Gun Dog Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm working on my first pigeon loft right now and will have young birds in it this time next week. Right now, I understand feeding 1 time a day is the best bet so they get into a routine and will trap easily. I plan to keep the birds in it for 4 weeks before doing any type of flying. I didn't go with the typical bob style traps but rather used the belgium drop trap.

I've heard guys say that you need to make a settling cage for the landing board when training the pigeons to use traps, but I've also heard people say you don't want to scare them while young.

What's worked for you when teaching birds to come back home and enter the loft?

I always use bobs. with my own young birds, I just let them start going in and out with the bobs up. Then start dropping the Bobs one at a time until they learn to go in and out. If these are young birds you bought from someone else, you may need a cage to get them used to coming back in.
I am not familiar with a Belgium trap............Cj

cjhills wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 03, 2025 11:52 am

I always use bobs. with my own young birds, I just let them start going in and out with the bobs up. Then start dropping the Bobs one at a time until they learn to go in and out. If these are young birds you bought from someone else, you may need a cage to get them used to coming back in.
I am not familiar with a Belgium trap............Cj

Thanks. Sounds like catching them when in the loft wouldn’t be a problem then? Some folks have said not to push them out or scare them but I’ve also seen guys who physically put birds through the traps so just wanting to do my due diligence

I may have misunderstood.
With young birds I buy, that are flying, I put a crate outside of the bobs so they can go out and look around and come back in. I don't push them out. Once they learn to go out, I start dropping the bobs when they are out so they learn to come in through them.
With my own young birds they learn to leave the loft on their own and come back through the bobs. It helps if they are hungry..........Cj

I put free swinging bobs between my loft and the aviary so they get used to going through them.

that is a good plan. I always thought of that but never did it.........Cj

RutCrazed wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 04, 2025 10:10 am

I put free swinging bobs between my loft and the aviary so they get used to going through them.

Good idea. That would require another opening in the wall to the aviary since there’s no way for them to fly out of this type of trap. I figure they’d probably just use the easy way and scrap any attempt at learning the trap if I did that though. I read that the birds learn the Belgium drop traps pretty quickly so that’s why I went this route. First loft though, so I’m learning a lot of things along the way. Already have ideas on what I’d do different for the next one

From what I now understand, catching them and putting them into a settling cage on the landing board to learn the trap won’t have any ill effects. Just don’t want to actually scare them out of the loft before flying

I'll admit I haven't used a settling cage or done any training but so far I'm 100% on birds returning to the loft. They figured out the drop trap very quickly with no hesitations. If anyone is building a loft, I would really consider this option as it can be easily made out of scrap.

Question for the more experienced pigeon guys

I had great success with birds returning until recently when I started using them for training. The one day they were only used in the yard around the loft, and I had 9/10 back by the evening. 2 days later, I let them out to loft fly and 2 birds separated from the flock and never returned. I'm down to 7 of the original 10, and the 3 that are gone were returning from 1-3 miles prior to losing them. I expected some loss, but when I had 10/10 after flying and distance training, I imagined I would be in the clear. It's been over a week now so I'd be awfully surprised if they returned

Given how they were homing consistently, was me going into the loft and catching them what changed their minds about the place? I turkey and waterfowl hunt quite a bit and its always a rule to give the roost some distance. I'm thinking I over did it that week and some birds left. Could also have been predators but it seems too coincidental

I don't know why, but over the years I have lost a good number of pigeons that just left. This is especially true with pigeons that I buy. But also, with birds I hatch. Not sure if other breeders have the same problem. You will lose some a bird occasionally when you fly them. I have had them turn up 200 miles away. I think sometimes they join other flocks. Once in a while I have young birds just fly away and not come back in a flock. I have a small yard surrounded by large trees. Hawks are a problem and maybe that is why they leave. Sometimes with different age groups they fly to far for the younger birds to make it back.
One thing is sure once you let them out it is a crap shoot on whether you see them again.........Cj

Well, the two birds returned after being gone for 2 weeks. I imagine they have a good idea of the surrounding area after their little foray lol.

I have seen the occasional hawk in the yard, but not for a couple weeks and the birds evade them pretty easily. Pretty neat that their instinct is so strong despite living in a loft since they hatched

Either they have a very good knowledge of the lay of the land and will be home right quickly no matter where you release them, or they simply have a wandering spirit and will take off for a "flyabout" whenever the mood strikes them

slistoe wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 23, 2025 2:54 pm

Either they have a very good knowledge of the lay of the land and will be home right quickly no matter where you release them, or they simply have a wandering spirit and will take off for a "flyabout" whenever the mood strikes them

They have always had a bit of a wild side. At least they'll know where home is when ready

This is cool. I am useless at building stuff but finally asked my neighbor to give me a hand in building the coop. I got the plans from Gundog Supply. I found a guy in town who races pigeons I can get homers from and I’m going to try and build some traps and figure that whole thing out far as getting permission to put them on roof tops in town or something and catch some wild birds also. A project I’ve been putting off for a while. Next is that retrieving table with the cable…


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