Gun Dog Forum

Here is how my new loft is coming along. This is a very easy loft to build, more to come. Here is the design and a pic of my other finished loft to show those who haven't seen one finished. P.S. The wood for this loft 1 3/4 inch plywood sheet for floor (preferably treated) 6 sheets of 7/16 chip board and 30 2 x 3's cost me less than 100 dollars. I will be able to complete this loft for under $200 total. Wait til you see my 5gal. bucket "super cheap" breeder boxes. I hope by posting this I can help some people out there take on this project and have a very nice loft for years to come.

http://www.redroselofts.com/starter_loft.htm

There is very detailed instructions on the bottom of this page under "construction step and drawlings".

Here is my other finished loft this will be different than the one I am building here but not much.



The floor

Front wall, end walls, and aviary sides on.

Back view.

Aviary on.

Inside

Back on

Hey does it fit through the door Them pigeons wont home to well inside the garage Looks good you must have a strong back or equipment to move that.

It is a tall garage door. I think 9 feet high. This loft can be moved by 4 guys pretty easy when it is finished.

Don't laugh. I built a "brick outhouse" of a dog house once, heavily insulated and with a foyer for an entrance. Built it in my basement workshop. My wife looked at it, and looked at the doorway, and said, "Will that fit through the door." I won't tell you the rest of the story, too embarrassing. Let's just say it was a good thing the doghouse was not glued together.

Now thats funny right there.

Someone should make a sticky out of this. I see guy's on other forum's ask quite often how to house pigeons.

One question tho. Were is the re-entry door?

This loft will have a trap but the finished one I have already is just a breeding loft so they are prisioners.

Anybody have trouble with mink getting into your loft. I left for Michigan for a grouse trip and my wife called the next day and said everyone of my birds in the new loft I just completed were dead. Seems the little critters got in under the door and just had a field day. I have not re-filled the loft. Tried to trap the mink but no luck. Thanks.

Now, that's one fancy and contemporary pigeon loft!!!!!

Dawitner wrote:Anybody have trouble with mink getting into your loft. I left for Michigan for a grouse trip and my wife called the next day and said everyone of my birds in the new loft I just completed were dead. Seems the little critters got in under the door and just had a field day. I have not re-filled the loft. Tried to trap the mink but no luck. Thanks.

Don't sound like your door fit's tight enough. Got a photo? My old loft has a door inside a door. Inside is a screen (chicken wire) door and the outside door is tight fitting. I also don't have mink here.

Mink have got into my large flight pen before "it is not as varmit proof as I would like" but they never killed everything. That sounds like something else. Coons are known for this. You have to fully predator proof your pen or eventually you will have a problem.

When I was growing up and had chickens, we would get an occasional weasel that would kill for fun. Killed everything in the pen it got into

best of luck.

Weasels and mink kill by slitting the neck so the birds will bleed to death. A coon doesn't do that. You should be able to easily tell the difference.

Ezzy

Yes, it should be easy to tell. Coons love to eat the heads off.

OhioGSp You sure no how to help me spend my income tax check. LOL Im going to have to build one of these

Possum's do the same thing.

Very nice loft. I would like to build one of similar design.

Thanks for all the Pics OhioGSP!

Much appreciated, as it makes my building project a lot smoother. The red rose version is much more complicated.

Oh ya -- And could you please post more pics as you progress towards completion?

I am about 2 days behind ya on my loft... I hate painting.

I hope it will be close to finished this weekend. Then the hard part comes figuring out where I am going to put it.

Thats the same thing I am debating now, where to put it when finished.

More pics it is coming along.

Looking good Ohio

That is really a fine looking coop but how high off the ground is that re-entry door? You are going to put a varmit door on it right? The re-entry door on my big pen is 6' off the ground and I've trapped two cat's inside the pen this year.

It is going to have a wooden flip down door that will close it up tight. When I start having problem with critters I have over a dozen leg holds that get staked out around the pen. They are a very good deteriant.

Don wrote:That is really a fine looking coop but how high off the ground is that re-entry door? You are going to put a varmit door on it right? The re-entry door on my big pen is 6' off the ground and I've trapped two cat's inside the pen this year.

