Sorry - we do NOT give live tours

Bignest Babies
We do not have outside hand feeders taking babies away from Bignest to hand feed. We NEVER take our babies to bird marts and expose them to other birds.  Our African Grey babies are abundantly weaned to Roudybush pellets, fruits, and vegetables.  We introduce them to Roudybush because we prefer Roudybush we realize not everyone has access to this feed in their area and Zupreem Fruit Blend pellets are our next choice.  Most Greys will convert easily to the Zupreem Fruit Blend.  Unfortunately once introduced to Zupreem Fruit Blend it is very difficult to get them back on Roudybush which is why we only feed them Roudybush. They are introduced to solid foods while still quite young and are eager to try new foods.  Our Macaw babies are fed both Roudybush and Zupreem Fruit Blend.

Our Breeding Program
We are very proud of our African Grey & Macaw breeding program.   Many of our breeding pairs were hatched, raised and paired right here at Bignest.  We do not sell all of our babies for pets to insure we will have good breeding stock in the future.   We hold back baby birds yearly for future breeders and introduce new bloodlines.   We have found that pairing young Greys at weaning and placing them in a breeder flight in the same area as adult breeders makes good young producing pairs after 5 to 7 years.  We also pair Blue & Gold Macaws here.   Because of the years invested in raising these breeding pairs we seldom have breeder pairs for sale.

Shirley is an aviculturist and agriculturist. She is a breeder of African Greys, both Congo and Timneh African Greys, Blue & Gold Macaws, Greenwing Macaws, Scarlet Macaws and Buffon's Macaws. Shirley and her husband, Joel, own a small cattle ranch, J/S Beefmaster Ranch, in South Central Texas. They also raise registered Beefmaster cattle on their 112 acre ranch.

Bignest Aviary is a small Model Aviary Program (M.A.P.) Certified aviary located on their ranch near Shiner, TX. Bignest Aviary has over 40 breeding pairs, mostly African Greys. The African Greys are raised in an African Greys Only building, which she designed using the guidelines of M.A.P.

Shirley was born and raised in Arlington Heights, IL. She became fascinated with birds as a child and bred her first birds, English Budgies, in 1958 in Arlington Heights. She has also raised many domestic species of poultry and game birds from eggs including several species of chickens, ducks, geese, guineas and quail.  Shirley has been in Texas since 1980.  Joel was born and raised in Texas.

Shirley is a Certified Avian Specialist and a member of Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW, Coastal Bend Companion Bird Club, Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (P.I.J.A.C.), Commercial Member of American Federation of Aviculturist, Avicultural Society of America, Member of M.A.P., and an Honorary Member of The River City Bird Club. Joel and Shirley are Lifetime Members of Beefmaster Breeders United. Joel is a Lifetime Member of the VFW and a W.W.II Veteran.