Gallery
Displaying All the Important Aspects of Pigeon Raising
Starting with Our Lofts
Our Flyer Loft
This loft is not a breeding loft; it’s main purpose is for flying birds out of it. It’s more or less a summer loft, but when our winters are more mild, we keep birds in here to fly them.
We make all the necessary adjustments as shown in the pics by adding glass window and Plexiglas over screen windows, floor coverings, porthole covering, heat lamp and heavy insulated door to winterize it. This keeps all cold air and drafts out making it warm.
But, during the harsh cold winter months MN is known for, we move them all into our main loft. During these cold windy months we are unable to fly them, not to mention, they wouldn’t want to go out even if they could during that time.
Roller Loft
This is our Roller Loft. It’s fully insulated with 2.5″ thick sheets of insulation behind all the walls, the floor and the ceiling.
In order to utilize the windows and gain access into the aviary fly pen, I removed the lower windows and screens. Instead we cover openings with separate screens from the outside during the summer and one inch thick Plexiglas doors in the winter.
We cover the porthole they use to go out and fly with cardboard and 1″ thick insulation fabric.
I put 2 small 12″ fans in here during summer and a heat lamp during winter. Result…no mosquitoes, cool flowing air in summer and warm in winter with no cold air blowing in. Stays dry.
Happy Birds-Happy Life!
Breeder Loft
Breeder loft is great. It was originally a trailer freezer box for hauling frozen goods from one location to another. So very well insulated.
I built all the perches and next boxes by hand. During breeding season, I put strips of paneling over half of every row of nest boxes. This help ensure birds have more privacy from those looking to steal their box and makes them more relaxed and calm while raising babies.
I remove all partitions when I take nest bowls away when breeding season is over.
Screens and fan during the summer. I made 2 doors for this loft. Summer door has a cutout window with wire and screen covering. The winter door is quite heavy – fully enclosed insulated.
Removable Boards as Loft Skirting Around Bottom
We use open rubber grate flooring in a few of our lofts during summer months for easy cleaning, but note… we do not have it exposed to the elements.
Meaning, we cover/wrap the entire loft year round with smart board siding as skirting to ensure the safety of our birds, protecting them from mosquitoes, flies, rodents and all weather elements.
All of my lofts are off the ground sitting on 8″ high timbers or up to 24″ high metal frames.
Whether my loft is made with a fully insulated wood floor or a rubber metal grate floor, all lofts have a skirting wrap around the bottoms.
Skirting boards are easily removable with a screwdriver when needed to gain access underneath for cleaning or any other reason you may have.
The All Seasonal Set-Up!! Improving the Lives of Your Pigeons
Summer Gets Hot - Fans in Every Loft
With the heat and humidity of summer, lofts can get hot and stuffy. We put a fan in every loft to keep our birds cool all summer long.
The heat can create undue stress on birds and the humid moisture can invite bugs and mites into loft, nest bowls and onto birds creating a situation for a breading ground of disease and death.
Happy birds … happy owners … better results!
Screen Coverings = Happy - Healthy Birds
Screens are vital to birds (well any human or animal for that matter) to protect against mosquitoes, bugs, flies, nates, etc. that bite, stress and prevent birds from getting rest at night.
Mosquitoes are by far more harmful than you think. They bite birds legs and cause them to dance and move all night long, preventing the birds from getting any rest. This in turn will cause your birds to lower their immune system, and eventually causing sickness from constant stress and then could die.
But, Mosquitoes are also notorious as disease carriers and can kill your pigeon just from one bite over night.
We close up every opening with screens at night ensuring no mosquitoes can get in, including portholes.
Winters - Keeping the Cold Out
Winter can be mild in some parts and harsh in others so, as a rule of thumb, keep the cold out of the lofts.
I fully insulate all of my lofts from top to bottom…roof, walls, doors, floor and windows.
The port hole openings that do not have actual real windows, I cover openings with either pexiglass, actual glass window panes, a thick piece of removable insulation or other material depending on what I am covering.
Keeping the cold air and winds out is vital. If I have an open grate floor for summer, then I will cover that entire floor with plywood and then straw over the top for added insulation.
Heat Lamps and Floor Coverings
We use heat lamps in the winter for added warmth to our already fully insulated and fully enclosed lofts. But the heat lamps also break up the long otherwise dreaded 16 hrs of darkness that comes with winter.
We also cover the grate floors with plywood and straw to ensure their feet stay warm and also keeps out any wind and drafts. In our lofts made of wood floors, we just add straw to the floor which helps absorb the poop keeping it dry. As you know, with snow comes wetness birds carry inside lofts. The cleaning-removing of the dirty parts of straw and replacing with clean straw is an easy task each day.
Together, these tasks ensure our birds are healthy and happy all winter long…as we stated many times…Our Birds do NOT have sickness issues or diseases of any kind.
Is Your Loft Clean ... Really Clean? If Not, Then What Is Your Excuse?
We have many obstacles bearing down on us that would make it easy for us to say, well …excuse …excuse. But we roll up our sleeves and get to work. It’s our job as animal owners to ensure they have the best life possible and are able to live in a healthy environment. Let’s be real, if your neighbors complain about the smell of your lofts, or you need to wear a mask to enter or you have dust flying all over you when you open the loft doors and so on…then you really are failing your birds miserably. Truth be told, no one should ever know you have birds outside of seeing them fly or hearing them talking to one another. That’s when you know you are doing it right.
Now, before you say it… we all work a job to pay the bills, but you can’t tell me you don’t have time to take a shower, clean your own house, watch tv, etc…then you know you have time to care for your birds living space…we make the time. Not trying to sound harsh, but it really is that important.
Obsicles and Challenges... but they're worth it!
Our Snow Accumulated Winters
Our Winters tend to accumulate several feet of snow fall. In some cases that might be in one day or night making access to our lofts much more difficult. We spend a great deal of energy shoveling…lol.
But, with that… we still find it necessary to continue keeping all of our lofts clean on a daily basis, even if that means we have to keep all waste in empty feed bags and pile them high into wheel barrels and empty trailers until spring when we are able to wheel it away to our compost pile in our woods. We still scrap and remove debris from every loft each and every day no matter how challenging it may become.
Keeps the lofts dry and birds healthy!
Winter Melts Creating Our Spring Flood
As much as we love our property, we do have a hiccup we tend not to love so much…lol. Spring Flooding!
Some years are worse that others, but with anything, still a challenge to contend with. All of our lofts are up off the ground with timbers or metal frames therefore none of our lofts ever flood or retain water inside…(Thank you Jesus!!).
But, again this little obstacle still does not deter us from keeping the lofts clean on a daily basis regardless of the difficulties of getting in and out and the removal of all wastes. It’s important to keep our birds healthy regardless of any intruding situation.
Summer - Spring Before and After Composting
This picture is to help reiterate what it takes for us to keep our lofts clean and the removal of the waste. As we have pointed out previously, we have many obstacles to over come in order to stay on target of keeping up with our lofts’ cleanliness and the health of our birds.
We are showing you all of this in hopes of impressing upon you just how important it is to keep a clean and tidy loft for all of your birds to live and thrive.
As you can now clearly see, it’s no easy task, but we have found ways of getting creative to over come those feats.
So, once again I ask you…What is your excuse of not keeping up with your lofts. Your birds health depends on you not being lazy.
