Pigeons in Aviaries - cold weather

[PittyLova]

We're picking up some homers next month and am in the process of figuring out how I want to set them up. I plan on making an aviary for them to share with our coturnix quail. This seems all fine and dandy for spring through fall. I take a few of the youngest quail in late fall and put them up in a rabbit hutch to over winter them for breeding the following spring to replenish our numbers again. However, I'm not exactly sure what to do with the pigeons. I've read a lot of people keep them in the aviary and just make sure they have draft free areas within it, and cover the aviary with plastic for the winter. Does anybody actually do this in places where it gets cold? Do you have any pictures of your setup?

 

[biophiliac]

I keep homers in WI where we get temps in the double digits below zero. They will be fine in the cold of winter as long as their perches are free of drafts. Mostly homers live in coops made of wood where they have perches and that can be closed at night to protect them from predators.

 

[PittyLova]

I keep homers in WI where we get temps in the double digits below zero. They will be fine in the cold of winter as long as their perches are free of drafts. Mostly homers live in coops made of wood where they have perches and that can be closed at night to protect them from predators.

Yes, I've seen the wooden coop designs and may still put one together. However the aviary we currently have is predator proof with hardware cloth on all sides (including bottom) and I've run electric around the outside of it and all of my other pens. So was thinking of just adding perches and nest boxes for pigeons in it. I covered it this past year with heavy duty plastic and let our chickens use it during the deep winter for scratching and being chickens out of the snow and it stayed pretty warm. We get down into -20's here for at least a couple of weeks in the winter so just don't know if the plastic, plus making sure they have boxes/perches in a corner blocked even more for night time.

I try having my animals out as much as possible and figured they'd like having the ability to have the run of the aviary all of the time

 

[biophiliac]

plastic

Sorry for the late reply. I somehow missed your post. I think your setup can work since it's predator proof and with some plastic sheeting in winter.You can always make adjustments as you go.

 

[Qwerty3159]

I had an aviary attached to a wooden coop and a number of the birds slept outside on the perches all winter anyway. I'm in New England too so we had similar temperatures. Keep them out of the wind and they'll do fine. I'll have to grab some pictures today and post them here