Kalkbl's Modified Red Rose Loft 8x6..

[Kalkbl]

OK, Time to change house.
As you know from the previous posts I went with Perch boxes with a angled floor for my birds.

What a mistake! The poop does not roll out the back and fall down, And scraping backward away from you just clogs up the back slot and makes a bigger mess.

After all the sickness and losses from flying, I am down to 16 birds
I have 3 sets that have paired up, One of which laid eggs on the floor but would not sit on them, They just went back to the perch box and abandoned the eggs. Left them in the loft for 7 days to see if they would go back to them, Then tossed them.

Point of the post is now I have a little experience cleaning my loft and what I like and dislike.

So I have designed a new set of Perch boxes.

First they will be 12x12x12 but when you pull out a center divider they will convert to 12x24x12 for more room for a nesting pair and can have a nest front put on them to make a closed nesting box.

Also the floors are removable so they can be lifted out and scraped away from you face and down into a bucket. A big plus for me!

Will have spare floors so when you have a real mess or want to disinfect you just slap a clean floor in and a then have time to clean and dry the dirty one.

There will be 32 perch boxes or can be set to have as many as 12 nest boxes and as 8 perch boxes, Or any combination. Plus I have 20 stick perches in the loft also.

Pictures to come

[Shadybug Lofts]

This is a great idea.

First they will be 12x12x12 but when you pull out a center divider they will convert to 12x24x12 for more room for a nesting pair and can have a nest front put on them to make a closed nesting box.

Now all you need is a slat floor

[Kalkbl]

if I ever get a drill press I may try to make a slat floor.

But you still have to scrape those too.

There is a lot of things I have not attempted to make because no drill press.

[TN_PIGEON]

Originally Posted by Kalkbl

if I ever get a drill press I may try to make a slat floor.

But you still have to scrape those too.

There is a lot of things I have not attempted to make because no drill press.

You can get a light duty one for about $125 (maybe even cheaper if you catch one on sale).

Then again, the kids at the local high school might be able to help you out (i remember kids in shop class doing that sorta thing to raise a lil money). Who knows...you might even be able to introduce one of them to the hobby of pigeons.

[ptras]

Originally Posted by TN_PIGEON

You can get a light duty one for about $125 (maybe even cheaper if you catch one on sale).

Then again, the kids at the local high school might be able to help you out (i remember kids in shop class doing that sorta thing to raise a lil money). Who knows...you might even be able to introduce one of them to the hobby of pigeons.

I just checked the tools section of Craigslist, and there are 90 drill presses for sale in the Boston area ranging in price from $15 to $2,400.

[Shadybug Lofts]

I think i payed 3 dollars for my drill press at a yard sale. They have yard sales in our area every weekend it a big thing. We go every Saturday morning. The economy is so bad people are selling everything cheap. I have seen people set out half of the things in there house just to try to make a house payment.

Originally Posted by ptras

I just checked the tools section of Craigslist, and there are 90 drill presses for sale in the Boston area ranging in price from $15 to $2,400.

drill pressses arent all they are cracked out to be so only buy the cheapest one you can find and make sure it works before you buy one lol

[Kalkbl]

Will take a look for a used one. Work has been really rough. Trying to get the time to get my boxes built. Only got a couple of hrs to build so far.

[Kalkbl]

Finally made it home from work before Dark.
Here are some pictures of the new boxes I made..

Again they can be as small as 12x12x12. Or be opened up to 12x24x12 or even 24x24x12

All the floors except the bottom of the structure lift out for easy scraping.
Notice the egg out side of a nest Bowl!! They love to torture me.

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[Shadybug Lofts]

I just had 2 born in a nest they built beside the nest bowl.

[Kalkbl]

Yeah what is up with that? Don't they know we are trying to help them.
I am sure by the time I build my third set for this loft I will have a good idea of what will work.
Right now it is a starter loft and I am learning as I go along.

Do you move the babies or just leave them out of a bowl?

[sreeshs]

I once took the egg and put it back in nest bowl, the hen layed the second egg in the bowl and hatched the squabs in the nest bowl. I should also say that pair of breeders were one of the average tamed ones.

[NJM52002]

Keith, it Peter with the weimeraner. Nice loft. I really wish I made mine wider. Mine is so tight at the 4ft. Let me know when you want and we can go see the other guy I know in TR. He also said he would go to your house and check your birds.

[Shadybug Lofts]

Originally Posted by Kalkbl

Yeah what is up with that? Don't they know we are trying to help them.
I am sure by the time I build my third set for this loft I will have a good idea of what will work.
Right now it is a starter loft and I am learning as I go along.

Do you move the babies or just leave them out of a bowl?

They raised them where they were .There about to leave the nest soon.

[Kalkbl]

Gary
Did you notice I added a face board across top this time to keep them from going up there. You were right on that too, Nothing like scraping poop off something at eye level, Nasty.

I got 3 sets of birds that laid eggs and only 1 set that is even sitting on theirs. the others both only had 1 egg instead of 2 and are not sitting on them at all that I see.

The whole problem with this hobby is I thought I could get away with 1 6x8 loft. Now it looks like I will need another one to make a old bird section and a young bird section. Then divide the 6x8 into a breeder loft where you can separate Hens from Cocks.

This one open loft stuff is madness, Fighting, mating when ever they want to who ever they want it is chaos.