FEATURE
comfortable to have heating when working in the bird room. Electric oil- filled tubular heaters or radiators are suitable.
As mentioned before, plenty of light is also needed, natural light provided via windows is good, but artificial light via fluorescent tubes, or an equivalent, is important if breeding in short daylight hours. Specialised bird or daylight tubes are used my many fanciers. I use bird tubes and tropical fish tubes. Fifteen hours of light is advisable if chicks are to be well fed. Other electrical devices to be considered are a radio; mine plays 24 hours a day and reduces the effect of noises from a nearby road. A night light is also advisable, I use a small bedside lamp fitted with a low wattage bulb. All my lights are on timers. For cage breeding, a good sized cage would be 60cm wide, these are standardly 30cm deep but I would advise an extra 7.5cm. If you are not an expert at DIY, wooden or plastic cages can be purchased, with most suppliers being able to provide non- standard sizes at little extra cost. For wooden cages I would recommend that they are painted with white paint or a light colour on the inside surfaces at least. When in double breeder format the dividers can be removed outside the breeding season to provide a good sized stock cage. Exercise is important
in keeping Bengalese healthy so the larger the cage the better for the birds. I have successfully used wire dividers as an alternative to wooden dividers as they can help to improve the light level. Built-in cages offer even greater scope to have larger stock cages. Nest boxes can be mounted either externally or internally. I have used both and found little difference in my breeding results. For ease of checking for eggs and chicks I find external nest boxes are better. The nest boxes should be half-fronted and about a 5 inch cube. My outside aviary is approximately a 2m cube and is a key feature of my set-up, as it enables me to keep a relatively large number of birds during the breeding season .It is constructed from panels constructed from 50mm square pressure treated timber fence posts and 16 gauge 25mm x 12.5mm wire mesh. The roof is also wired and covered with corrugated plastic sheeting to reduce the risk of infection from wild birds. After experiencing losses due to sparrow hawks, I double wired most of the panels. The floor is paving slabs with large gaps between them to allow good drainage. I have a bird bath which is topped-up regularly. A 60cm long passage, set at a high level, provides easy movement for the birds between the aviary and an internal birdroom flight. The passage can be blocked but I normally allow
BIRD SCENE 21
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