Beginner to Pigeons!

[Qwerty3159]

Hi all! A few months ago I found a pigeon with an injured wing at night and cared for him for a few days. Long story short I sent him back to his owner in a neighboring state and the experience rekindled an interest in pigeons I've had. I've been doing a ton of research however I have a few questions.

I'm pretty confident on the design of my loft and aviary (I plan to give the birds some outside space because they won't be let out to fly constantly) which I hope to begin building sometime over the holiday season. I'm planning on having a loft similar to the one in the below video except with mostly solid sides as opposed to screen since I live in New England and winters get rather cold. I'd like to keep the mesh strip on the floor from the loft in the video and I'd add one somewhere near the top for ventilation.

I'd like to modify the design to have a decently large aviary of at least 6 feet in height attached to the rear side of the loft. I'm planning to wrap all sides in hardware cloth including the bottom for safety. The loft and aviary would be next to/against the north side of a shed on my property. Is this not ideal?

As for the birds themselves I'd like get regular old homers and let them fly but it would probably not be more than once a week or so, hence my idea for a rather large aviary. If I'm letting the birds fly then I've been lead to believe that I should start with young birds so that they can see my loft as their home and not try to fly back to wherever they came from. I've also read that it is a good idea to purchase adult birds and have those breed, then fly the offspring. However I don't want to build another loft/aviary for the birds that can't fly, so would young birds be my best bet?
If you've made it this far into such a long post, thanks for reading!

 

[cavemanrich]

Welcome to BYC...
Putting your loft on south side of shed would be warmer in winter. Not sure if practical in your yard. Do make sure to predator proof your loft. I lost 2 flocks to predators. Currently I have none, but will rebuild my flock of pigeons this Spring/summer.
Getting young bird must be done early so it would be easier to homeset. I have enough trial and error experience to know. I released my coop born young too late just to see them fly once. They did not look back and never returned.
I suggest getting 1 or 2 mated pairs and raise your own young. Make sure you build in a trap into your loft.
I just answered another person on the subject of pigeons. I am, copy and paste a portion of that post.
That person wanted to start out with feral pigeons so it would be slightly different in your circumstance. Here is a link to that thread.https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/message-delivering-homing-pigeons.1210459/#post-19260751


Here is the way to achieve what you want.
Build a loft. Onto your loft build what is referred to as a trap. Capture a few pigeons. You will need a few because you will need to have both males and females. When you see too many fighting, those are males. Thin the herd by removing those males you don't want to incorporate into your breeding. In time, some will pair up and you will have baby pigeons. This may take some time possibly. Pigeons pair up for life normally. What you will possibly have is strangers pairing up since original mates are not available. When your baby pigeons are 4 weeks old, and are already trying to fly, you start to homeset them. Let them out thru the pigeon trap and they will only fly away just to surrounding rooftops or trees. Mom and dad are in aviary behind the trap. Lil junior will get hungry in short, and will attempt to get back to mama. At that stage, it is dad that is feeding him. Mom and dad both feed until about 3 weeks. When he gets back in he is fed. but most importantly he learned how to return to the loft. Keep doing this process. Eventually junior will venture further and keep coming back. This is also when he is no longer being fed by parent. Coming home for dinner. Do this until you get your desired amount of young pigeons in your loft. These are pigeons that will keep returning to your loft. Throughout this whole process, the parents are known as being kept prisoner. When you have enough pigeons, you may decide to let parents loose. Chances are 50/50 after having 3 or 4 litters, the parents to decide to homeset in your coop. Best way for success is to let the male out first. If he keeps coming back, then release female only. If she keeps returning, then you have succeeded homesetting them. Let the whole pack loose and enjoy the beauty of freeflight of your group.

Sputnik style pigeon trap. I have something of this style but modified.
Check Youtube for ideas on building lofts.

WISHING YOU BEST and......

