???'s about housing birds in an enclosed carport...

[Colt]

I and my boyfriend are currently renting a house while we are both in school. And while he is very patient with me and my hobby I know that he would appreciate it if there weren't bird cages in almost every room in the house. And honestly I'd be happy to have them all together in individual breeder cages with some larger flights on hand in a "bird room" where all the feeding and watering can be done together and even better, there's no carpet.

So I was thinking about moving everyone out into the closed in carport on the back of the house. It is completely enclosed and the birds would be protected from the wind/rain, etc... However it is not heated or air conditioned. And the north and west walls are probably not insulated. There are also two windows close to the NW corner.

I'm already hunting down stack-able breeder cages and making plans for how to set it up. But I'd like opinions on how others might heat the building when it is cool, or vice versa cooling it during the exceptionally hot summer months. What is really an acceptable temperature range for them? They handled 41 degrees in the house for a week during a power outage. I don't want them to be that cold, but I'm curious what they can handle as far as extremes and what makes it easier on them like a fan in the summer, heater in the winter, etc...

[Sally]

I use the oil-filled radiator type heaters. I have one in my birdroom, since it is on the northwest corner of the house, and that room doesn't stay quite as warm as the rest of the house. The back room off my porch has drywall but is not insulated. I put my two outside cats in there during these coldest nights, set the digital heater at 75, and I just checked the temperature now, it is 55 in that room (9x10), outside temp supposed to be 19 by morning. As long as the birds were acclimated ahead of time, they should be able to handle down to 50 just fine.

As far as our hot summers, rather than try to air condition that type space, which would cost you a fortune in electric bills, I would run a misting system in the carport, set to turn on several times a day at least. That would help cool it down, along with plenty of ventilation.

[Colt]

Thank Sally. I wasn't planning on air conditioning the room but maybe providing a fan. I'd be scared to put a misting system in there. Water and would generally don't mix well. Or water and seed for that matter. Lol Would fans be problematic?

[Colt]

Okie Dokie so I think I might have rats out there. I was rearranging stuff for my cages and found a hole in the corner of the wall that certainly wasn't there when I moved in. I stuffed some Wal-mart bags in there thinking if they got pulled in I'd know something was living in there. Well the bags are still there (three days later) but shortly after stuffing the hole full i could hear the bags moving inside the walls and then something climbing around in there. I had to resist the urge to pour gasoline on the wall and set fire to it with a flamethrower.

My landlord is worthless so he's not going to do anything. There is still a tree on my house from the ice storm. How can I get rid of these filthy vermin?!

*Edited to add I'm 95% sure it isn't squirrels although I have plague like numbers of the arboreal tree rats as well. (Shame my little dogs can't catch them...) and there's definitely large rodent poop scattered about. Also there's no food and no water available in the room at this time. Or ever at this point...

[debbie276]

You could set traps or bait them with poison. Could it also be chipmunks? Your also going to have to seal off every hole, crack and gap.
good luck

[dcompt]

I'm just across the Texas/Louisiana border so I know how hot it can get in the summer. Be sure they have lots of bathing water. That should help them.

[Colt]

No chiupmunks. lol We don't have those in this area of Texas. I plan on putting out some bait for them and maybe some traps as well. I figured they'd be a nuisance once the birds were out there, but not before.

They'll always have fresh water and the building was well shaded before the tree fell in the ice storm. Not sure how shady it will be this year...