Possibly Moving Finches into the Garage

[ApricotMuffins]

Well, I've certainly done it now--Husband has politely suggested that I move the finches into the garage. I think he may have finally hit his tolerance level for broken squeaky toy songs from the zebras So attached is a not to scale drawing of my garage for those who might be interested.



I'm facing a few complications and I'm hoping some members may endow me with knowledge so I can make this transition happen. Otherwise I may walk into the office/bird room to find that someone has "accidentally" set the cats loose to end the squeaky toy menace.

I live in Arizona. During the summer time, it's not uncommon for the temperatures to reach 110°F/43°C and higher. I haven't ever gotten a thermometer out, but I think at it's peak the garage was 95°F/35°C during the summer, meanwhile during the winter time it dips easily to the high fifties (14°C round about).

Beneath the spoiler text is just me being overly wordy and explaining things, after the spoiler text is the main issue.

► Show Spoiler

The initial work that has to be done before the birds can be moved out to the garage is I need to install weather stripping so I'm not leaking hot and cold air willy nilly. The gap between the wall and the garage door is a 1/2'' thick in some places. The second step is to blow new insulation into the attic, which will be done some time in February. I'm hoping once this is done, the temperatures in the garage will be more stable.

Next is finding a way to regulate the temperature to something the finches are comfortable with. I'm not really willing to rent a masonry saw to cut a hole into the brick and then build a frame into the window for the purpose of installing a window AC unit--especially not when the previous owner of my home already cut two vent holes into the exterior of the south wall for a portable AC unit!

That said, my plan is to purchase a portable AC/heater unit to keep the temperatures more even in the garage, but this gives me two issues:

1) where do I put the bird cages+breeding cabinets to keep them away from any drafts created by the portable AC? The portable AC unit has to go in the south/south west corner on the floor because of the vent access. Would it be best to move the birds to the north wall?

2) Most of the portable AC units I've been looking at online have an evaporative cooling method, which is bad. I was having problems with my owl finch pair's eggs (three clutches and not a single fertile egg). I'm suspicious that the humidity wasn't high enough for them (even though it was for the zebra finches?? Who knows ) Once they are moved into the garage, I wanted to also place a humidifier near the breeding cabinets to keep the humidity high enough for egg hatching to hopefully enable me to get some owl finch babies out of this pair. This all seems rather counterproductive if the AC/heater is also a dehumidifier, wouldn't you agree?

[steve]

ApricotMuffins

Do you park vehicles in the garage?, how many birds will you be accommodating?

Steve

[ApricotMuffins]

steve

You would think with all my blathering I would remember to mention things like that in my initial post.

To the point--we do not park vehicles in the garage and currently I have about 20 finches with plans to breed 9 pairs.

The regular cages are 30''x18''x18'' (76cm x 45 cm x 45cm) and one or two tied together to make a 60'' long flight cage (152cm). Each unit in the breeding cabinet is 48''x24''x18'' (approx. 122cm x 60 cm x 45 cm) and has a combined height of 72'' (182cm)

[delray]

ApricotMuffins I'm assuming it's a finished garage right?

Also, I, not sure how safe it would be with the temperature fluctuations.

[ApricotMuffins]

delray

Whoo, ok that works itself into a semi complicated answer:

The north wall is 8'' (20cm) of brick and I was told by my husband's grandfather who is a contractor that regulation requires they...insulate the core of the bricks if the bricks are that thick?? It also shares several feet of insulation where it connects to the house. Ditto all of the above to the south wall.

The east wall is insulated because it shares that wall with the house.

The west wall is the garage door that is insulated.

So, no, not a finished garage, but close enough?? According to my husband's friend and my husband's grandfather we didn't need to stud the walls and put up insulation, we just needed to get new insulation into the attic and weather strip the garage to help keep the temperature extremes out.

[delray]

Ok, Im gonna let someone with garage bird experience help you with that, because im not too sure.

But I think of it like they are in a semi finished basement. They are going too need the proper heat and elements as if they were inside you house for it to work.


Good luck

[Sally]

With winter temperatures in the high 50's and no drafts, I don't see a problem keeping Zebra finches in the garage in winter. Most finches can tolerate colder temps than we realize, even the waxbills will tolerate down to 50. 95 in summer might be too hot, but with a portable a/c unit to bring it down a bit, I would think it would be OK. We have temps in the high 90's in summer, going into low 100's from time to time, and people do keep finches in outside aviaries with those temps.

I believe Colt has an enclosed carport for his birds, so he may be able to offer much better advice.

[steve]

ApricotMuffins All my birds are outside, sometimes the temp is below 0 degrees centigrade, sure I cover most of the cages for the cold wind in Winter but I have not had a problem. I must add that I only buy birds that have been bred outside which makes a difference.

I don't see a problem except for Vit D amounts due to no natural light.

