Managing aviaries in extreme heat - add your tips here!

[Finchy]

Hi

A well known breeder of superb finches lost dozens of birds a few years back due to an extreme heat wave. They literally dropped off perches. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone, so I thought we could collect some tips and suggestions here for managing extremely hot weather. Here are mine...

- Always shade tin roofs from high overhead sun! Use strategic plantings or some other creative way to ensure that the sun in not just beating down on the metal.

- When it goes over 40C, put layers of towels on tin roofs and wet them down. This will create a slight 'aircon' evaporative cooling effect under the roof.

- Remember that birds head for dark spaces in the heat, due to their instinct to seek shade. If you have designed lovely enclosed areas to keep them cosy in Winter these could be very dangerous in extremely hot Summer sun, creating a sauna-like effect. Do whatever you need to do to ensure that these areas remain cool or inaccessible.

- Remember that birds drink more in the heat, so lighten up slightly on dosages if you have to be medicating during very hot weather.

[finchbreeder]

Cool water available regularly is the most important thing. Change your water at least midmorning and midafternoon. Have an automatic water flushing system in place if possible to do this. And shade, natural shade from trees is I feel best.
LML

[karl]

i use the blue and silver insulation and have the silver side facing out work well of me

[Tiaris]

Hose the outside roof & walls down for a few minutes in or just before the hottest part of the day.

[natamambo]

I have garden misters off the roof inside each flight and an automatic timer to run once or twice a day depending on the temperature. Whole setup cost less than a pair of birds .

[Mortisha]

I use a misting system too on one side of the aviary.
Pretty easy & cheap to set up with garden supplies.

Even my horses have it available, they love it. The wild magpies even sit in the shelter with them

[TomDeGraaff]

More tips found on


Ooooooooooooh it's starting to warm up alright!
by venetta on 21 Jan 2012, 19:10

[nxe04d]

I have double roof at least a 100mm void and run sprinklers on roof once temp gets up to 35 no probs so far with a few days at 42

[TomDeGraaff]

Given the Sydney roasting today, I think we should keep this thread active.

I alwats have two water souces in every enclosure and a bath as well.

Time to get those insulating, shading, watering, misting jobs done before February sets in, I would say...

[jusdeb]

Double roofs
hessian hosed down
misters '
sprinklers
frozen bottles of water
misting fans
fresh water often > only takes half an hour for it to get to warm for them to want to drink it .


but most of all ...leave the birds alone . if they are stationary its how they cope > dont go poking around making them fly or stressing them out > do all water and feeds early then minimal interraction through the hot part of the day .