Chickens with CockatielsParakeets in outdoor Chicken Palace Aviary?

Last week my hubby and I built a wonderful predator-proof (completely encased with hardware cloth) chicken house and pen, and the chickens are all moved in and happy. I would like to also keep a few budgies or cockatiels in it - they would live in the upper airspace and the chickens on the floor for the most part. But I have a few questions:

1. Weather/Climate: We live at the North end of San Francisco Bay in middle California. We generally have a mild 4-season climate with some hard freezing between mid-December and early February (though it varies from year to year). Does anyone know if any small cage birds, such as parakeets or cockatiels, can live outdoors in this type of climate?

2. Are chickens compatible with small cage birds, in termsof behavior and health? Or will one harass and kill the other, or spread diseases?

Thanks for any help I can get on these subjects!

I use to raise parrots and I think I recall that chickens are a no no as pretaining to diseases.

Any one else have info on this?

I don't know about mixing chickens with parrots, but it seems like if you were ultra cautious with biosecurity and careful about health of the birds; it could be done.

There are parrots that can live in that climate. There are large flocks of feral quaker parrots in SF now, I believe.

Imp

How big are your Chickens??

The Chickens could kill the small birds & the keets/tiels would go down to the ground sometime.

The weather most likely would not kill the Cockatiels, Parakeets might be just a little bit to small to weather it.

But one good peck on the head even from a Dutch bantam could easily kill a small bird. I don't know about the different pathogens they could give each other, but I would say not to do it.

A Quaker or small Conure might be able to both weather it & stand a chance with med/large fowl, but I would say that a hook bill needs to be big enough to take a few pecks & still small enough not to use it's hook bill on the Chickens.

I would want the hook bil to be about half the size of the Chickens, so it's small enough not to stand a good chance of hurting the Chickens & large enough to take a peck or two.

All in all I think you are just better off keeping med/large Pigeons in with Bantams & Bunnies in with the large fowl.

Edited to add:
Hardware cloth is not predator proof, The wire is to thin, a good sized dog could bite through it if he really wanted to. but it will keep out, most snakes & birds of prey ect. but as for Bear, Dogs, Cougars & even large Raccoons they can all get through it.

Trust me been there done that with a Fisher weasel & a few Raccoons.

I have an outside aviary that is next to the chicken inclosure. The birds are seperated by double pannels of wire. I don't think its a good idea to keep them all together. The tiels like to get down to the floor and chickens, as we all know, poop a ton.

Chickens can kill and/or injure Cockateels and Parakeets. Vice versa is true too. I have kept both outdoors year round in an outdoor aviary in your area, but seperate from the chickens. All hookbills will eventually chew through any wood enclosure and fly the coop. 2x4's they make into wood art.

Hello.... I know for a fact that you should NEVER put any kind of exotic birds in with chickens. Chickens are carriers of all kinds of diseases that will kill cage birds. I have been raising birds for over 25 years and know this.

In regards to keeping chickens with parakeets. I have both chickens and parakeets living together in the same aviary and all birds are doing well. Some things to consider. First have separate places for the birds to roost at night. My chickens roost in their coop and the parakeets spend the nights in the aviary. Second provide some places up high to put parakeet food and water. High enough that the chickens can't get to it. My parakeets do like to get down on the ground and surprisingly the chickens leave them alone. I do have plenty of perches and branches for the parakeets to spend the majority of their time. As far as the cold weather is concerned parakeets and other small birds can live in much colder weather than people think. I live in Logan Utah and we have already experienced sub zero temperatures. My parakeets are still alive. Parakeets will live in colder weather given that they have the time to acclimate to the dropping temperatures. Keep them outdoors year round and they will do fine. They also have to have a draft free enclosure in winter. Many people here in Utah and other cold places simply wrap their aviaries in plastic and that does the trick. So far this winter my birds have done well and the nights have been extremely cold. Hope this helps

Thank for the information.

Ealder said:

In regards to keeping chickens with parakeets. I have both chickens and parakeets living together in the same aviary and all birds are doing well. Some things to consider. First have separate places for the birds to roost at night. My chickens roost in their coop and the parakeets spend the nights in the aviary. Second provide some places up high to put parakeet food and water. High enough that the chickens can't get to it. My parakeets do like to get down on the ground and surprisingly the chickens leave them alone. I do have plenty of perches and branches for the parakeets to spend the majority of their time. As far as the cold weather is concerned parakeets and other small birds can live in much colder weather than people think. I live in Logan Utah and we have already experienced sub zero temperatures. My parakeets are still alive. Parakeets will live in colder weather given that they have the time to acclimate to the dropping temperatures. Keep them outdoors year round and they will do fine. They also have to have a draft free enclosure in winter. Many people here in Utah and other cold places simply wrap their aviaries in plastic and that does the trick. So far this winter my birds have done well and the nights have been extremely cold. Hope this helps

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Could you send a picture/pictures of the aviary?