This has been a concern of mine the old one I had varmit door on it. But when I built a larger new one I have not put the re-entry door in yet, as I was wintering them and going to put the door in this spring. Wanted to think about it. Don you say yours is 6 foot off the ground and the cats got into there? What kind of material do you have around it ie sheet metal screen wood? Were I am going is I have about 2 1/2 foot of sheet metal on the bottom then the upper part is screen. Will the cats---=- varmits be able to get in a re-entry door if place it into the screen of this?
What do you think?

Rick

I think they would be able to get in there. Cats can jump very high and can climb screen like it is nothing. If you have a landing board then close the varmit door and put a leg hold trap on there. The way mine is the varmit door is going to fold from the top down and close the trap off. There will still be the 12" x 12" cut out in the front if I put traps there then animals will have no place to step without getting caught. Even if you let the animals go you probably won't have a problem with that one again (scared out of it mind and a sore leg to remember it). P.S. if you live in town this may not be a good idea!!

OH

Couple of questions:

1. Where are you going to locate your new loft?
2. Did you have to get your loft inspected/approved by the DNR in Ohio.

I have 2 lofts already the one in the first pic of this post and a 8 x 16 flight loft. I have had these inspected because I keep gamebirds in the flight loft sometimes. This one is going to be for white homing pigeons for wedding releases. I think this is going to have anouther location "at my dods house" in the country. My other lofts are just across the road from my training grounds "out in the middle of nowhere". For pigeons you don't have to do anything with the DNR just gamebirds. My stuff all gets inspected every year at least by the DNR because I have a training ground permit and a propagation permit.

DKRick wrote:

Don wrote:That is really a fine looking coop but how high off the ground is that re-entry door? You are going to put a varmit door on it right? The re-entry door on my big pen is 6' off the ground and I've trapped two cat's inside the pen this year.

This has been a concern of mine the old one I had varmit door on it. But when I built a larger new one I have not put the re-entry door in yet, as I was wintering them and going to put the door in this spring. Wanted to think about it. Don you say yours is 6 foot off the ground and the cats got into there? What kind of material do you have around it ie sheet metal screen wood? Were I am going is I have about 2 1/2 foot of sheet metal on the bottom then the upper part is screen. Will the cats---=- varmits be able to get in a re-entry door if place it into the screen of this?
What do you think?

Rick

I don't have anything around it but sheet meral would probally work. The best thing I found is to get the re-entry door as far off the ground as you can. But be sure you can reach it to lock out flying preditor's.

Thanks OH,

I know in some states they can be very fickle about keeping any kind of bird outside in a pen. LOL...Especially when you have a nosy neighbor or two :roll:

In most cities here you can't keep pigeons at all. It is the city organinices(SP) that are strict on this stuff.

OH

Where'd did you get the metal roofing? Or is that Aluminum siding your using for the roof?

Thanks

It is just regular barn siding. Not sure I think it is steel. You can buy it anywhere Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, ect.

O.K. here it is the birds seem happy.

Yeah, they look happy and what great looking white ones. Thanks for sharing gave me some ideas.

Rick

Just a hint but as it gets warmer the birds will eat peas instead of the heat producing corn and milo. I can buy a mixture here and it isn't much more than straight corn. Are all of your birds white? YOu will have to start an exhibition business releasing at weddings and funerals. Pretty good money in that. The youngsters look good in the pics. And like the loft.

Ezzy

OH,

Great looking finished coop along with some great looking birds...

The thing I like most about this design is how easy it is to assemble. And the other plus is its very easy to relocate if necessary. Thanks for sharing ....

When it gets warm I take half the corn out then in the middle of summer it has no corn in it mostly canadian and australian peas. Just this one loft is white, it is for releases. Almost all the birds in this loft are YB's there is only 2-3 OB's in there. I usually don't keep the whites for dog training so I didn't have any when I decided to do releases. Thanks for the compliments guys.

Finished my loft last week -- Thanks for all the help OhioGSP...

OhioOnPoint

Nice coop, is that the entry way on the side or a place for the pigeons to hang out?

I was wondering the same thing

It is called a spudnik. It is both. Looks great man.