Ideas for keeping poop off the top of nesting house

[purslanegarden]

I had made a typical chicken-style nest box out of plywood (around 12" square) Now in retrospect, it is bigger than it needs to be for a pigeon but I'm using it anyway because it's available and it doesn't look half-bad for first time so I didn't want to not use it. It was supposed to hang outside one of the walls with easy hinged-roof access to the nest, but now that it's getting cold and the pigeons may be creating a 2nd nest soon, I just had to put it in as is, directly into the coop.

Now that it is in the coop, the pigeons are resting on it and pooping on the roof.

That uglifies the previously nice-looking nest box. What do you do to keep poopage off the (flat) roof? Should I layer something on it that can be easily removed / cleaned or just accept that anything inside a pigeon coop will get pigeon crap on it? Eg I thought a shower curtain could be sprayed with water easily to clean it.

I have just 2 birds, just for fun. They recently hatched up a pair of babies so I'm preparing for when they might start creating the 2nd nest for another batch.

Thanks!

 

[junebuggena]

Accept that anything in a pigeon coop is going to get poop on it. It's just the reality of keeping pigeons.

 

[Jimmybeam01]

i put boards at a 45 degree angle on top of the nesting boxes, steel works as well. so when they crap on it most the time it rolls off onto the floor.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Put a board on it that slants up steep enough they can't stand on it without just sliding off. That's what we do with our nest and our chickens.

 

[LamarshFish]

I had made a typical chicken-style nest box out of plywood (around 12" square) Now in retrospect, it is bigger than it needs to be for a pigeon but I'm using it anyway because it's available and it doesn't look half-bad for first time so I didn't want to not use it. It was supposed to hang outside one of the walls with easy hinged-roof access to the nest, but now that it's getting cold and the pigeons may be creating a 2nd nest soon, I just had to put it in as is, directly into the coop.

Now that it is in the coop, the pigeons are resting on it and pooping on the roof.

That uglifies the previously nice-looking nest box. What do you do to keep poopage off the (flat) roof? Should I layer something on it that can be easily removed / cleaned or just accept that anything inside a pigeon coop will get pigeon crap on it? Eg I thought a shower curtain could be sprayed with water easily to clean it.

I have just 2 birds, just for fun. They recently hatched up a pair of babies so I'm preparing for when they might start creating the 2nd nest for another batch.

Thanks!

First of all, while I think a 12x12" nest box will probably work (only because pigeons are very industrious and are good at making do with what they have), I think that is generally too small for a pigeon nest box. I think something more like 16" deep, 16" tall and 20-24" wide, is more ideal.

As far as the poop goes, my recommendation would be to simply scrape it as often as needed to keep you happy. Otherwise, I don't think some poop stacked up will bother your birds, so long as your loft is generally clean and not too much poop and moisture accumulates.

You can try to put angled boards up as recommended above, but just know that any small surface that they find they can stand on, they will, and they will poop. You can put bird spikes on it instead (strips of metal they sell with little prongs sticking up which keep birds from landing where they are placed), but I personally wouldn't do that in my loft because I would be concerned with them potentially hurting themselves.

My feeder is wood and has a flat top that opens for me to put their feed in, and my birds crap on it all the time, I just scrape it off when I scrape out the perches and nest boxes, which should be done several times a week anyways.

 

[Hokum Coco]

What do you do to keep poopage off the (flat) roof?

If fesible I would attach nylon mesh bags on top of nest boxes, When a bag gets soiled pop out the soiled and pop in another. Poop just peels off in below freezing temperatures and just flakes off when left out in the sun to bake and dry. It is the best method I have stumbled upon in my 67 trips around the sun.

Oh remove the excess string from the open end of the bag it can get tangled in your birds legs and wings. Easy Peasy Japaneasy.

 

[purslanegarden]

Thanks for the info. Just 2 days later and there is already a particularly large pile of poo in one spot. Even though the nest roof is larger but it seems like the one pigeon likes sitting in the same spot so the poop accumulates all together there.

Thanks for the nest measurements up above. I thought 12"x12" was too large because I saw so many videos of people using a container or saucer that is just barely larger than the pigeon.

I'll go a little bigger for the next version.

 

[jak2002003]

Hello.

Why not just fix up the nest box up flush with the celling.. so there is no gap on top for them to sit on?