FINCHforum

The main aviary is 16' x 7' in floor area, with about 25 square feet of outdoor cage. This is a total of about 140 square feet (13 square meters), for about 90 Canaries. I try to keep the over-wintering number to about 50 birds. The inside area is mostly tree branch perches. I can't seem to get good pictures of this inside aviary. It is just one end of the building, walled off with wire. I use LED lights inside.
There is a table in there, without branches over it, for food and water. The breeding cabinets are separate from the main aviary.

Dave

Nice place; glad to see the birds have plenty of room!

Dave oh yeah i can see it now I couldn’t image it before hand and bet they love all the space they have, is that water cress plant they are eating to ? Mine loved that when I gave it them once

Fraza the flat with greens is rapeseed (Canola). I sow it sort of thickly and grow it outside in the flat. Each flat is 1.5 square feet and I use two tablespoons of seed per flat. It takes about 10 days to be ready. The Canaries abandon all other foods when I put a flat or two into the aviary--which I do almost every day.

I settled on rapeseed because the wild birds don't eat it while it is germinating and growing. Snails and slugs will, though, so I watch for those.

Very nice set-up. Can you close the outdoor cages off or are they open all the time? Do you heat it in winter and cool in summer? Your landscaping is beautiful, too.

Lucky birds! Not many have it that nice.

FinchLady, I can close off the windows and outside cages.

I live in central Kentucky, USA. Our winters have a couple of months of temperatures as low as 20° F some nights, and rarely as low as 0°. (That is, -7° C, and -18° C.) More often, we are near 32° F at night in the winter. (0° C)

Canaries are able to handle that without heat. I knew of a Canary keeper in Chicago that kept his without heat, and that area is cooler than ours. As long as there is a dry, windless area for them to get to, they are OK.

Indeed, I've had pairs breed and raise chicks when the night temperature was commonly about 32° F, 0° C.

In the summer, I have more openings and a fan--the temperature in the building stays the same as outdoor temperatures.

Canaries are essentially a tropical finch, and I've wondered why they're able to deal with cold. I am guessing that 400 years of Canary keeping in poorly heated homes has a lot to do with that.

Dave Ohright yeah that sounds interesting I might have to try and give it a go

Dave: I'm surprised Canaries can tolerate temperatures that low. I live in Alabama so our winter temperatures are a little warmer than yours. Still I have always thought of Canaries as 'delicate'- apparently not so much. In California, where I grew up, local outdoor aviaries generally had Budgies or pigeon coops. BTW: Beautiful birds. They look happy and very healthy, too.

Is your aviary easy to maintain? What kind of substrate do you use? Any tips for others building an aviary: what works well? Anything you would change?
I find it interesting how creative our Members are with their set-ups.... so many great ideas! ie. your outdoor cage spaces are very nice.

A few points that I learned the hard way with a walk-in aviary:

**open the door to the outside, otherwise you lose valuable in-aviary space.

**I hang a light plastic netting over the top half of the doorway, inside the aviary. That makes me stoop to enter, but it also keeps birds from zooming out over my head.

**Horizontal branches are best. Putting trees with upward slanting branches limits the places that the birds like to sit. The whole area is horizontal tree branches, except over the food / water table. I can walk under the branches, even thought I have to bend down some to do so.

**The outside cages have a wire floor, well above ground level, to limit disease and rodent problems.

**I eventually found that bare cement (or tile or the like) is the best floor. I used aspen flakes for a while, and ended up with an insect problem. Just about any organic or soil floor will eventually be an insect or disease source.

**I use poultry waterers, 1 gallon, rather than a fountain. I've never figured out how bird keepers keep a fountain from carrying disease. You can filter out the organic material, but you can't filter out bacteria or virus.

**Multiple water and food sites eliminate most of the squabbling.

Dave, what a beautiful aviary surrounded by an equally beautiful garden. Your birds are very lucky to have such a great home. I bet they love being able to get outside. Great job !!!!