hi mike from brisbane birds today i want to talk to you about nest
box design and in particular the nest boxes i use for breeding my hands for
cause these nest boxes are made locally in
brisbane australia by phil brewer and can be purchased at most bird
showers across queensland that he attends
and some of the larger bird sales in the state now i picked up this one from
parrot supplies australia this morning for under fifty dollars
you'll be hard-pressed to find a better quality nest box for that price
and a quick tip if you're a member of the parrot society of australia you get
20 off at parrot supplies australia making
this nest box even cheaper now typically nest boxes are used for
more than one season so making sure that you buy a high
quality nest box can save you in the long term most of
the larger parrots and macaws and cockatoos
will destroy a poorly designed nest box in one season by chewing holes in them
now they typically sit on top or on the perch and chew the edges
from the outside or chew the inspection hole from the inside whilst they're
nesting now my hearts macaws are nowhere near as
destructive as the larger macaws and amazons
but they still do enjoy trying to drew holes in their boxes
this chewing nature is very important to many species of parrots
as in nature around breeding time they'll chew on the nesting hollows
changing the shape and size to their own liking
now the best way to do this is to protect the important parts of the nest
box with hard wood or metal and add some
sacrificial soft wood pieces that aren't going to be part of the
structure that can be chewed now in fact in the past to encourage the
breeding cycle i've half boarded up the entrance hole
to the to encourage the birds to true the entrance hole open
now for enhancement chords i did this by covering a third to a half of the hole
in fairly thin three to four mil untreated pine wood which is easy enough
for them to chew through another benefit of this is that the
birds have more things to do helping prevent behavioral feather blocking
which can be found quite often unfortunately enhanced cause
now a well-designed nest box like the one by phil brewer here it uses
different techniques to aid in the longevity of the nest box
this is a large a-frame nest box typically the style we use for breeding
hearts because and this is because hans mccall is
breeding upright hollows of palm trees in their native south america
it's made of 12 ml plywood with some parts using hard wood
or metal protect areas that are commonly chewed through
often with cheaper nest boxes they have a piece of dowel
that is used as a perch at the entrance hole on this piece of dowel if not glued
in they can fall out and usually chew
beyond repair very quickly whereas with this nest box it uses a
hardwood platform making it harder to destroy while still
providing a stable base for the birds to roost and entertain their spots
on the side of the nest box we have the inspection hole now normally
these are just a circular door or a hinge that you can inspect chicks from
but the problem comes when the nesting birds see the gap around the door and
take the opportunity to enlarge that gap by chewing it which
of course ruins the nest of the inspection door
and this nest box design attempts to resolve that issue by protecting the
inside uh wall of the nest box with a sheet of
metal now the hole is cut in the middle
slightly smaller than the inspection door
which means that when the door shuts it hits the metal
and hides the gap making sure there's no drive coming through as well
now as i live in brisbane where we we're during the summer
months we can expect to have multiple weeks where the temperature will be
above 35 degrees celsius or 95 degrees fahrenheit and humid um it's important
to make sure we the nest box has an easily removable lid
when we're experiencing that hot run of weather
if the birds are nesting i'll take the top completely off to aid in ventilation
and reduce the overheating now with the nest box lid in this nest
box it's made of metal to prevent the birds
from chewing around sitting on top and chewing around the nest box stops
one distinguishable feature of phil's nest boxes are the hardwood blocks that
he uses on the front of the nest box around the entrance hole so this big
chunk here this will protect the integrity of the
entrance hole from being chewed but still allow the birds to chew the
softer plywood behind it so let's take a look inside the nest box
but before we do if you are enjoying this video please
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and hit that like button and as always i'd love to hear what you think so
please leave a comment below now whenever you have a fairly tall nest
box you need to provide some means for the
birds inside to climb out this is because in nature
the rough internal linings of a tree hollow
gives the bird something to grip but our smooth plywood doesn't give the birds
that ability so these nest boxes overcome the issue
by using a large metal mesh ladder internally now
as we have improved the overall robustness of the nest box
we now need to balance that out by providing opportunities for the birds to
chew without destroying the nest box well one thing i like to do to improve
this nest box design is add strips of soft untreated pine to the inside walls
of the nest box sacrificing these strips of wood gives
the birds something to chew in the nest box and also provides
another way to climb in and out of the nest box using some
non-toxic glue we can glue a couple of small strips
of untreated pine inside to finish off this nest box
we now have a great quality nest box we need to line the bottom with some
nesting material with my hearts because i use a couple of
inches of untreated pine shavings now these are readily available at photo
shops come in the form of a big bale because they're used for lining the
flooring of horse stalls so i hope i've given you an insight into
what goes into making great quality nest boxes
for your parrots i hope you have a great breeding season and i hope to see you
soon
bye