Managing aviaries in extreme heat - add your tips here!

[Tiaris]

Deb's last point is very crucial. To illustrate: Today I went into my holding aviaries in the middle of the day to check their water levels. As soon as I opened the door & entered the walkway, all birds were perched high & looking back at me. I stood still in front of an aviary containing some new birds to familiarise myself with them & as the birds in all of the holding aviaries became settled with my presence they all started to fly down onto the relative coolness of the concrete floor. This was cue to get out & leave them be.

[iaos]

Yep totally agree with Deb and tiaris. I got a message today from someone checking up on my dogs that the birds looked distressed. My response was to leave them alone and stop looking at them.

My bird area gets hot. It is regularly 4 to 5 degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. So far, touch wood, I havent lost any birds to heat stress. They get some ice in the morning when the forecast is like todays and then leave them be.

Cheers Ian

[Strop]

Yeah all good ideas,I live in the kimberley and as most of you know it gets to 45 this time of the year.Some of the things I do to help our dearly beloved gems is put palm fronds on top of the roof, I know not everybody has access to them .I also use mist sprays which is black poly pipe hooked up to the tap on a timer twice a day and same thing drinking water is on a timer a couple a times a day also.I have on occasions when birds look really destressed used the hose on fine mist to help out, but make sure you run the hose first to get rid of the hot water .

Cheers Strop.

[desertbirds]

Small aviaries, the pre-fab garden variety are dead set killers in the heat. Too much iron and not enough room for natural plantings and shade. Its an oven. Adding lots of water and misters is great but the soil has to drain ok and in some instances too much water can result in high humidity and actually making things worse with the soil going rank. Plenty of shade, fresh clean water and a few quick hose downs of the roof area during the hottest part of the day has worked ok for me .Small aviaries are very difficult to manage in the heat and with butcher birds/ birds of prey. The smaller aviaries with one or two pairs seem to produce better breeding results for some. ,Horses for courses i guess.I cant have smaller aviaries here , its just too hot and predators turn up just for fun and bring the young ones for a training lesson.