Years ago, before I had any birds, I made a beautiful macramé plant hanger.  It was tightly knotted in cotton twine with swirls, spirals and ornamental knobs all over it.  I peppered it artfully with about 100 little black beads.  The holes in those little beads weren't big enough, so I had to modify each one with a little pen knife.  It took forever, but it was worth it.

Once it was up, and home to a very healthy swedish ivy, it was truly a thing to behold.  I loved to look at it and everyone who came into my home complimented me on it (after I pointed it out to them, that is).  It was more than just a thing of beauty, though.  It was proof that those purple hazy, hard-to-remember days at the end of the 60's and beginning of the 70's really didn't go to waste.  During that time I had learned macramé -- apparently.

A year or so later I found Stub on my fire escape.  Within  a couple of months she reduced the swedish ivy to a few pathetic twigs and pot full of dirt.  As more birds entered my home, more things happened to that plant hanger.   It was their very favorite toy/landing pad and suffered the ravages of playful budgies.  Eventually it was just  held together by a few frayed threads and a little good luck.  The birds had turned my beautiful plant hanger into landfill.

I had to take it down before it fell down.  Try to explain THAT to a flock of little birds. All they knew was that their favorite thing was gone.  It was as if one of the limbs of their little universe had been severed.  They kept making false landings on a plant hanger that was no longer there and gazing longingly at the space where it had hung  as they huddled on the top of Stub's cage.  My happy flock of birds mourned the loss of that plant hanger, and, sucker that I am, I had to fix the problem.

I got yards of sisal, jars of big clunky beads and strips of bird-safe rawhide, then set to work.  Within a few minutes I had "created" a thing to replace their plant hanger.  The thing is crowned with four branches tied together with sisal.  From the "crown" two long pieces of sisal hang suspending three branch perches, which graduate in size from 12 inches long to 2 feet long.  At various spots around the crown and along the three perches, sisal and rawhide ties are placed and big clunky beads hang from them.  It's huge and, unlike my plant hanger, it's hideous.  I've named it The Contraption.

Hanging this monstrosity in my living room is a true testament to my devotion to my birds.  I mean, it's ugly.  It's unattractiveness overshadows any good aesthetic within 10 feet of it.

I put it up at night, while they slept.  The next morning I opened up their cage expecting them to fly to it with glee.  What was I thinking?.  These are budgies!  They fear new things.  Predators could be hiding in The Contraption, after all!  It could be poisonous!

They huddled in the corner of their cage which was farthest from the contraption, and looked at it with abject fear.  Periodically they glanced over at me with that hurt "so, you're trying to kill us" look.  In short, it was a flop.  It was ugly and it was a flop.

"Patience, Judy, patience" I told myself.

By the afternoon they had ventured out of the cage, but wouldn't go near the contraption.  They gathered on the top of Stub's and stared at the thing.  I had to do something.  So, I decided to make Gwen sit on it.

Gwen is my youngest bird (about 10 months old) and has always been very trusting of me.  She is also more adventurous than a lot of my birds. so, when I put her on the middle perch of The Contraption she didn't fly off.  She sat there for a minute, looking wide-eyed at her surroundings.  Then she saw a big bead hanging from a piece of rawhide and she pecked it.

Within a minute she was climbing, pecking, swinging and chewing her little heart out.  She loved the contraption.  In fact, she decided right there and then that it was her contraption - and only hers.  Did I mention that Gwen is my bitchiest bird?

I tried to put others on the thing, but she pushed each one of them off.  I wanted to other to use it, so I decided to put Misty on it.

Misty is my biggest bird.  Also, she take crap from no one. She is the budgie version of a female prison guard from the former Soviet Union.  In other words, nobody messes with Misty. Not even Gwen.

I put Misty on the top perch.  She stayed up there and turned her head from side to side as she assessed her situation.  When she started chewing on the perch Gwen scaled the main sisal perch holder in preparation for combat.  Misty leisurely lifted her head, fluffed up a little (to make herself look even bigger) and lunged at Gwen with great, and convincing, malice.  Gwen flew to the bottom perch and was appropriately cowed.

Curly, my horniest bird, saw that Misty was enjoying that top perch all alone. Naturally, that got his juices going and he joined her.  I guess it was pretty romantic up there, all alone, because they "Christened" The Contraption.

Well, when the rest of the boys saw what was happening on that top perch they became far more interested in The Contraption and ventured onto it.  Suddenly,  it was covered with budgies that were all hoping to get lucky.

The Contraption is now a hit.  I must say that it is prettier when it's covered with little birds.