 

[Hokum Coco]

Welcome to BYC

Good post and advice

 

[LamarshFish]

I'm planning on having a loft similar to the one in the below video

I got into pigeons this past spring and also built a small loft (it is about 4'x4'x4'), and I would recommend that you build something larger. I had thought my loft would fit 15-20 birds no problem; however, I have since learned it would be crowded with any more than 10. The rule of thumb is about 3 sqft per bird. Each bird needs its own perch, and you want no less than 1 nest box per pair, and probably should have even more because there will likely be a few nest boxes they won't want to use due to location. Ideally you'd also have more perches than birds, because they can get territorial and there is a pecking order with respect to perch choice, so if you only have 1 perch per bird, you will have some degree of in fighting and such, more stress, and IMO a higher probability of fly aways when you fly them. Don't think birds will use nest box space as their perches--they will use it, but it is not the way to go about thinking about loft space and the amount of birds you can have. Keep in mind, they will eventually reproduce at a pretty quick rate.

The loft and aviary would be next to/against the north side of a shed on my property. Is this not ideal?

I think not ideal. You want your largest loft opening (which is usually the aviary opening) to face south. East is a second choice, then west, and north is the worst scenario. Ideally, your loft opening will face south, and also have something blocking it on the north side.

As for the birds themselves I'd like get regular old homers and let them fly but it would probably not be more than once a week or so, hence my idea for a rather large aviary. If I'm letting the birds fly then I've been lead to believe that I should start with young birds so that they can see my loft as their home and not try to fly back to wherever they came from. I've also read that it is a good idea to purchase adult birds and have those breed, then fly the offspring. However I don't want to build another loft/aviary for the birds that can't fly, so would young birds be my best bet?

I would start with buying squeakers and starting them in your loft. You want them to be about 4-6 weeks old. You will read that you can train young birds up to 6 months of age to home to your loft, but I will say I think that is bad advice, and sets you up for losses. The best situation is to get squeakers 4-6 weeks of age, the ones that still have tiny little down fuzzy feathers still on their head, and still have dark eyes, and train them. They should be at the age where they have fledged the nest, and are just sitting on the floor of the loft but not quite ready to fly out yet. You will settle these to your loft for about 2 weeks, allowing them to get comfortable and also have an outside view of their surroundings using the aviary and/or a settling cage. IMO this works best with a good number of squeakers, maybe a dozen or so. I have done this with 4-6 and it works, just not as well.

Buying breeding pairs can work also, but comes with a few limitations. One is that you can never fly the breeders, they will home back to their original loft or die trying. They will be stuck in your loft. Second, the breeders will only have two squab per pair at a time, so you won't be able to train as many squeakers at a time unless you buy several breeding pairs.

As far as flying your birds once a week goes, I think there is no problem with that. Many fanciers don't fly their birds at all during the winter due to hawks.

 

[Hokum Coco]

One is that you can never fly the breeders,

Good advise in your post and I agree with everything you stated. However breeders have been know to bond to a new loft after at least raising 3 clutches of eggs. You are still right in saying some never bond to a new loft most of my breeders would fall into that category.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Thanks for the replies everyone, lots of useful information.
After some reconsideration I've decided to put the loft and aviary in the corner of a solid fence so that the aviary faces south and west and the north and east sides are blocked by the loft itself and the exterior fence. This location seems to work better with the addition of being much closer to the house and a hose for cleaning.

My loft plan is to have it be 3' long by 5' wide by 4' tall for >10 birds. It will be propped up on legs that raise it 2' off the ground for a total height of 6'. Attached to that will be an aviary that is 6' long by 5' wide by 6' tall, making the top of the aviary level with the top of the loft. Because the whole structure will be in the corner of a fence I'll either have to have the loft itself several feet away so I can put the door in the back or I will have to put the door on the side that is only 3 feet wide. Thoughts?

Thanks for the advice on the birds themselves, too. I'm thinking that my best bet would be to try and find some squeakers. I browsed craigslist and saw a local ad for four of them but it was a month of so old. I've attached a poor Sketchup model for reference, the wood colored area is the loft and the transparent area would be the aviary.

 

[LamarshFish]

After some reconsideration I've decided to put the loft and aviary in the corner of a solid fence so that the aviary faces south and west and the north and east sides are blocked by the loft itself and the exterior fence. This location seems to work better with the addition of being much closer to the house and a hose for cleaning.

Smart move.

My loft plan is to have it be 3' long by 5' wide by 4' tall for >10 birds. It will be propped up on legs that raise it 2' off the ground for a total height of 6'. Attached to that will be an aviary that is 6' long by 5' wide by 6' tall, making the top of the aviary level with the top of the loft. Because the whole structure will be in the corner of a fence I'll either have to have the loft itself several feet away so I can put the door in the back or I will have to put the door on the side that is only 3 feet wide. Thoughts?

