Pigeon Loft?

[oxankle]

Does anyone here keep pigeons?

I have seen some really neat small chicken houses, from 4 x 6 to 10 x 12, at a local portable building site, but nothing I could use for a loft. I've been a pigeon fan since I was a kid, had racing pigeons when my children were at home and have a friend now who keeps birds.

I'm thinking of having the builders modify a small chicken house to accommodate up to about thirty birds. Any ideas?

[Bear Foot Farm]

Give them both indoor and outdoor areas.
It helps to have 2 of each.

The first birds you get will need to be contained for a good while before you would be able to let them "free range", or they may not return,

Any birds that hatch there can be flown immediately since they will naturally return

The first time I bought 25 birds I kept them confined for 6 months.
The first time I let them fly, about half never came back

From those that did, I got up to a max of about 60.

They are fun to watch flying, easy to raise, and quite tasty also.

If you want to know all about them try: www.pigeons.biz/forums/

If you are interested in raising them for meat and join that forum, DO NOT mention you want to eat them or you will not be welcomed

[paquebot]

Thirty birds would generally mean 15 pairs. Multiply those numbers by 4 or 5 to find what you might have at the end of one breeding season. We just have show rollers with about 10 breeding pairs in the main loft. Youngbird loft has about 30 perches. There's a third smaller loft for isolation plus show cages for quarantining new stock. That's only half as my son has similar setup 3 blocks away. Culling is sometimes ruthless in my opinion but I'm no longer in charge of the flock. Learned long ago not to name any as they end up either in the compost tumbler or 1,000 miles away.

Martin

[motdaugrnds]

When mother was still living I got her some pidgeons because they were so much fun to watch. They were "fantails". I only got a couple of pairs as they were neither for show nor for eating. Thus, didn't need anything elaborate. Here is my setup:

www.motdaugrnds.com/motdaugrnds/shared_pictures/    (Just tried this link and this HomesteadingFamilies site added some more to the URL that kept the site from showing up. Should that occur when you click this link, just delete all those letters past the "/" in this URL. Then the page will load appropriately.)

(Just scroll down to where you see my barn with goats in the pen. Then look up at the roofing area. You'll see a couple of windows directly over the initial tin roofing and over that is the pidgeon quarters.) It has hardware cloth for the floor with each corner area wooded for nesting and egg laying. At that time we had large black rat snakes all over the homestead; and those snakes literally killed every single pidgeon.

I'm actually considering getting some more since I haven't seen any black snakes for a couple of years. Just haven't ordered any as yet.

[oxankle]

Well, Fooo!!! I tried a reply and thank you for the advice and was told I could not post a reply?

Anyway, I once kept racing pigeons, so I know a bit about pigeons, much less about suitable lofts. Thanks for the links, I looked them up. Martin, culling IS sometimes ruthless--I learned that by placing the bird's head in my hand with my thumbnail just behind the skull, them pulling sharply upward with the other hand death was instantaneous..the best I could do for them.

[spacecase0]

there are 2 racing pigeons here that had babies,
so have 4 now, today will be the second day they are let out to fly
they are pretty cute.
keep chickens in the other half of the pigeon pen, the chickens seem happy there

[oxankle]

Space; if you can keep your pigeons over a dry floor the pigeon manure will dry, it will not cake and make a mess as in a chicken house. Easier to work with and better fertilizer than chicken manure. Cannot be beaten for those who uses manure tea for their plants.

If your pair of pigeons is well mated, have access to two side-by-side nest and get plenty of suitable feed they will start a new pair of squabs before the first pair can fly. Also, if you can raise a good cock bird and there are plenty of nests in the loft the cock will go out and bring back a hen of his own choosing.

[spacecase0]

the floor in the building the birds have is one inch hardware cloth, so the manure just falls under the building, quite easy to collect it that way.

and they did try to make more babies before the first ones could fly,
the eggs got replaced with small egg looking rocks

[oxankle]

If I were to build a very small pigeon coop, one a man could not enter, I would use 1/2 x 1" rabbit wire for the flooring. I think anything larger allows too much freedom for snakes and other vermin to enter. I've hand snakes kill little guineas in cages made of one inch mesh.

Other than the size of the mesh flooring, I'd agree that this is a good set up for a small loft. What I have in mind is something 6 x 10 ft, or perhaps 8 x 10; something I can partition and keep feed and supplies in one end, the birds in the other.

Space; how long have you had this setup, and have you had any trouble with vermin attracted to feed that falls through the floor, or feathers blowing from the loft? Do varmints dig under the building"

[spacecase0]

the setup has been here longer than I have been here, at least 10 years.
a snake did enter and kill a chicken, but just once, and no pigeons were ever hurt by snakes
so 1/2 inch on the floor would be my first choice if I were building it knowing what I know now
past that it all seems fine
I do have boards on the sides that go all the way down (in most places), so it is harder for anything to get to fallen feed
nothing has dug under the building yet, but there is about a 6 inch gap from the floor to the ground, so maybe I just don't notice
the entire thing is quite solid, no way for varmints to get in even if they were around all the time

[Bear Foot Farm]

Here's my "aviary" portion that's divided into two sections so some can fly but others can't:


The perches are 6" 2 X 4's attached to a 1 X 4, spaced about 12" apart:


I got lucky on the nests and found them at a yard sale for just $20 less than 1/4 mile from my house:


The inside coop is 12 X 12 and ten feet tall, also divided into 2 sections

[oxankle]

Space; In my research I see dozens of wire bottom lofts, some with expanded metal, and some that seem to be two feet off the ground on posts, so they must work. A loft that a man could get inside would have to use the expanded metal I think.

