Toothlessjaws the metal aviaries really aren't ideal... The one I am looking at is gabled so no flat roof for water to pool on. The aviary will be located in a very good spot, facing north east underneath large trees that provide filtered light to the aviary from about 10am. I also have a rainforest type plantation growing behind that will grow over the aviary and keep the roof very cool in the summer, so no worries there. I am going to extend the reticulation to include the top of the aviary for showers and cool down during hot days too so I might actually hang out in there myself lol. The aviary is also situated so that the trajectory of the winter sun will fill it with light up to lunch time so there will be plenty of winter warmth there. I really like the idea of lining the internal walls with bamboo blinds so will have a look at that! I am looking at clear cafe blinds for winter to keep them draft free but thinking of sliding perspex too, there seems to be a few schools of thought that I will consider when buying.toothlessjaws wrote:I find those metal aviaries really horrible. they usually have leaky opaque flat roofs and in the winter the metal is cold and wet from condensation and in the summer so hot to the touch that it burns to the touch. you can forget about nests being built up against them. I replaced the metal sides on mine with marine ply then for the back (which is against a fence so protected from sun), I lined the inside with reed fence screening which is super-cheap from Bunnings. In the summer i have bamboo blinds that I lie flat across the roof which protects it from the sun and heating up too much. It looks much, much nicer also.
Personally, whilst I don't challenge it, I don't subscribe to the "breed em tough" train of thought so much, so I built a heat lamp heater for my birds that I use over the winter. desert or semi arid birds (which most african and australian finch i would catagorise as) are fine with remarkably cold air temps for short periods (such as overnight), but add wind and wet to that for days and nights at a time and that becomes a lethal combination.
That makes Melbourne winters just unsuitable for finches when we deny them the ability to find those scarce patches of sunshine over the course of the day and "recharge" their warmth. I had a 5m square, large brick and timber aviary, fully roofed (plastic sheeting) with the open sides facing a north/east orientation. i covered the open sides with plastic in winter and the birds had ample shrubs in which to roost. I'd still loose a hen or two over a winter during those cold, wet weeks with low day temperatures. I installed a heat lamp that came on for an hr in the morning and an hr before sunset and ran it over the winter. never lost another bird from cold.
I am still undecided on whether or not to provide heating to my birds over winter... I guess I will just have to try a few things out to see how I go but thank you very much for all your great advice!
Dmitri
