Outdoor aviary insulating

cozmicaal

cozmicaal

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Hi all! I’m currently converting a regular 8x6 garden shed into a suitable ‘birdroom’ for my conures, and i was curious on how others have insulated their outdoor setups if needed. My birds have only ever been indoor so I do have a heater set up. i’m from north england where the temperatures in winter regularly drop into the -, so whatever advice and tips anyone has, please let me know! Thankyou
 
Hiya and welcome
I have an outdoor aviary and in East Yorkshire
Aviary in most sheltered part of the garden.
Mine has a roof that is polycarbonate
I seal the aviary in as soon as we hit single figures
There's a roost box that they can decide if they want to be in or not it has a thermostat controlled heater tube but can't say they bother much with it.
Once birds are correctly weathered out then it's not an issue but putting them out Autumn time isn't long enough for then to adjust if they were previously house birds.
 
Oh my aviary is 10ft x 12ft
Solid back bolted onto garage wall and solid on the other side so only front and top need protection.
Don't forget you will need to ensure you register your birds with APHA as they will be outdoors - their regulations because of bird flu :rolleyes:flu
don't forget to add a safety porch
 
what birds do you keep? i’m trying to find a good enough insulator to keep the room warm enough throughout winter for them but if not then i dont mind just waiting it out til the spring. i’m mostly worried about how low temperatures drop as i’m in south yorkshire and i back onto open fields, so theres often very cold, strong winds!
 
Same temperatures as over here then thought you was going to be somewhere really North like one of the island off of Scotland.
I have a little dude flock outside cockatiels, kakarikis and budgies. (Bit of an Ozzie mob lol)
 
My aviary is a custom built one and basically it’s a shed with a flight attached. Solid roof over both. Birds shut in during the night. The shed part is insulated with polystyrene sheets all around, the polystyrene in the part of the shed that is enclosed for the birds is then covered in hardboard so they can’t chew the polystyrene. Don’t know if your birds chew. Also a heater is in there ready for winter. Good luck
 
caza66 said:
My aviary is a custom built one and basically it’s a shed with a flight attached. Solid roof over both. Birds shut in during the night. The shed part is insulated with polystyrene sheets all around, the polystyrene in the part of the shed that is enclosed for the birds is then covered in hardboard so they can’t chew the polystyrene. Don’t know if your birds chew. Also a heater is in there ready for winter. Good luck
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aww brilliant thankyou! i was looking into polystyrene insulation but i heard a lot of mixed things about it. where’d you get yours from?
 
DizzyBlue said:
Same temperatures as over here then thought you was going to be somewhere really North like one of the island off of Scotland.
I have a little dude flock outside cockatiels, kakarikis and budgies. (Bit of an Ozzie mob lol)
Click to expand...
hahah thankfully not! do you have any experience at all with conures outside? i’m honestly the most timid about my conures through the winter as i’ve heard lots of people advise against it with them being tropical birds, but one of my birds was kept and bred in an outdoor setup, so i’ve got no clue!
 
Yeah got experience of other "tropical" birds outside
Conures are not an issue but birds moved straight outside from indoors Autumn / Winter beginning of Spring (continual night temperature in double figures in spring so make it back end) are the ones that will suffer not being given time to acclimatise.
We can breed almost any species and keep most bar a few like hummingbirds and brush tongues permanently outside.
Your providing shelter making it warmer (my aviary is in winter about 3 degrees without heating above outside temperature as it gets closed in with perspex panels to the front) and ample food no foraging as such required with miles to have to get it. Make sure you pop a light in as during dark nights you might need to go in also I put mine on a timer for idiot night (bonfire night) so my birds can see if they get spooked in the dark then it goes off just after midnight on that and New Year's Eve.
This year is one of the very few I have had issues with it being too hot and having to hose everything down to keep them cool enough but even in hose pipe ban your allowed to hose them down I use it on fine mist.
Have a breeder in here he has his greys, Amazon's, cockatoos breeding happily outside think he was years ago breeding slender billed conures outside. I
People like to breed them indoors. Lots of the zoo's small animal parks around here keep conures outside 24/7 think there was a place in Leeds one of the council owned places that kept outside years ago as do flamingo land and Harwood. Have a look at ZooAmazons thread Andrew goes to lots of those types of places photographing the birds.
My little dude flock love playing in ice and snow - complete loonies!
@cozmicaal
 
