Lights Were On & Every Birdie Except Big Bird Was Home

Aviary light timer, photo time was 2 pm. The timer is now set so that even when operated manually, it will only allow lights turned on anytime between 10 am and 2 pm!

World Organic Brand Multiple B Vitamins.

Big Bird Learns From Her Error

Yesterday was almost a perfect day in the aviary. I had admired my shapely Borders and heard beautiful hollow sound coming from one of my German Rollers! After posting my blog, I could not resist a last 10 minutes in the aviary before heading for work. Since I only had 10 minutes, I manually switched on the overhead aviary lights.

To my delight, I heard more beautiful hollow sound coming from another cage on the opposite side of the aviary! I was thinking what a crop of German rollers this year, such tone! I stood and listened probably 15 minutes only to realize that I had to run or I would be late to my second shift job. Frantically, I raced off. Once at work, we were very busy handling numerous traumas and emergency requests for blood transfusions.

At 10 pm, my daughter Kellie called and I explained quickly that I was busy and could only talk a minute. She said "I called because I wanted to know if the aviary light is supposed to be on now?" TURN IT OFF!!!

Now what do I do? Feeling bad will not prevent this from happening again. I must look at the process which allowed the mistake to occur. In this case, if the timer was reset to current possible light operating times, even if I failed to turn off the switch the timer would turn the lights off for me.

Next, what about the birds. The biggest danger of the lengthy light exposure is soft molt. To prevent soft molt, birds are feed a high carbohydrate diet and multiple B vitamins. Outside of the rollers, the rest are on a high carbohydrate diet. So I feed them extra bread today and made sure that all had the extra B vitamins in their water. I also offered cold baths and ran the aviary exhaust fan continuously as it is was 63 this morning and 70 this afternoon and I want to keep them cool.

The birds look pretty good after their late night party. The best border is a shade less shapely and the roller sound is not what it was yesterday... Any change in diet or day length etc can be seen the following day in how well placed the feathers appear and can be heard in the roller song. I observe my birds condition and listen everyday and make fine adjustments. Tomorrow, I am hoping to see tight feathered shapely birds and hear that beautiful hollowness once again..