The Loft

Photo: A loft in a 10'x12' shed in summer afternoon shade.
The loft must be a location of total safety and security for the birds.

• It must be kept dry to reduce the production of molds and mildews (including aspergillosis) and to reduce the ability of parasites to multiply.
• It must be well ventilated to keep fresh air available for sensitive bird lungs
• It must be draft free as feathers do not insulate well in a drafty environment.
• It must prevent access by rodents because their droppings may contain diseases that can kill the birds.
• It must have a way to let the birds out to sun, bathe, exercise and get back in again.
• It must prevent the entry of cats, mink, weasels, raccoons, squirrels, snakes, hawks, owls, (insert the names of your local predators here), mischievous kids, and malicious adults.

If you think about all those requirements, it seems impossible to meet them all. The only way would be to make it tight with small diameter hardware cloth over small holes (1/4´ inch necessary for house mice), welded wire fencing ('cause predators can chew through hardware cloth) over the hardware cloth and the outside aviary. Also, the bird entrances would have to be opened to let the bird out, then monitored, and closed when the birds had all returned. That is not practical for many people, so various types of "traps" in various locations are used to allow the birds to either enter or exit the loft on their own.

Trapping In and Out

A typical trap is a "bob" style trap. It has a horizontal bar on the top, from which light-weight rods hang down. These bobs can be set to either swing in or swing out. They can also be raised or locked down.

Pigeons learn to push through the bobs to enter or exit the loft. Unfortunately, a predator that sees a pigeon enter the trap may follow. If a predator enters the loft, it may kill all the pigeons in that loft, so thought must be taken when designing the loft entrances and exits.

Since every loft is different, different arrangements of traps are appropriate.
There is no one "best" arrangement. Here is mine. The aviary wire is 1/2 x 1 inch welded wire. The landing board has an extra layer of 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the side the birds land on.

My birds enter and exit the loft through the aviary. While the bird are out flying, the landing board is lowered and a removable insert with bobs is placed over the opening. The bobs in the insert allow the birds to go into the aviary but not out again.

When the birds are in the aviary, they must jump up to the top set of bobs to enter the loft. While young birds learn to do this, a training perch is set in front of the IN bobs and every other bob is raised so the birds learn to hop to the window and enter. After the birds learn how to trap the training perch is removed.

Hawk Resistance

Removal of the training perch accomplishes two things.
(1) No 'bullies' can sit in front of the bobs and block the other birds from entering. There is no perch on the inside of these bobs for the exact same reason.
(2) Hawks will not be able to sit in front of the IN bobs trying over and over to enter that hole.

If a hawk does enter the aviary, they will enter on the 'floor' level. At that level, they can see into the loft where the pigeons are, but they cannot enter through the openings they are looking through. The OUT bobs should not let a hawk or owl in, and the window screen is reinforced with welded wire.

When all the birds have returned to the loft, the insert is removed and the landing board is raised and locked closed. If a bird or two is missing, landing board and trap can be left in place and the window can be lowered over the IN and OUT bobs. This allows a late bird to enter the relative safety of the aviary, but prevents any predator from entering the loft.

Design Faults

Location: This loft is surrounded on three sides by trees. They provide great summer shade and ample hiding places from which cooper's hawks can stage ambush attacks as the homers return to the loft. For that reason, this is not my main flying loft. An ideal location would be out in the open and higher in elevation than the neighbor's roof so the birds are not tempted to sit on the neighbor's property.

Height: This landing board is only 3+ feet off the ground. A cat could sit next to the loft and catch birds as they drop to the landing board. Anything that makes the birds hesitant to enter the loft could increase the chances of a coopers hawk attack .

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