This thread has all (outdoor living) conures that Andrew has photographed up and down the country he did a guessing game for us
There used to be a huge aviary of small tropical birds over at Lincolnshire when it was called the Parrot Zoo.
There are free flyers living out 24/7 up in Cumbria at the Ara Project
We had Orange Winged Amazon's living wild over at Skidby Church clock tower (East Yorkshire) for years in some right cold winter's they were quite happy.
Yes larger than your conures but the ammies were foraging for themselves ... As well as joining in during church service and stripping the gold from the church clock tower :lol:
But even though classed as "tropical" all these birds were born and bred in the UK they were acclimatised to our weather and even in tropical climates it can still get ruddy cold at night in the winter. Southern South America can drop to -15 Patagonia conures species hangs out in Argentina and it gets ice and snow :noidea: not as warm or tropical as you think some of these places.
 
DizzyBlue said:
Yeah got experience of other "tropical" birds outside
Conures are not an issue but birds moved straight outside from indoors Autumn / Winter beginning of Spring (continual night temperature in double figures in spring so make it back end) are the ones that will suffer not being given time to acclimatise.
We can breed almost any species and keep most bar a few like hummingbirds and brush tongues permanently outside.
Your providing shelter making it warmer (my aviary is in winter about 3 degrees without heating above outside temperature as it gets closed in with perspex panels to the front) and ample food no foraging as such required with miles to have to get it. Make sure you pop a light in as during dark nights you might need to go in also I put mine on a timer for idiot night (bonfire night) so my birds can see if they get spooked in the dark then it goes off just after midnight on that and New Year's Eve.
This year is one of the very few I have had issues with it being too hot and having to hose everything down to keep them cool enough but even in hose pipe ban your allowed to hose them down I use it on fine mist.
Have a breeder in here he has his greys, Amazon's, cockatoos breeding happily outside think he was years ago breeding slender billed conures outside. I
People like to breed them indoors. Lots of the zoo's small animal parks around here keep conures outside 24/7 think there was a place in Leeds one of the council owned places that kept outside years ago as do flamingo land and Harwood. Have a look at ZooAmazons thread Andrew goes to lots of those types of places photographing the birds.
My little dude flock love playing in ice and snow - complete loonies!
@cozmicaal
Click to expand...
oh great thankyou so much! i’ve heard a lot of conflicting stuff about conures not being able to tolerate under 15 degrees and it was quite a scare after i’d already bought and built the shed lol. i wont be introducing them into there til its 100% insulated enough to keep heat similar to an indoor setup, or until late spring returns hahah!
 
DizzyBlue said:
This thread has all (outdoor living) conures that Andrew has photographed up and down the country he did a guessing game for us
There used to be a huge aviary of small tropical birds over at Lincolnshire when it was called the Parrot Zoo.
There are free flyers living out 24/7 up in Cumbria at the Ara Project
We had Orange Winged Amazon's living wild over at Skidby Church clock tower (East Yorkshire) for years in some right cold winter's they were quite happy.
Yes larger than your conures but the ammies were foraging for themselves ... As well as joining in during church service and stripping the gold from the church clock tower :lol:
But even though classed as "tropical" all these birds were born and bred in the UK they were acclimatised to our weather and even in tropical climates it can still get ruddy cold at night in the winter. Southern South America can drop to -15 Patagonia conures species hangs out in Argentina and it gets ice and snow :noidea: not as warm or tropical as you think some of these places.
Click to expand...
thankyou! you’ve definitely eased my nerves :lol:
 
caza66 said:
We got it secondhand, brand new sheets though. We did buy some from wickes too. Most diy places sell it. Trouble is you end up in a snowstorm when you cut it :lmao:
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i didnt even think of secondhand! :lol: i’ll have to have a look round and see if i can find some, thankyou so much!
 
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