Loft Advice

[learning]

O.K. folks here goes. I think a little background is neccessary here. I am starting back into racing after about a 30 year hiatus from the sport. My goals are not just to become a successful flyer but also to become a skilled and consistent breeder of the highest quality birds possible. Right now, I am at the construction stage for my loft. The plan below is the result of about a dozen other attempts. My lot is layed out in the middle of dense woods so I have had to remove about 20 trees. The lot is sloped so I will be building the whole thing on a platform. It will be about 12 inches off the ground in the back and about 7 feet high in the front. The roof will be white translucent roofing to maximize the natural light. Ventilation will be from grated panels in the floor and vents out the back of the roof. I will have exhaust fans in the ceiling to increase circulation as needed.

The "L" shaped design is because of the shape of my lot. I don't have a lot of available space on the sides. The large breeding area will hold up to 24 pairs of breeders. The three individual breeding pens will be for special pairs that I must be sure there is no accidental out breeding. I could also use these areas for issolation or quaratine areas if needed. Next to the individual pens is an area for the breeding hens during the off season. All of these breeding areas have access to and aviary that is 4 feet wide and 6 feet high. The racing side consists of the widowhood hens section followed be the actual widowhood loft that will have 24 boxes. Next comes a section that I am reserving for some white birds as my wife is interested in getting into the dove release business for weddings and funerals and such. The young birds get three sections The outside two so I can separate the sexes and the middle section as a "playpen" so I can use it as and extra motivator as the season goes on. All of the racing sections have access to a 4 foot wide landing board/aviary. Some folks call this a California Style landing board. There is an 8 foot deck that goes around the front of the loft.

Now, before everybody says I am crazy and that this is way overboard, let me explain. Once this is built, I will not be in a position to add on to anything. Local ordinances dictate that I am allowed only one additional out building and that it can not exceed 900 square feet. Because of this I am forced to plan ahead for all of my future needs now. I realize that this loft will sit mostly empty for several years as I build my own family of birds, but I really have no choice. O.K. now with all that it mind, go ahead and chew it up for me. What do you folks think I could do better or different to maximize the health and well being of my birds? I would really appreciate any advice here. Like I mentioned earlier I have already been through about a dozen drafts so one or two more won't hurt!

Thanks In Advance,

Dan
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[Lovebirds]

Hello Dan...............I don't think you've gone overboard at all. You are doing exactly what every fancier should do if they have the means and that's PLAN AHEAD. And it sounds like you've done just that. Don't know if you've been to our web site and seen our loft (sorta sounds like maybe you have LOL). Our biggest mistake was not planning for the OB race team, therefore forcing us to have to build another loft a year after finishing the big one. I'll tell you from our experience what we would do different if we could. One, there is a section for every breeder and flyer that we have but we really don't have anywhere to put "extra" birds. I would love to have a building or section to just throw any extra birds we have in. Wouldn't matter about separating sexes or anything, just one more extra space. Here is one reason why......our widowhood loft will hold 15 pairs of birds. We have 10 pairs right now and are flying our last race today so I anticipate ending the OB season with 10 pair. We have 75 young birds. Surely to goodness we'll have more than 10 birds left at the end of the YB season. Now the dilemna............suppose we have 25 or 30 left? What do we do with all those birds? I know a lot of fanciers would say "get rid of some" but I have a hard time doing that. Maybe you won't and so you may not face the problem. I could give away/sell a few but 20 birds? And then you face it again the next season and the next. One other thing, you're pictures are a little small and hard to make out but I can get the gist of them. Are all of your aviaries across the back of the loft? What direction is that? The reason I ask is that our individual breeding pens are across the back of the loft facing NW. We raise Jan, Feb and March babies. When that north wind starts blowing, it's cold as heck in our loft and that wind just blows right through. Many days, I have to close up the back of the loft, which cuts down on some ventilation and the birds HATE being locked in like that. Just a thought. Other than those two things, I think you've pretty much got it covered. Any chance of making your pics bigger? My husband tried saving them and enlarging, but it distorted the pics so that didn't work.

[learning]

Yea, I must admit your loft and a few others did influence me quite a bit. I just love your site by the way. As far as the aviaries accross the back, they face NW but the entire loft site is cut out of a dense forest so there are dense trees back there that act as a wind barrier. Also, we have our cold nights down here but I don't think we would get near as much bad weather as you would in Virginia.

As far as the picture size goes, I really struggled with how to do this. This site restricts the size of the attachments so I had to reduce the size of the pictures to accomidate that. How do you suggest I can improve on this? The original photos are about 1 meg.

Anyway, thanks so much for your suggestions and keep updating your site. I visit it every day!

