Ron Payne's Budgerigars - The Moonraker Stud - Birdroom
My Birdroom
My bird room accompanied me when I moved back to Swindon from East Anglia. It is in fact a builders site hut, 16 feet long by 12 feet wide. I have put an extension on of 8 feet by six feet at the front to make it into an L-shape.
This enabled me to have an extra inside flight. I do not like to see my birds crammed together and as I now keep anything between 100 at the start of the breeding season to 250 at the end, I believe space to be vital.
I have 25 breeding cages, conventional wooden ones, 5 banks of 5 which all convert into 12 foot flight cages. I also have three wooden stock cages facing them which serve as a work surface and additional cages below. Those three cages are reserved for my lacewings to breed in!
In my main block the nest boxes hang on the outside and are the box within a box type. Because I use the top of the three separate cages as a work surface the lacewings breed in inside boxes of the old fashioned desk-type. Those three cages hold my surplus stock when required.
My seed is stored in the bird room in a wooden hopper with a divider in it. This enables me to store approximately two cwt of seed in each side. Seed is purchased in bulk to keep the costs down, we run a co-operative in the Swindon club and buy seed in fairly large quantities from Johnston and Jeff. There is a considerable saving to the members who take part in the scheme.
Lighting is by 4 fluorescent tubes, coupled with two small nightlights. They are time-clock controlled, coming on at about 7 am and going out at 10 pm all year round. I do vary it a bit when the clocks change so that over a period of three weeks my time clocks are in line with the national time!! Many people have commented on the brightness of my lights, they are not full spectrum or natural daylight tubes, but a close equivalent. I use Osram Biolux tubes and have been more than satisfied by their performance.
If anybody thinks that a tube (or light) is just that, fit something like the ones I use and you will be amazed at the difference! Since fitting them my birds appeared to have bred much better, this may be a coincidence, but I am definitely not changing my system!
This year I experienced some difficulty in obtaining replacement tubes. By chance I met a beginner budgie breeder who also happens to have an interest in a Lighting Superstore in Melksham, Wiltshire.
The Lighting Superstore now stock the Osram Biolux tubes and are happy to provide you with a demonstration in their Melksham showroom.