Beginner to Pigeons!

[Qwerty3159]

Also ended up making some edits to the loft plan when I began designing the interior. At first I had the front side with the doors and such looking like this

But I've changed it to this to fit some nest boxes and for functionality. I decided that the 18"x2' doors were too awkward for me to be able to reach a bird/nest box near the top of the loft, so I changed them to two 1'6"x3' doors.

It has 4 nest boxes, 1 foot off the floor of the loft and one foot below the ceiling of the loft. Each is a foot deep and 18" wide. I suppose there is technically room for 2 more nest boxes on top of them as well but i was planning on just leaving a shelf there. The short horizontal lines are 9 perches on the back wall above the aviary door and below the vent, which I've downsized from a 5'x1' strip to a 3'x6" strip. There are 4 perches on the side wall with the trap door and more could probably fit, for a grand total of 14 perches with 4 (or 6) nest boxes.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Sorry, another question!
Are the little fronts with doors I see some people have on their boxes necessary? And are my 18x12 boxes large enough?

 

[LamarshFish]

Sorry, another question!
Are the little fronts with doors I see some people have on their boxes necessary? And are my 18x12 boxes large enough?

The nest box fronts serve a few purposes. They are used to confine breeding pairs when fanciers want to compel two birds to pair up. They are also used to give birds who have claimed the nest box the ability to better defend the nest box in the sense that there is only a small door opening to the nest box, so it is easier for them to keep birds out of it and avoid confrontations. Last, and perhaps most importantly, they protect the young squabs from falling out of the nest box prematurely.

That all being said, they are not totally necessary. I would install them if you have the time and resources to monkey around with it, but if not, don't worry about it. I have noticed that they do just fine without the nest box fronts, they are fine in my loft and I have been to several lofts without them and the birds do fine and raise squabs just fine. I have even seen birds making nests and raising squabs successfully in spots of lofts that are not even nest boxes, and don't forget, ferals make nests and raise squabs under bridges. If you don't want to go full out and build the full nest box fronts, but still want to reduce the possibility of squabs falling out, consider simply tacking on a 2x2" piece on the front of the nest box floor to reduce the likelihood of squabs falling out.

I will say, however, that the ability to lock a few birds in that you may not want to fly for whatever reason, being that you refuse to risk losing them, or maybe you don't want them flying because they are sitting on eggs or raising squabs, it is nice to have the option to simply lock them in a nest box.

Just my two cents. I was new to pigeons this past spring, so maybe some more experienced folks will chime in and add to this or correct anything I may have misstated.