Pigeon Talk

[CCUK]

Somebody's going crazy with their brand new fancy GoPro camera

edit - that bath is too dirty imo.

Haven't they got skinny legs! I like the background music ! Something about it makes it funny!

 

[Serin]

Olive started molting, from the increased indoor day length I'm sure - I guess I figured pigeons molt a few feathers all the time like parakeets but clearly that is not the case because she is dropping enough every day to make a new pigeon. How long does the molt period last?

 

[Qwerty3159]

What do you all use for the floor in your lofts and why?
I opted for hardware cloth when I built mine thinking it would be easy to clean but frankly I'm having tons of issues with stuff getting stuck in it, especially feathers. I'm also not a huge fan of the little molehills of pigeon crap its creating. I've been thinking about building a tray to go underneath when it warms up a bit but I'm still not sure what to do about the mesh getting clogged.

This is what I have right now. That slanted board in the back is because the inside frame of the floor is 2x4's which the wire is stapled onto, however when the poop falls in between the mesh and wood it is impossible to scrape off so I leaned that board up to mitigate the problem.

 

[WVduckchick]

What do you all use for the floor in your lofts and why?
I opted for hardware cloth when I built mine thinking it would be easy to clean but frankly I'm having tons of issues with stuff getting stuck in it, especially feathers. I'm also not a huge fan of the little molehills of pigeon crap its creating. I've been thinking about building a tray to go underneath when it warms up a bit but I'm still not sure what to do about the mesh getting clogged.

This is what I have right now. That slanted board in the back is because the inside frame of the floor is 2x4's which the wire is stapled onto, however when the poop falls in between the mesh and wood it is impossible to scrape off so I leaned that board up to mitigate the problem.

How about an ice scraper or hoe to scrape across the mesh? Is the area underneath used for anything? Looks like you could sit a tote or pan of some sort under there to collect the droppings and could be dumped.

I decided against wire, mine are in a pen with dirt ground. I add straw or leaves occasionally. When it’s dry and hard, I sweep or rake the ground, haven’t had too much build up yet to have to remove any.

 

[backyard pigeons]

What do you all use for the floor in your lofts and why?
I opted for hardware cloth when I built mine thinking it would be easy to clean but frankly I'm having tons of issues with stuff getting stuck in it, especially feathers. I'm also not a huge fan of the little molehills of pigeon crap its creating. I've been thinking about building a tray to go underneath when it warms up a bit but I'm still not sure what to do about the mesh getting clogged.

This is what I have right now. That slanted board in the back is because the inside frame of the floor is 2x4's which the wire is stapled onto, however when the poop falls in between the mesh and wood it is impossible to scrape off so I leaned that board up to mitigate the problem.

I have solid wood floors. But I put pine needles on the bottom to scrape out. It works pretty well. I'm building another loft and it's gonna be dirt floor like @WVduckchick .

 

[backyard pigeons]

Oops. We posted over each other

 

[Qwerty3159]

How about an ice scraper or hoe to scrape across the mesh?
I decided against wire, mine are in a pen with dirt ground. I add straw or leaves occasionally. When it’s dry and hard, I sweep or rake the ground, haven’t had too much build up yet to have to remove any.

I do scrape across it when I scrape the perches and the poop board but the paint scrapers I use don't quite cut it on the mesh. I'm thinking maybe I'll try a grill brush or something.
I've seen the dirt floor in yours which I quite like, however that isn't really an option for me right now.

I have solid wood floors. But I put pine needles on the bottom to scrape out. It works pretty well. I'm building another loft and it's gonna be dirt floor like @WVduckchick .

How do you like the solid wood floors? For the first day or two that I had my squeakers and they weren't all perching I laid some pieces of wood down for them so they didn't have to sleep on the mesh floor and I found that a lot of them ended up tracking the poop everywhere and getting covered in it. I was thinking I might try and cut a piece of plywood to lay over the floor and test out how I feel about cleaning it. I like the pine needle idea and I have no shortage of them either.

 

[biophiliac]

@Qwerty3159 I use a solid floor without bedding and scrape it daily except in winter when it freezes solid. I wait for a thaw to scrape then. Sometimes in very cold spells I'll put some bedding down. It only takes a few minutes to scrape the 6x4 loft.

If you'd like to use a wire floor I think you need 1"x1" squares so that most of the feathers can fall through. You said you used hardware cloth - was that 1/4" or 1/2"? When using wire it's still nice to put some wood down like you did.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Maybe... She just NEEDS to get some pigeons and soon

Maybe I should resort to tantrums..

 

[WVduckchick]

I got some cool shots of Skye this morning