Show me your pigeon lofts!!! I need ideas

[Rooster_Tyranny]

Brand new to chickens and already thinking about pigeons, and there seems to be no good pigeon keeping books! So show me your lofts, inside and out, and tell me about them. What it took to make, what worked, what didn't, what the loft's primary functions are, etc. Let's turn this into one of those chicken coop threads but better!

And here are a couple questions I have: How do you effectively clean the loft out? Since most of the lofts I've seen have been walk in. How do you make sure the pigeons don't fly out when you open the door? I plan on having two separate compartments, one for my breeding pairs (4-6), and one for the weaned babies I plan to sell or eat (I'm planning on Scandaroons, if I can find some).

 

[The Phantom]

I’m interested too. I will hopefully be getting some nicobar pigeons this summer.

 

[backyard pigeons]

Brand new to chickens and already thinking about pigeons, and there seems to be no good pigeon keeping books! So show me your lofts, inside and out, and tell me about them. What it took to make, what worked, what didn't, what the loft's primary functions are, etc. Let's turn this into one of those chicken coop threads but better!

And here are a couple questions I have: How do you effectively clean the loft out? Since most of the lofts I've seen have been walk in. How do you make sure the pigeons don't fly out when you open the door? I plan on having two separate compartments, one for my breeding pairs (4-6), and one for the weaned babies I plan to sell or eat (I'm planning on Scandaroons, if I can find some).

Hello! There are many good pigeon books out there, but I'm not sure if there are many on meat birds. I have wood floors, but I put pine needles on the bottom and I have a little door to open in the floor, so I just push them out, and replace the bedding. I recommend doing lock in nest boxes so you can separate breeding pairs. And if you have meat birds, they shouldn't be able to fly that well, but I just go in quick! And it's up to you if you want to do walk in or not. And use hardware cloth! Not chicken wire. I hope this helps.

 

[backyard pigeons]

I’m interested too. I will hopefully be getting some nicobar pigeons this summer.

Nice! Do you plan on getting eggs or adult birds?

 

[The Phantom]

Nice! Do you plan on getting eggs or adult birds?

I always love to raise chicks. Depending on how hard they are to rais from chicks I would love to get young ones.

 

[backyard pigeons]

I always love to raise chicks. Depending on how hard they are to rais from chicks I would love to get young ones.

It can be tough but your experiences enough to do it. Just do lots of research

 

[Hokum Coco]

Show me your lofts, inside and out!

First get young squeakers you will thank me.

How do you effectively clean the loft out? I employ two separate tarps which I exchange. I leave the soiled one out in the yard to bake and dry in the sun. Poop for the most part just flakes off with little effort. Plus I line my nest boxes with the empty Purina 50lb nylon mesh feed bags poop just flakes off them in the same manner.
How do you make sure the pigeons don't fly out when you open the door? In my case I have a second inner door. Plus after a time the second inner door does not seem that necessary.

 

[slorider18]

 

[jak2002003]

This thread is great.... I love seeing others peoples pigeon coops, and getting new ideas.

My large coop (back when I had a lot of pigeons) was open on the front and half of each side with wire mesh. This gave great ventilation and the feather dust and dander would not be a problem. The roof was all covered with a big overhang to give shade and stop rain blowing in, and so was the back (to which the nest boxes were attacked.

I used thick tree branches at the front of the coop as long perches, rather than separate perches.

My loft was designed for keeping clean and ease of cleaning. The reason for the branches was than the birds dropping all fell straight onto the floor. I do not like the inverted V perches as the sticking out bits need the dropping regularly scraped off and it looks messy to me.

The floor of the coop was a thick layer of dry earth and course sand. Key was to keep everything dry. All the poops fell onto the sand, and dried up quickly. Once a week I got a plastic netted basket thing (used to keep vegetables in) attacked to a broom handle and used this to sieve through the top of the sand to remove the dry poops. Really quick and easy. The birds feet were always clean and the sand cleaned them as they walked about on it. They also liked to relax on the soft sand and sunbath and enjoyed pecking about in it looking for grit.

Never any smell, and the good ventilation kept the dust down. Feathers would all collect into neat piles in the four corners and were easy to pick up and throw out. I used the dry poop to fertilise the garden plants.

My current coop is much smaller. It is like a large cage and you can't walk inside it... like a kit box style. This has a pop hole door with the bars on, and the floor is wire mesh so all the poops fall through and collect on a wooden board underneath. I scrape all the poops off this once a week. Again key is to keep everything dry. No nesting boxes in this cage. If I decided to breed the birds I will attach the boxes to the outside of the cage and have a door in the back of each nesting box for cleaning and inspection.

I miss my old coop, but I don't have the space at my new place and only have 5 birds now as pets.

Maybe a bit controversial, but when the birds were breeding I did not clean out the nest boxes. In the wild their nests don't get cleaned. The droppings just compacted into a deep hard mass, no smell or anything. Once they finished a round of chicks I would simply unhook the nest box and bang it on the wall... the big brick of dry poop would just fall out and it was all clean underneath and ready to use again. My birds stayed clean (they are mostly all pure white ones) with no staining from their droppings on them or stuck to their feet.

One important tip I can give is NEVER leave any food, or spilt grains about in the coop. This will attract vermin. Feed the birds 2 X a day only and take out the feeder and any left over seeds straight away. Also spilt seed or a feeder left inside the coop can easily get contaminated with bird poop, and if they eat that they can get diseases and parasites.

 

[Rooster_Tyranny]

First get young squeakers you will thank me.

Why is that?

That's a smart idea with the tarps, in fact you all have smart ideas! I love seeing everyone's different way of doing things. I also really like your nesting sections!
I was also considering instead of a door, you know how at those walk in aviarys at zoos they always have a string of beads or something hanging down in front of the door? Maybe I could do something like that.

It's really sweet to see what you're doing with you're grandaughter! It was my uncle that got me into pigeons and chickens and well..everything else. Some of my most cherished memories with him are driving a mile away from the house with a couple pigeons, letting them go and then racing them back (they always won). Or when he took me to chicken shows. Heck, I even enjoyed mucking the stables with him (how you can tell I'm a city slicker!). And, for what it's worth, I never grew out my of my interest with him or his birds.