Live food necessary?!

[Nrg800]

If I have a heavily planted aviary will I still need to supply regular live food to the birds that need it to breed? Or will they be able to find their own food in the aviary, for the most part?

Also, if I do need live food, can I use one of the Raised Garden Beds (Bought from Bunning's, may I add. I think they should sponsor us) without any soil, full of buckets with various insects in them?

Sorry for all these questions!
~Nathan!

[gomer]

I would not rely on them catching their own live food,As there is no way of knowing how much they are getting and you dont want to know they are not getting enough buy bird losses.Also if they have a good amount available in a dish say,They are not spending huge amounts of time looking for food while the chicks are waiting to be feed.

[Matt]

Probably the biggest problem you will find is that most of the birds you purchase will have been raised on maggots, termites or mealworms and this is what they'll expect to feed their own young regardless of how much alternative live food is flying around.

[djb78]

I agree best to supply the birds with live food.

[Tiaris]

Best to assume they get nothing other than what you supply. That way you know what they are getting as a minimum & anything they can find is a bonus. Could always establish drosophila (vinegar fly) culture in the aviary for guaranteed additional insects for them to catch.

[Pete Sara]

Using a black light to bring moths in at night , the moths will hide in the vegetation during the day for the birds to find during the day.
The only down side of this is it can bring in unwanted birds ie owls and cats to the light source, what ever they can find will be a treat but never enough to rear young in most cases....pete