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I have raised Cockatoos and a few macaws for the last 15 yrs in Florida with no problems at all. I have always housed them in an aviary with the sides open and just covered the sides with plastic The last 2 seasons I moved to a colder climate and have had them in a building with a lot less light, less fresh air and is more humid as it was partially underground. I have had horrible hatch rates plus have had some aggression that I never had before.
I was going to sell out but I flat since no one seems to be interested in payijng a decent price for good birds I am going to keep them but I have to make changes on their housing. I have bitten the bullet and decided to build a new aviary basically the same size and structure they always did well for me in I did add a cement slab floor that has a drain so I can hose the cages/give baths to their hearts content breeding indoors in a place you can't hose down is the pits. What I am now frustrated with is what to do with the sides of the building I plan on lining up cages against the sides with a walkdown middle like I always had. I know putting in windows the glass does not allow ultra violet light. I do have a pair of birds that one of them is bald I know I will need to keep the building above freezing. She handled nights below freezing but not quite as cold as where I live now. I used automatic water's before and want to use them again which also requires above freezing temperatures. I was wondering if I could use a wood burning stove in the building at night. Firewood is free for me I have 17 acres of woods. The temperature in the day where I live is above freezing but it does dip low at night I would hate to try to run any kind of heating system with just plastic on the sides of a building it would cost me a fortune.

An indoor wood-burning heater that is not a conventional fireplace w/chimney sounds awefully unsafe for you and your birds, for a number of reasons.

Try radiant floor heating with the flexible pipes laid in the floors hooked up to an outdoor burner. I would never use an indoor woodburning anything to try to heat an aviary. Not only is carbon monoxide emitted along with a zillion other things but oxygen is sucked right out of the air by the flames.

I think I am going to just forget about using atomatic waterer's during the winter months and put a heat lamp on just the one pair of birds I was worried about. I did decide to put huge windows in it instead of having the sides open. I will make sure I put a drain on the pipes so I they won't freeze I was not planning on putting in a wood heating system that was not going to be safe for a human but you did remind me that Birds respiratory systems are much more delicate than a human being's The aviary building has a cement floor that slopes into a drain for ease of cleaning cages and giving them the baths that they used to enjoy putting any kind of heating system in the floor is not an option.

I remember reading an OLD Birdtalk article when I was a kid of a guy who used a small electric water heater to pump warm water through metal pipes. These were used as the only perches in the back of the flights/aviaries and would keep the birds warm when they perched on them. It wouldn't help with the automatic watering system though. Bass Rabbit supplies has automated systems with heating cables through them. Or, you can put a submersible aquarium heater in a tank with a pump at the far end of the line to pump the cooled water back to the tank.

I think that I would consider having some sort of solid walls that cover the wire. I mean, a way to protect the birds from extreme cold, but that can be removed so that they get plenty of fresh air and sunshine when the temps are within a tolerable range. If you haven't poured your slab yet, then you can have infloor heating. (my hubby is a concretor and they just finished pouring a slab that had infloor heating in all of the wet areas. The heating system is protected from moisture because it is plumbed so it is away from the drains) That is probably a very pricey option though. Here in Aus I have seen several finch aviaries that have large heat mat sort of set ups that are mounted to the wall of the aviary with access perches. That way the birds can adjust their own temp based on proximity to the heat mats.

Thanks for your reply. I have already finished the building I decided to close the building in with lots of windows for fresh air and daylight. I can run a small electric heater in it needed. Tonight we expect our first freeze though I don't intend on running heat till we have multiple days of freezes as my pairs were accustomed to some freezing temperatures when I lived in northern florida they were always protected from windchills even in florida. My pairs seem to like their new home they have started working their nestboxes.

I would think that this is not a good time to get your birds use to the colder weather. How cold will it get? And how long will it stay cold? Most larger birds can handle the cold if they are out of the wind and stay dry. I have Derbyan Parakeets and Rose Breasted cockatoos, they do fine down into the single digits and have fun playing with the frozen water in the bowls and ths snow!

Geoff
California

It is not that cold here. When we get snow it's melted before the day is out