To fully roof or not That is the question ?

[garymc]

Had at look at Aussiefinch breeders site the other day. There are some photos of his aviaries posted. His rooves are quite different and may work for you

[Jayburd]

yes they are pretty cool I want a setup like that

[gomer]

They look like something I had in mind.Not as high though.And all water running to the back,To catch as rainwater,you can never have to much rain water.

[Jayburd]

agreed on rainwater... Read about an experiment done once, and in the experiment rain and tap water were provided to 2 aviaries of birds. After switching places for some time, they concluded that the birds would find the rainwater and favour it excessively.
After a season of drinking tap water in another aviary, rainwater was introduced and breeding results spiked.

for the full thing get yourself a copy of aviculture in australia by Mark Shepard ;)

[AMCA26]

Gomer, i thought the same as you when we were doing my new ones in sitting a seperate roof 100mm or so higher, but we went the option of sitting it straight on the wire roof and have Clear Lexan, Pearl Ice Lexan and so on. The Pearl Ice has flecks in it which reflects the rays by i think 50% but still lets the light thru. When you look thru it at he sun it dosent blind you, you can see a perfect circle of the sun. So each run gets a bit off both with full light coming thru the clear.
Trial and Error i guess.

I have also only used rain water since moving into our new house 4yrs ago and will be putting 2 big tanks on new complex. Never had a issue.

[BENSONSAN]

Gomer maybe just laserlite? or suntuff? Least then there getting sun.

[Diane]

Just been reading a back issue of Just Finches No 5 and on page 18 there is a breeders profile and the roofline on his aviaries might work for you. If wired instead of perspex it would allow for air flow and light further into the covered part.

For those of you who dont have the Just finches magazine in question imagine a normal roof line on a house and drop one side about a half a metre. This is the opening that would be wired.

[dano_68]

Hi Gomer, just to add the cat among the pidgins I have fully roofed aviaries. I use different shades of LaserLite 2000. That is, near the housing section I use tinted (but still see through) panels, then each panel is slightly more transparent until the last couple are completely clear. I use the same for the back walls of the flight area as well. This way the birds get both shade and sunlight as they need it.

My flights are also fully planted with tall grasses, shrubs, bushes, weeds, flowers and vines!

I use a misting spray around the floor to water the plants but the finches love to jump under the sprinklers at 3pm every day as well.

I would never go back to open flights and just to prove myself right we just had 6 weeks of intense heavy rain up in Brisbane. All I could think of as I watched my birds go about their business, building nests, sitting on eggs and feeding young on the perch was thank god I have a fully roofed flight. They were able to do all this while it was *issing down!!

Of course, the other big plus for me is when I have to wash off a wild birds faeces, including fruit bats! I am happy to clean it off rather than it landing in the aviary!

So there is my story. I had open flights for years and years, but as I said, I will never go back now.

[E Orix]

I know of those fully roofed aviaries in Tasmania.I guess if I had to put up with their winters I would be forced into emulating their design.
But most of the questions asked are from people on the mainland.With a set up like those, here where I live I would need to fit huge vents,use 4000l+ of water a day which would inturn create other health problems
If the outside temp is 40C then the inside of an unisulated(walls & roof)aviary would be in the range of 50c to 60c. So you will need to watch your birds carefully.
We are expecting 40c+ next week, all I will do is give the flights a good wet early and the birds will sit quietly in the rose bushes or other greenery.
Then about 11am another burst(10 min) from the overhead sprays and again about 3pm.
Once again as I said earlier I would rather use shade cloth than a solid roof. Not because of the current Qld problems but you may need to ask someone from there if shade cloth is adequate protection for their normal rain pattern.

[Myzomela]

The disadvantage of using transparent sheeting is that the UV light is filtered out, no matter what type you use- so the birds get light- yes- but no UV.

However, the open fronts do allow UV to enter ( especially if you have the right aviary orientation) so the birds get their UV needs from these.

Good arguments from both camps...but if I was keeping finches in southern Victoria I'd be going for the fully covered option.

It also depends a little on what species you're planning to breed.