Pigeon loft - scraping poop off the pavers okay?

[Machoman6666]

I’m in the planning stages of building a pigeon loft and I don’t want to use pine shavings as the bedding because it can become messy when pigeons flap their wings. Is it okay if I line the bottom with 12” square pavers and I can scrape the poop off daily? Or is there another option?

 

[Sir Sacabambaspis]

I’m in the planning stages of building a pigeon loft and I don’t want to use pine shavings as the bedding because it can become messy when pigeons flap their wings. Is it okay if I line the bottom with 12” square pavers and I can scrape the poop off daily? Or is there another option?

For my actual chicken coop I switched to using sand and treating it like a giant litter box. Maybe a metal tray or two under the loft and fill it with sand so when you need to get rid of poop you just take a rake or just a cat litter scooper and shuffle through the sand and find to poop. Also welcome to BYC!!!

 

[Qwerty3159]

Is your loft going to be a mostly enclosed structure with walls and a floor or are you talking like a bare ground and wire aviary?

If you’re building something like this:

Then I strongly recommend some good thick plywood for the floor. Easy to scrape the poop when it’s wet without making a mess, and it’s even easier to scrape dry. If you’re going to have the pigeons actually touching the ground I would say try to go for bare earth or something you can easily take out. Maybe chopped dry leaves, mulch, something like that? They don’t scratch around like chickens so the ground quickly gets loaded up with droppings. I know @WVduckchick has her pigeons in a bare ground setup that works well for her. The key to any clean pigeon housing is to keep it dry.

 

[Machoman6666]

Is your loft going to be a mostly enclosed structure with walls and a floor or are you talking like a bare ground and wire aviary?

If you’re building something like this:
View attachment 3567441
Then I strongly recommend some good thick plywood for the floor. Easy to scrape the poop when it’s wet without making a mess, and it’s even easier to scrape dry. If you’re going to have the pigeons actually touching the ground I would say try to go for bare earth or something you can easily take out. Maybe chopped dry leaves, mulch, something like that? They don’t scratch around like chickens so the ground quickly gets loaded up with droppings. I know @WVduckchick has her pigeons in a bare ground setup that works well for her. The key to any clean pigeon housing is to keep it dry.

That’s a nice looking pigeon cage! Do you know what their dimensions are by any chance? Thanks!

 

[Qwerty3159]

That’s a nice looking pigeon cage! Do you know what their dimensions are by any chance? Thanks!

Not my photo, sorry. I would guess 4 feet wide by 8 feet long, maybe 5 feet high inside.

It is a pretty good example for a basic pigeon loft though which is why I stole it from Reddit