Dan

[Lovebirds]

The only thing I know to do with the pictures is not shrink them as much. One other thing I forgot to mention is this...........when we built our loft, we put in the three YB sections for the same reason you mentioned. Our first year flying, we had the sexes separated and tried the "motivation" thing the first three races. Didn't work..... . Don't know if you've been to the Red Rose site or not but Steve and Linda came down here the fourth week end and Steve gave us some good pointers cause to be honest, we didn't have a clue..LOL. Our first three races we were at the bottom of the sheet. Steve said, "Renee, put those YB's together and let them do what they want to do". I did, and that week end we won our first race. We went on to win one more race and got two second places. He told us that trying a "widowhood" system on YB's is to hard on them. Sort of like teenage boys, instead of young adult men. They don't have the control or whatever. So, since then, we've never used the three sections for what they were intended for. Just have LOTS of room for the YB's. I'm not saying don't fly your YB's this way because a lot of fanciers do and it's works for them. It just didn't work for us and was really a whole lot of extra work. Because we raise such early birds, they do start mating and laying eggs way before race season starts so we have that to contend with but it's worked ok for us. If you haven't been to the RED Rose web site, have a look. www.redroselofts.com

[Trees Gray]

Originally Posted by learning

As far as the picture size goes, I really struggled with how to do this. This site restricts the size of the attachments so I had to reduce the size of the pictures to accomidate that. How do you suggest I can improve on this? The original photos are about 1 meg.
Dan

Actually, this site allows a maximum of 100 kb's, which is much larger then the pics posted. Try to reduce your pics down less then you did before.

[learning]

Both of the pictures are right at 100 kb. I tried not reducing them as much but the site wouldn't take them. Sorry for the fuzzy pictures.

Dan

[Trees Gray]

Try uploading them seperately.

[learning]

Sorry, no luck. It still won't upload.

[learning]

Let me try this. I saved the image as a JPEG instead of a bitmap. Hopefully this will be better.
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[Trees Gray]

Yep, that is one of the file types that can be uploade, sorry I didn't mention that.

think you are going to have some very happy birds when they move in!

I love the design and the fact that you are building for the amount of pigeons you are GOING to have, not the amount you are STARTING with.

[learning]

Thanks for the kind words Tereesa. I really don't have a choice. If I don't plan ahead I will be sunk in 5 years. The one thing that seems to be universal from every article I have read and every fancier I have talked to is DON'T OVERCROUD YOUR BIRDS! With this plan I should be able to raise about 70-80 young birds per year, keep 24 pair of widowers, and keep about 26 or 27 pair in the stock lofts. With these numbers it should give each bird about 2 square feet of floor space. The articles I have read talk about no less than 1 1/2 square feet. I would rather error on the side of conservatism. Besides, that is more than enough birds to keep me busy!

Thanks Again,

Dan

[Lovebirds]

That is very nice. Can't wait to see it completed.

No aviary for the widowhood loft?

[learning]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. The widowers will actually have the entire far end of the main landing board/aviary. They will trap through the far trap in the doll house view. If you folks can think of anything else please feel free to comment.

Thanks Again,

Dan

[hillfamilyloft]

Looks like a great plan. I was not a fortunate as you. My wife did not see the need for such an investment. I have made the most out of my converted goat pen. The only suggestions that I could make is maybe to make some of the walls removable partitions. This would allow you to keep your outside structure intact and allow you to move internal walls. This could allow you to alter your flying sections as needed. May use removable doweled partitions. This could allow you to have larger sections when needed, ie. young birds. you could also make alterations to the loft without getting a building permit. I have seen a trend from many to go to individual breeding pens. Your plan has only three. Just a thought. Lovebirds is a great site with great lofts. Try and make things as self cleaning as you can. Looks like a potential for a lot of poop. I have a dozen pairs and that is plenty of birds for me. Keep fewer birds and you could live in one of the sections when the wife kicks you out of the house. Ha Ha
Randy Hill
hillfamilyloft

[learning]

You make several good points, especially the one about the wife! Actually she is all for it. She is fascinated by the dove release business and I figure if it helps buy a bag of feed here or there, all the better. The poop issue will be dealt with by use of the Red Rose Lofts plan of the "poop shoots". All of the boxes and perches will have drawers to catch the crap so to speak, and raised grid floors so the birds won't be walking around in it all the time. Also, whatever does get to the floor is the responsibility of my 10 year old son! Just kidding, I know it will be work no matter how I set it up.

At least it will be mostly empty for the first few years, (I will be starting with just a few pairs), so I can get used to how things will work out. You are not the first person to mention the moveable partition idea, (huh Warren!). That is something I am definitely looking into. Thanks for the great suggestions!

P.S. If you haven't checked out Red Rose Lofts site you should do it. Great lofts with some neat ideas and articles.

Dan