practice greatly increasing their life span. This also helps maintain a healthy woodland to ensure a balanced environment where trees and plants can flourish and help to sustain the varied wild life in all it’s forms.

We only use healthy wood in our stands, perches and toys. Any diseased wood is left in habitat piles at source, which helps increase the biodiversity of the woodland.

Our Wood Classification

Soft- Ideal for even the smaller Birds to get their beak into.

Semi Hard- Great all rounder for all sizes to get chewing on.

Hard- Harder wearing for those Large parrots that just love to destroy.

Wood deformities

Whenever  possible we will use branches with natural deformities. These add interest and shape to a perch. Deformities occur when a tree undergoes a change in natural growing patterns or of a result of damage. A natural wound inflicted on the bark of a tree will cause the tree to start the process of compartmentalisation. This will result in the wound slowly being healed and producing what is called ramification to the wound area. Natural wounds are caused by animals, the elements and trees themselves.

Vines and climbers slowly strangle trees and branches, this causes uneven growth and indentations. This produces a unique spiral effect on the branch adding much interest for your companion bird to explore. This type of deformity is rarer than the natural process of ramification.

How we make a our wood safe

Firstly all trees are inspected by our qualified Arborist to determine species type and ensure that only safe and disease free trees are selected for our products.

The healthy timber is then stripped of the bark with exception of some of the Willow and Beech.

The bark is hand stripped, firstly to remove pest and disease presence. Most disease of trees occurs in or under the bark region of a tree. Secondly we feel this reveals the natural texture and beauty of the branch.

We leave the bark on some of our beech and willow products because this is a very smooth bark, easily cleaned and the willow has reportable healing properties. Any disease presence is easily seen and quite rare in young healthy stems.

The branches are then hand cut using stainless steel saws to manageable lengths and scrubbed in anti-bacterial solution. We then prefer to air dry our timber naturally. Once dry, the branches are hand worked to produce a smooth, safe and interesting perch for your companion bird. The branches are then washed for a second time to remove any dust from production before being treated with F10SC veterinary disinfectant. F10SC is highly recommended, please check out the cleaning link and it is available for you to purchase in our shop.

We can however on request supply any of our safe wood branches with the bark left on. The branch will go through the same cleaning and drying process as our stripped branches and all ends will be sanded smooth.