I still think it is too small, especially for 10+ birds. And you'll want at least 15-20, because it is easier to train them in numbers, and they get addicting and are fun to have. I recommend trading aviary space for loft space, and trying to build a minimum of 6'x6' loft, 8'x8' would be ideal. I don't think you need an aviary that large. They just need enough space to all be out there and get sun at once, as well as enough space for a few of them to be out there and flap their wings. Another consideration about your aviary is that it looks to be touching the ground. I would recommend an aviary that is attached to the loft and free floats from the ground. This keeps predators and pests out. Another issue with such a large aviary is that if you ever need to grab your birds, they will fly into that aviary and you will have a tough time catching them.

The picture below is my (too) small 4'x4' loft, with an aviary that is considered by many to be large (not too large, just could be smaller and still be sufficient). NOTE: that aviary opening I made WAY too big, and have since made it much smaller to prevent drafts.... Something to keep in mind when you build your loft. The aviary opening should be just large enough for two birds to walk into, or one bird to fly into, so probably about 8"x12" approximately.

For buying squeakers, try this page. Enter your state and look up who sells homers and just start giving people a call. Might take some trial and error, but it beats wasting money on expensive online purchases that may not even end up being worth it. Many may not be breeding during the winter, but you never know. Come spring, people should have birds though.
http://mumtazticloft.com/PigeonBreeders.asp

 

[Qwerty3159]

Thanks for that link! Being in the smallest state I don't seem to have lots of local options but I'm not getting birds anytime soon anyway, I'm going to get the actual construction all done first. Admittedly I wanted to keep the loft the size it was in order to buy the smallest amount of 4x8 plywood sheets but whatever is better for the birds. Also typo on my part lol, I meant less than 10 birds.
I hear what you're saying about the aviary being on the larger side, I'll probably trim it down a lot. If the floor of the aviary was also covered in hardware cloth would it still not be safe? I mainly wanted it to touch the ground so I could put some sand or something down for easy cleanup and also so that I could step inside it for whatever reason.

 

[LamarshFish]

I meant less than 10 birds.

10 or less will do just fine in a loft like you have planned. I would just caution that many more than that runs the risk of them not being too comfortable, which leads to fly aways, stress and even disease.

I would also caution, that while you might think you only want a few now, to be ready to get addicted and want way more. After a huge time investment building my loft this past spring, only 8 months later I've already found myself facing the prospect of building a bigger loft this coming spring lol. Not just for the space and more birds, but also to have at least two loft sections. Many fanciers have 3 sections. I think for training flying birds a loft with at least two sections is wise because it allows you to train and fly young squeakers ONLY, and not run the risk of an older bird flying with young squeakers and leading them off to get lost. Very common problem.

Once you get your loft built you'll want to read up on care and training. I found this free resource very helpful, it is an only US Army manual, just print it out and read it when you have time. https://ia801207.us.archive.org/10/items/1945TM11-410/1945TM11-410.pdf

 

[biophiliac]

Thanks for that link! Being in the smallest state I don't seem to have lots of local options but I'm not getting birds anytime soon anyway, I'm going to get the actual construction all done first. Admittedly I wanted to keep the loft the size it was in order to buy the smallest amount of 4x8 plywood sheets but whatever is better for the birds. Also typo on my part lol, I meant less than 10 birds.
I hear what you're saying about the aviary being on the larger side, I'll probably trim it down a lot. If the floor of the aviary was also covered in hardware cloth would it still not be safe? I mainly wanted it to touch the ground so I could put some sand or something down for easy cleanup and also so that I could step inside it for whatever reason.

Because in your first post you mentioned you might not fly your birds too often I think an aviary of the size you mention is a good idea. Some pigeon keepers do use walk-in aviarys and in that case a hardware cloth apron should be used to prevent predators from gaining access like for chicken runs. Your climate and other factors may affect your choices. In warm climates especially fanciers like to keep the birds up off the ground. In your area New England I don't think it's too risky to have your aviary set on the ground, certainly more comfortable for you to enter. Plus if you ever have to keep a breeding pair as prisoners it would allow a bit of exercise. JMO