Bearfoot; Your loft is larger, but much like the one I had in OK. I had home-made nests and used the paper bowls from the pigeon supply houses. A float-operated water trough was outside on a shelf covered by a cage so that pigeons could stick their heads out and drink safely but they could not get into the water. Feed was in a hopper when the birds were breeding, hand fed twice daily in off-seasons. Feed was stored in a separate building. Where do you store feed, and how do you feed and water? (and what is it with all the white pigeons? Do you rent them out at weddings and special events?)

Our pigeon club once made $500 for the Salvation Army by letting loose several hundred homers at the dedication of a new office building.

[spacecase0]

the one inch hardware cloth holds my weight just fine, it is pretty solid,
also has 2x4s on edge on a one foot grid below the wire
the wire bends a bit in the middle sections, but not bad at all

[oxankle]

Space: That sounds like a pretty strong floor. Rabbit wire would be even stronger. There is one big advantage to your floor; When you have a solid floor you have to be careful of stirring up dust when you tend the birds, as pigeons can cause a serious lung disease. I placed my loft so that the prevailing winds carried the dust and feathers away from the house, and I was careful not to stir up the birds when attending to them. Your floor removes much of that concern.

[Bear Foot Farm]

I used common poultry feeders and water fountains, and the ones that had access to the outside had water troughs they could use as well as fields and pastures in which to feed.

When the flock got larger I used large feed pans that they would empty fairly quickly.
I store feed in 30 gallon galvanized trash cans

The white ones are King Pigeons, which are a fairly large meat breed.

Most use "homing" pigeons for weddings and such.
Mine were just for food and entertainment.

Some of my birds were ferals that I trapped using a homemade trap and a commercial one-way door:

[oxankle]

Bearfoot: I wondered if those might be kings; I never had any. A friend did have a flock of white homers that he kept as wedding birds. (Tip; deprive them of feed for a day before the engagement.)

Another fellow worked at a hospital and, because he kept birds was asked to trap nuisance pigeons off the hospital roof. On one occasion he found three terrified pigeons, two sets of wings and feet and one very angry great horned owl in his trap.

I kept my feed in galvanized garbage cans as well, but I had a small loft and a separate storage building for the feed and other items. I could always find wheat, milo, corn and other grains, but protein feeds were harder to find. I finally found a mung bean processor that would sell me undersized and split beans--the rest went to China. At one point I found a load of wheat rejected by the elevator because it was loaded with vetch--an ideal situation. I bought several hundred pounds.

By the way; do your kings fly and forage? 

[Bear Foot Farm]

By the way; do your kings fly and forage?

Yes, they fly.
They seldom go farther than 400-500 yards from home that I've seen

On one occasion he found three terrified pigeons, two sets of wings and feet and one very angry great horned owl in his trap.

I left a bird in the trap overnight once and a Fox managed to get it out.

Another time a Coopers Hawk got inside the coop and killed about 6 of them before I could get it out

[oxankle]

Bearfoot: After looking over your setup (and trap)I've been going thru loft plans on the webb (and found one pic of your trap). I've pretty much settled on a design, and I've visited four portable building makers. Big difference in prices and quality. The best ready-made building is quite expensive if the walls are high enough for a man to stand inside. Others,standard portable buildings, can be converted easily but entail some work I don't have time for. So--I will negotiate for some changes. The most likely result will be a dual-pitch gable roof building with one wall of green fibreglass above the two-foot level and a foot of wire at the top, a door at one corner, a window at one end. I will negotiate for interior partitions, vents, nest boxes. I will install perches and traps myself, and wiring if I decide to wire it. There is no electricity near the spot where I want it, so a battery and solar charger with a 12 volt system may be my only way out. Lights are not absolutely necessary, but I like to have them.

[Bear Foot Farm]

Here's an easy to build one-way entrance that only takes 4 boards 24-30" long.
I used 1 X 6 for mine but size isn't critical as long as the birds fit through the opening:



The left side goes to the outside of your pen/trap and is placed near the top.
The top is offset about 8" to give them room to land

The birds go through and drop down on the inside, but can't fly up and land on the small ledge since they don't have the room to spread their wings.  

[oxankle]

Neat, Bearfoot. I saw in one of the posts I looked at that some people are using a PVC elbow in much the same way as your trap. Yours is fool-proof and inexpensive---I like that. If wanted, that trap could be made wider and have three or four drops.

Where is your exit door for the birds in relation to that trap? Is it over the trap, next to it, or in some other location?

[Bear Foot Farm]

The exit is through the "aviary" section and the "drop trap" is inside the barn.

I use a door like the one on the trap.
It has a sliding piece that can be used to hold it open to let them out.

You can see the exit on the right side of the first picture I posted, and beside it is a tall door that gives me access to the inside. If you look closely you'll see there's a landing platform that extends beyond the door to make it easy for them to enter when they want back in.