Post by ed on Feb 16, 2008 21:04:14 GMT 10
I have several breeding pairs of birds in the garage which I have set up as a bird room.
One night I needed to go in there in the middle of the night and as I was rummaging for some articles I scared a Kakariki hen out of its nest box. It was actually 7 days into incubating 5 eggs.
After I found what I had been looking for I flicked off the lights and went back into the house. In the morning to my horror, I realised the hen never found her way back into the nest box. Consequently, those eggs were lost.
What I do now is leave the bird room lights on, if I disturb sitting hens. I will come back after 2 hours and if the hens are all back in their nest boxes I switch off the lights . if there is one hen still out I leave the lights on till the morning. I've find that they eventually return to the nest box if they can see.
I have found that this is not a major problem with outside avaries as the birds can see in the moonlight . However, as an added precaution you can always place a portable light source out there for them.
Be careful not to electrocute yourself by placing the lights in a rain storm.
One night I needed to go in there in the middle of the night and as I was rummaging for some articles I scared a Kakariki hen out of its nest box. It was actually 7 days into incubating 5 eggs.
After I found what I had been looking for I flicked off the lights and went back into the house. In the morning to my horror, I realised the hen never found her way back into the nest box. Consequently, those eggs were lost.
What I do now is leave the bird room lights on, if I disturb sitting hens. I will come back after 2 hours and if the hens are all back in their nest boxes I switch off the lights . if there is one hen still out I leave the lights on till the morning. I've find that they eventually return to the nest box if they can see.
I have found that this is not a major problem with outside avaries as the birds can see in the moonlight . However, as an added precaution you can always place a portable light source out there for them.
Be careful not to electrocute yourself by placing the lights in a rain storm.