My OH is going to help me make up the lighting for my new flight which will be inside the garage. At the moment they get natural light through the large roller door which is open all day and also a single flourescent tube in the ceiling but I don't think this is enough light for them to encourage them to breed. It's a rental house so I can't install anything permanent but my OH is a sparky so he's going to make me up (or buy me pre-made) some plug in lights which we will mount inside the flight in a safety cage and also at the top of each bank of breeding cages.

 

Also there is no heating in the garage so I am considering getting some heat lights.

 

Any advise on the best type of lighting? Should I be using a natural sun flourescent tube or is flood lights okay? And are heat lights worth it?

 

All the lights will be on timers so they will have extended daylight in the garage regardless of whether I sleep in.

My OH is going to help me make up the lighting for my new flight which will be inside the garage. At the moment they get natural light through the large roller door which is open all day and also a single flourescent tube in the ceiling but I don't think this is enough light for them to encourage them to breed. It's a rental house so I can't install anything permanent but my OH is a sparky so he's going to make me up (or buy me pre-made) some plug in lights which we will mount inside the flight in a safety cage and also at the top of each bank of breeding cages.

 

Also there is no heating in the garage so I am considering getting some heat lights.

 

Any advise on the best type of lighting? Should I be using a natural sun flourescent tube or is flood lights okay? And are heat lights worth it?

 

All the lights will be on timers so they will have extended daylight in the garage regardless of whether I sleep in.

 

This year at the Nationals a rep was promoting Arcadia Lighting. At the chat hosted by Janice Al Nasser (UK judge invited specially for the event) she said that she had installed Arcadia Lighting last season and had recorded a 30% increase in her breeding results.

 

I installed the Arcadia lighting almost a month ago and several pairs that weren't getting as much natural light suddenly went down and are now raising chicks.

 

We too are in a rental property and bought the fluorescent tubing fittings from Bunnings for $30 and the Arcadia tubes for $56. We tied them to the ceiling beams and ran them on extensions to the power outlet, also all on timers. It's working really well.

 

I can't speak for the heat lamps as I don't use them. Instead I run a radiator at night to take the chill out of the air.

Unfortunately because the garage has no insulation I think a radiater would chew through a lot of power, I'm actually thinking I might just use some 25watt bulbs to great a heat pocket in one area of the aviary.

An excellent show breeder in Western Australia has a setup in his indoor flights to "keep the budgies bums warm " at night. He has made up on a horizontal wooden base, a set up of around 6 batten fix lights. They have the large round glass covers ( shades ) over each light bulb ( 25 watts each globe ) and the glass shades are painted with engine heatproof paint. The whole setup is horizontally set up on the wall under their main perches. He says they use the warmth in the cold nights and gravitate away from it if the room warms up on its own. Ken is going to set the same thing up for our birds when we do the new flights.