pigeon coop floor

[Pond Creek Farm]

What do you that keep pigeons recommend for the floor?  I have seen lofts with wood and some with screen.  I have no time to clean daily, and really will only be able to clean on the weekends.  I have read, and intuitively understand, that buildup of droppings is unhealthy.  I appreciate your inpute. 

[Brian D. Bray]

What do you that keep pigeons recommend for the floor?  I have seen lofts with wood and some with screen.  I have no time to clean daily, and really will only be able to clean on the weekends.  I have read, and intuitively understand, that buildup of droppings is unhealthy.  I appreciate your inpute. 

There are 2 theroies on cleanliness in pigeon lofts, ultra-clean and deep litter.  The Unltra-clean crowd spend hours keeping the walls and floors spotless.  The deep-litter advocates (me) clean the loft twice a year, before and after racing seaon.  Many are somewhere in between.
IMO, constant mucking out of the loft keeps the birds on edge and hinders their reproduction and even how they feel about their home.  The deep-litter has little disruption within the dovecoot and the birds seem more content and less stressed.  I've successfully resettled birds trained to other lofts, which I don't think would have happened had I kept the birds on edge by constant cleaning.

The primary consideration, regardless of the cleanliness standard, is to maintain a dry loft.  A damp loft breeds disease whether it is clean or not.  A dry deep-litter loft can be disease free. 

I use a 4 inch deep shavings on the floor and rake them over about once a week.  The shavings absorbs the moisture and the loft floor is always dry, even with the waste buildup.  I also scrape the dropping from the perches at that time, but those droppings go into the mulch on the floor.

When I clean the pigeon loft I spread the mulch onto the garden, makes great vegetables come spring and summer.

I you decide to use a screened floor, another option you mentioned, Build the floor far enough off the ground to remove dropping buildup about once a year.  The floor grating will need to be cleaned monthly or so.

Hope this helps.

[Jerrymac]

Don't know about pigeons but in a book about chickens it says use wood shavings, keep it dry and stirred up so there is no crusting, and the birds actually benefits from it. Produces vitamin B I think it is. And there is some sort of micro-environment or something with beneficial bugs and stuff. 

[Pond Creek Farm]

I think I would favor the deep litter method as well given my time constraints if nothing else.  I alos like the idea of composting the litter.  Are wood shavings the preferred material? Is there any particular kind or should I just chip some branches from the forest?  How often do you turn over the litter, or do you?  Thanks for the advice guys.

[johnnybigfish]

A masonite floor works well as long as you have strong foundation undermeath..The shiney side is very easy to scrape poo off of. Like Brian said, keep it dry..you probably know how masonite bows after getting wet. In my loft, I used desk tabletops. The kind of tops that have that laminate on them?,.I get this stuff all the time where i work from desks what are supposed to be destroyed. I think the screen floor will more than likely become a pain...The feathers will settle there, then the poo will settle..and screen is hard to get poo off of. I only use screen for my cage on the front of the loft.
 Also, straight poo in the garden from the coop can be too strong and burn roots from the acidity in it...and, when I use it( which I do) I'll get corn and peas and wheat and miolo sprouting everywhere! (Thats whats in the pigeon food which gets scraped up with the poo)
 You know, I read somewhere that people used to save the crap because theres something in it which is used for explosives..There was a market for it!
 Also,.....I only clean my loft when I cant get the door open because of all the crap piled against it!! :-D When I do clean my coop I usually get 5 to 7 wheelbarrows I gotta dump in the woods!!! And, it stays there for quite a while! Sometimes I take a hoe or shovel to break it up ever now and then.When you get that big of piles, it doesnt compost that well.


your friend,
john

[Brian D. Bray]

Wood shavings, straw or hay will retain or obsorb the moisture too much so they're not good options.  Cedar has a nice smell and helps keep lice and such down but is slow to compost.  Pine has a nice smell and composts quickly.

Johhny Big Fish:  If you leach the nitrates out of any kind of poo you can make explosives.  That plys methane is why outhouses used to be so volitile.  They sometimes blew up with a snowbird on the nest.

[johnnybigfish]

Yeh.... :)..A "Snowbird on the Nest!"
 Thats a good one!

your friend,
john

[Cindi]

That plys methane is why outhouses used to be so volitile.  They sometimes blew up with a snowbird on the nest.

Brian, OK, you have conjured up one of the most funniest things I can imagine!!!  Great....have a wonderful day,health.  Cindi