Live food and extreme heat.

[mattymeischke]

I've been mostly spared losses of adult birds due to the recent extreme heat. We haven't had it as hot as some, but we've had runs of days into the forties and it is stressing aviary and wild birds alike. I lost a few nestlings and maybe boiled a few eggs, but no adult birds so far. There is a very underdone cordon chick on the floor of one aviary, which I thought about putting back in until I found the nest and the younger three chicks dead. The parents are feeding it and is is okay so far, so I have left it on the floor.

The biggest problem for me has been with live food. My mealworm cultures, in cupboard in the shade against the house, have cooked and died. The mealies I put out in the morning weren't lasting more than a few hours before dying, so I put the live food bowl in a big bowl of water, which makes them last longer and keeps ants out as a bonus. The termites seem to die above forty degrees without a mound to protect them, despite similar measures. Thankfully, I had laid in a good supply of frozen termites. Today has been the first day cool enough to bother getting live ones for a week or so.

I'm hoping to get into wrens this year, and wonder how other people go about maintaining a constant supply of live food in these sorts of conditions. I don't imagine the wrens would take frozen insects....

[Tiaris]

I use the fridge to manage my termites & mealworms in the heat. The extracted termites are put into the fridge for up to a week & when taken out soon (within 20 minutes) come to life again as long as they aren't in the fridge for more than about 8 days. I seive out a week's worth of mealies at a time & take them from the fridge to feed out too.

[mattymeischke]

Sounds very doable, thank you Tiaris.

I suppose I'll need a bird fridge now to go with the bird freezer.
I boldly predict that my wife will soon be surprised with a flash new fridge, to go with the flash new freezer she got when I needed a bird freezer.....

[Tiaris]

Forgot to mention the termites keep best in a lidded container in the fridge whereas mealies without a lid is best.
Good thing about bird fridges is that they work well on beer too. Don't recommend keeping stubbies in the fridge for more than a few weeks though - can't think of a good reason but I'll think of one over a cool beer later this arvo.

[mattymeischke]

Forgot to mention the termites keep best in a lidded container in the fridge whereas mealies without a lid is best.
Good thing about bird fridges is that they work well on beer too. Don't recommend keeping stubbies in the fridge for more than a few weeks though - can't think of a good reason but I'll think of one over a cool beer later this arvo.

Cheers .

No risk of stubbies lasting longer than a week around here....

[garymc]

G'day Matty

I was given some frozen termites to try a little while back. I have a number of native softbills here that I have bred myself for over three generations, and have never been fed termites. I put the frozen whiteants in and immediately the wrens and chats flew straight to them (they were not fed out in the feedbowls used for the normal livefood) and started eating them. I think when you start have a backup diet (typically what the birds have previouly been fed) and slowly reduce this and up the termites. Most of the wrens of I have have always shown a interest in all little things white - petals, lerp, bit os lebanese cucumber etc.


As for keeping live food alive let me know when you solve that one.

I think of the common livefood sources fed (mealies, crickets, termites and maggots) that themaggots are by far the most resilient in periods of extreme temperature. Yesterday for example the mercury topped 45 yet there were still live maggots when I got home last night. These maggots were placed in bowls positioned on the ground in the shade with lots of Coopex sprayed around the bowls.

I also feed morning and night at times of extreme temperatures

Of interest to is that the heat doesn't seem to stop the native softbills - predominately wrens and chats from succesfully rearing young!

[arthur]

Don't recommend keeping stubbies in the fridge for more than a few weeks though -.

Up here I have trouble keeping beer longer than a couple of days . . even in the cooler weather

[mattymeischke]

Thanks Gary, reassuring that they'll take the frozens and good to know about the maggots.

I've let the fly box go for now because I have several weeks away during these few months and can't bear to ask Dad to tend the maggots as well as all of the rest of our menagerie. I was also worried that they would go rank in the hot weather: an unfounded fear I now see.
I'd better crank it up again...