Bird Aviary Chat Thread

[gpop1]

spent a few hours working in the aviaries today rather than sitting and watching them.

Removed covers as it was 43F last night so they got covered to keep the wind of them.

Feed a hand tame chick that's weaned but still begs



spent the next 10 minutes chasing him/her down so I could wipe the access food of her.

Buried the button quail eggs as I couldn't remember which eggs I left last week as a hen was sitting on them. As they were all cold it was better to clean up.

Made scrambled chicken eggs including shells to give the parent birds a head start on the day.



Checked on the chicks this is one of 6 boxes that im still waiting on the chicks to fledge.


I took a few pictures before doing the dreaded water bowls. Im going to look on CL for a old granite double sink. If I can find ones then im building a outside kitchen on the aviary.






hope to lower the numbers by about 30 english budgies next week and a bunch of zebra finches. I also plan to set up a button egg incubator run then sell all the adults and replace them with the younger offspring.

Always something to do ( I hate selling birds as I like all of them so the wife will say whats staying and whats going but I will still keep a few I shouldn't )

 

[User395221]

( I hate selling birds as I like all of them so the wife will say whats staying and whats going but I will still keep a few I shouldn't )

I couldn't breed to sell (chooks, or budgies). I wouldn't want anyone to go to a different home I'm going to have to rehome the boys from the eggs that I let my chooks hatch. I'm quite anxious about it, I hope somebody wants them to have as pets and not to kill.

 

[Lady507]

I can't sell my birds because I would worry to much and most likely end up stalking the people to make sure they are taking good care of them. Also the guilt of separating them especially from their mates will get to me. Maybe one day I would get the courage to sell them but for now I'll keep them.

 

[gpop1]

I normally sell to a pet store so I see it as a 3rd person transfer. I know the pet store will take good care of them so im happy. I also know that the pet store will triple the price so the buyers are going to have a vested interest in keeping them healthy. Its rare for us to deal with a buyer direct but we have done so in the past and some of the buyers are still good friends that keep in touch (some were idiots that I wish I had never sold a bird to which is the real reason we prefer to use a pet store). We also trade between other friends with aviary's.

The chickens we tend not to think about what happens when there go to auction as there sultains you would have to be desperate to eat one as there kinda skinny under all the feathers plus they look cute.

The best idea is never to ask and to walk off in ignorant bliss.

P.s there's no money in breeding in a open aviary. If you are lucky you might break even at best.
show breeding can be profitable but it can take years to produce a show bird line. The only real money is in hand taming and that takes a special person who's willing to invest time and effort. I will on occasion sell chicks to be hand reared and tamed to people I know and ive seen the prices they sell them for but Its not something im interested in doing.

 

[User395221]

Most of my animals are adopted except for my budgies, I tend to "take in strays" not produce them. My auntie used to breed budgies. I could quite easily get into it and overcome my neurotic "animal hoarding" tendencies, but I don't have enough energy. I've got enough going on with my chooks As James Bond said, never say never... One day, I'll look at my birds and think how pretty babies might be, buy another/bigger aviary and a breeding setup and go for it. At the moment, I'm comfortable with how things are (except for having to give away any roosters in my set of babies).

 

[yellowherb]

It's hard to do the "cull" in the aviaries. Each bird is unique and I hate selling them. But it has to be done. It's easier right now to do it since we are going through about 50lbs of budgie seed every 2 weeks and need to get that under control. And that's also using scrambled eggs and romaine lettuce daily in there. gpop1 can't do it, I have to be the meanie and pick the birds that go. But I know their backgrounds (for the most part) so I know what I want to keep for future colors or patterns. G just sees a pretty bird and can't help himself, he wants to keep them all, especially the babies.

As for strays, we used to take cockatiels that no one wanted or were old birds. They get to come here and live their life out in the aviary. We wont get rid of a bird just because it quits producing (2 old sultan hens in the yard haven't laid a egg in forever). Once we commit to keeping a bird, we are committed forever on it. We have a old pair of cockatiels that were give to us, they don't lay or anything but if we do get too many babies in a box, we donate a few to the old pair and they LOVE their babies. They still have a bond with the last two they raised and I see them preening "mom" or just hanging with their "parents". I think the cockatiels are far more fascinating than the budgies since they form family bonds that never seem to break. I have one small family where the mom and daughter use the same box and take care of each other's chicks. Dad always runs other males away from his adult daughter, he will not let her bond.

G doesn't know this, but originally I started with English budgies looking for ONE special bird. I wanted a baby I could hand feed and keep as a pet and teach to talk. Look up Disco the parakeet on youtube... So anyway, to get a baby I decided to let a small flock of them breed to pick out the ONE I wanted to keep as a pet. I still haven't found that special one haha. Baby bird (the white one) was close but she's a girl and I want a boy.

G's right, it's definitely not about the money. A good month is we break even on the food bill for them. When we do sell to individual people it's generally on recommendation from someone who has one of our birds. I love to get the feedback from them in the future on how our baby is such a member of their family now and it's the best bird ever and who knew birds could do that etc. After listening to a conversation with one of our baby owners my teenage daughter said she knows now why we do it. That it makes a difference in the families lives to have one of our babies join their family.

 

[User395221]

Look up Disco the parakeet on youtube..

I already "know" Disco, I've watched him before. "I'm not a crook, I'm a parakeet!" Priceless. LOL

My "problem" in relation to aviaries is that I want my birds inside so I can see and talk to them more. I had my "original" budgie and her friend inside, when my old budgie died, I put her friend outside with a heap of new friends. I hadn't bonded with her as much as my first budgie and I think she's better off with her own kind to hang out with. I've still got my weiros and my galah inside. The weiros started on the patio when I adopted them.... My galah has an outdoor cage, but she doesn't go out that much, she hangs out with me inside. When (if) I get my patio back in some kind of order (it is a disaster area) and I can hang out on it, I might put them back out, or swap them between inside and outside more.

I saw some gorgeous parrots at the shop I'd love, but they'd need a really big aviary to house them. One day, maybe.

 

[yellowherb]

I know what you mean. We actually have no dedicated house birds right now except problem birds or babies needing feeding. Summer time is the worst for me, it's so hot outside I can barely stand it except early mornings and I get bird "withdrawls". I can literally feel my stress levels rise if I do not have time or good enough weather to sit with the birds.

 

[jak2002003]

My aviary flock was all male budgies. No nest boxes. I did not have to worry about them breeding and having to sell offspring.

Sadly I have had to move all my birds into the house in a flight cage... because a hawk has been attacking the aviary and killed several birds this week.

Don't mix other bird species with budgies... it always end up with fighting or injuries eventually.

If you want a mixed finch aviary... a good mix I had was...

Zebra finchs
Pintail finchs
1 canary male
Pair Splendid parakeets (or Bourke's Parakeets)
Trio of Japanese quails....(they lay lots of eggs which are tasty).
1 pair diamond doves

You could probably swap the other parakeets for a pair of Cockatiels... as people have told me they are very gently.. but I have never kept them so I can't tell you if that would work for sure.

Also the bigger the better.... this give them space to keep out of each others way and avoid conflict and fighting.

If you don't want the zebra finches to breed.. get only males. These finches breed like crazy and soon overpopulate the place. The pintail finches are much better in that respect.

 

[Birdlover 13]

Nice advice!