Build, Buy or Converting a shed into a Pigeon Loft

So in my first post I gave a bit of background information into how I got started in pigeon racing. Now I'll talk about how I did it, with a focus on the loft. It might not be the way other people would do it and I don't doubt there are better ways. So I'll just give a report on what I've done so far. Full disclosure, I've had got two young birds (YBs) that I've had less than a week.

Firstly, I found a local club to join. If you don't have Facebook (because you're either too young/cool or too old), ask someone who does and get them to ask in the pigeon racing groups on your behalf. I looked on the RPRA website for regional contact details, but I found speaking directly to the local club was the best option. I was invited to meet the club at the pub, always a bonus, and I made the effort to go along.

I watched as much content as I could on YouTube. There are some great channels that give you an idea of what's involved and importantly, loft lay outs.

I read books. Most of them are old and obsolete, but much of the theory is still the same. It gave me something to do whilst I was waiting to get my own birds and helped me to get to grips with the terminology. It also made me think about how to future proof the design of my loft. 

Buy or build a loft? If you have the money and/or don't have the time, you can buy a ready built pigeon loft. Most suppliers will install it for you too. However, this isn't cheap. Considering my aim with this blog is to encourage more people with families (and so likely time poor) to take up pigeon racing, I think I'll revisit this particular option when I have more useful advice.

Alternatively you can buy a new or second hand shed and convert it to a pigeon loft. This is a good idea if you're just starting out as you won't need a breeding loft to begin with. Most likely you will be gifted or you will buy some young birds and these can all live together for their first year. 

I decided to build my own loft because I wanted it to be a specific size and shape to fit the area of my garden. It also meant I could build and pay for it over a few months. I have an area of my garden that overlooks my house and my house overlooks it. It's under the cover of some neighbouring trees which isn't ideal, and it's north facing too unfortunately. 

The general rule seems to be 1 pigeon per 2 square feet. So how many racing pigeons should I have? Below are numbers for common loft/shed sizes.

6ft x 4ft shed/loft = 12 birds

8ft x 6ft  shed/loft = 24 birds

12ft x 8ft shed/loft = 48 birds

Most people seem to think that you need at least 24 young birds to make a race team. It's likely that I will lose some throughout the year due to hawk, peregrine and cat predation. Birds get lost, they die from illness and young bird sickness. These appear to be the biggest causes of losses. So if I lost 1 or 2 birds per month, I'll have between 0 and 12 birds left at the end of the year. As I'm a complete novice I expect to lose more than most.

So my loft size is determined by the space on my garden, 11ft by 8 ft means I can fit 44 birds comfortably. I designed a partition wall into the loft, mostly so that it would support the roof. But it has the handy consequence of being able to divide the loft into two sections. This will be helpful as some of the young birds I'm expecting will be arriving at different times and ages, and it's good to try and keep those of the same age together.

All in I think the loft has cost about £800 in materials plus my time. Although I've still got a bit left to do.

For the flooring I've used OSB as I had some laying around from the house extension. Ideally I would have used plywood as it has a smoother surface to make scraping easier. However, I can always add a thin layer of plywood on top of the OSB in the future.

The walls are 22mm tongue and groove and the frame is 4x2 CLS. For the roof I've used bitumen sheets as I thought metal corrugated roofing would have too much condensation. Some people have metal roofing and it's fine, so I might upgrade to that in the future.

The door is a sliding door that I made from the left of tongue and groove. It took about 30 minutes to make and is a really simple design (see pictures).

For the aviary I just build it as I went. I tried to create a drawing for the whole loft but I struggle to stick to plans like that so I just built and changed as I went. I'm relatively happy with it so far but do need to smarted in up in areas.

I went along to the Doncaster pigeon show and bought some feeders, drinkers and bob wires. I installed the bob wires above the roof of the aviary which doubles as a landing pad. I need to give more thought into how this will work in conjunction with the ETS sensor pad. For now it is blocked with an unsightly piece of OSB.

For the perches I've just used V perches. These are easy to install and help prevent the hens from pairing up between themselves (apparently lesbianism is rife in the pigeon world).

The whole structure is sat in some brick pillars and railway sleepers. Everyone seems to advise to raise the loft off the ground. Presumably for ventilation, reduce damp and prevent rats and mice from moving in.