Steve

[ApricotMuffins]

steve Sally

I think they will be alright with the temperature range as well, however, my main source of worry is the portable AC unit I'll be using in the garage: will it create cold drafts during the summer that could make the birds ill? and is the evaporative cooling method going to take all the humidity out of the garage so that it's too low for eggs to hatch?

[Sally]

I'm thinking that the evaporative coolers add humidity, am I wrong? Don't they need water to work? I would place the cooler where it wasn't blowing directly into the cages, and then it should be fine. You aren't going to be keeping those temps that cold in summer anyway. In my bird room, which is in my house, I have ceiling vents, and I have cage banks directly under the vent. The top cages were only 1-1.5 feet away from the vent, so I placed sheets of plexiglass on top of the cages to block out the direct cold air. I could have used sheets of plywood or any other solid partition, but I have shop lights laying right on top of those cages. The plexiglass lets the light shine through. If I had not done this, I think I would have had sick birds from the cold air blasting them.

[ApricotMuffins]

This is the portable AC/heater unit I was looking at.

It makes it seem like the unit dehumidifies while it cools no matter what. I guess the option I'm left with is to not breed during the peak of the summer when the unit will be running more often.

[lovezebs]

ApricotMuffins

Zebras come from Australia. I would check for temperatures in the Land Down Under, both Summer and Winter, and see what's natural for them in their habitat. I think you will find that it gets pretty hot in Ausie land in the Summer, and fairly chilly in the Winter.

Another thing you could do, is add a small out door Aviary to the one wall of the garage, where there is a window or opening of some sort. That way, you could have natural air circulation, plus, the birds could come and go inside or out depending on the weather. This way, they could also get natural sunlight, which is so beneficial to them. (My Canary breeder, did that to his garage, and this is up here in Canada, where we have very cold temperatures).

~Elana~

[Colt]

Well I can certainly chime in but I won't be much help.

I do keep my birds in an enclosed carport built onto the house. The wall the birdroom shares with the kitchen and master bedroom (east wall) is insulated (poorly I'm sure) while the south, west, and northern walls are not insulated at all. The western and northern wall have one window each closest to the NW corner. The north wall also has a door to outside while the east wall has a door to inside the kitchen.

I do not run a cooling system in the summer currently although that may change. In the past I've only opened the two windows. I will probably be putting a small box-style fan out there this year.

In the winter I do run two space heaters at opposite ends of the birdroom. Depending on how cool it is I may run them at 85 degreed or as cool as 70. Temperatures range from the low 60's on exceptionally cold nights when the heaters just can't keep up to the upper 90's.

I always make sure the birds have fresh water and they've done fine. I've successfully bred almost everything in my signature with this set-up.

I wouldn't be worried about temperature fluctuations. My birds survived a power outage during an ice storm last year and were in the house with the temperature sitting around 45 degrees. So long as they are out of the wind and wet finches are remarkably hardy.

You might contact Beverly who raises Gouldians outdoors year round in Arizona for more insight on the temperatures that the birds are able to handle in your area.

http://www.bevsbirds.com/

[wilkifam]

Were the Owl eggs infertile or were they fertile and just did not hatch? Infertile eggs should have nothing to do with humidity.

[ApricotMuffins]

wilkifam

The owl finch hen sat tightly after laying her fourth egg in each clutch, and I performed a nest check after a week of tight sitting.

I noticed the eggs were clear, then proceeded to candle the eggs and there wasn't any sign of development. The reason I suspected low humidity is because the air pockets at the fat end of the egg were basically more than 1/4 to 1/2 of the space in the egg. After two weeks of tight sitting (and again at 3 weeks) I pulled the nest and candled the eggs and same story, but with increasingly large air pockets. Because of the air pockets, I assumed it was a humidity factor. Is that an indicator of something else like a nutritional deficiency?

My other suspicions are:

---The graceless owl finch cock

I've been able to sneakily watch them mate a few times (because I am a creepster hiding behind the book case) and he basically dives at her when trying to copulate, and the poor hen loses her footing and gets knocked off the perch Yes, there are a variety of perch widths inside their cage flight cage with some being perches being wide enough they have to stand flat footed on, and he seems to have problems with his approach regardless of which perch they choose as a brace. You would think this would be self-correcting after 3 clutches, but he hasn't changed his rapid descent mating tactics.

On a side note, it is both sad and a wee bit funny watching the hen fly off indignantly when she gets knocked off her perch and the cock flutters after her, calling for a second try.

---One of, if not both, have possibly aged out or infertility due to genetics.

I bought the owl finches from David Calvin at birdproduct.com so there is really no way to tell how old either member of my pair is. I was just hoping they had at least one clutch in them before I retire them from breeding.

At this point, my plan is to allow them one more try with a humidifier (if that is indeed the problem) and if they're still producing clear eggs, buy another pair of year banded owl finches and swap mates, and hopefully be able to get a fertile clutch from the new pair.