Well, this will be a first for me. Normally, after OB season is over around the end of May, I lock down my OB's until the next race season in March/April. It's really hard to get the birds back in shape after sitting around for all those months. I also usually let the OB race team race a round of youngsters before the races start. I'm approaching things differently this year.
Although I say they'll be on open loft, it won't be like it was for the YB's this year. I have to worry about hawks for one thing. This time of year they're HUNGRY......so I'm sure more aggressive. If they get TOO aggressive and there's too many of them, then the open loft will cease........but for now, I'm trying it. I just feel that if the birds are allowed to fly all they want at least a few times a week and stay in shape, they stand a better chance of outflying the hawks anyway. I also will not be letting them raise babies this year. MAYBE after the race season is over, if I can find someone who want some late hatch birds. If not, then I guess no babies for them this year.
Anyway.....I snapped a few pictures today while they were out.







This was after I had called them in for the day. I'm not feeding heavy in the AM, then around 3:00 or 4:00 I can get them in fairly easily to eat and close them up for the night.

Nice pics Renee! Your birds look happy and healthy and I'm sure they will really enjoy the opportunity to get some exercise over the winter months.

Lindi

What a beautiful loft and magnificent birds you have, Renee!!

SURE WISH ALL THE VERY, VERY BEST WITH NO HAWK LOSSES!!

Love and Hugs

Shi and
Mr. Squeaks (permanently retired racing homing pigeon)

Hi Renee,

You really do have gorgeous loft(s) and birds. You also keep the lofts immaculate and for having so many pigeons, it must be quite difficult. How do you find the "open loft" concept is working? What do your birds tend to do? Do they stick around your property all day or do you notice if they are taking off for parts unknown and returning later?

Brad wrote:Hi Renee,

You really do have gorgeous loft(s) and birds. You also keep the lofts immaculate and for having so many pigeons, it must be quite difficult. How do you find the "open loft" concept is working? What do your birds tend to do? Do they stick around your property all day or do you notice if they are taking off for parts unknown and returning later?

Thank you Brad!
Well, the young birds used to take off for a while. These are the OB's and they've only had 3 days of open loft, so they're still a little fat and not going far. I find that the youngers ones (2008) birds that I just moved over are the ones doing most of the flying. It will take a little time for them to get used to open loft. Most of the OB's have never experienced it before. It was always...fly, trap, eat.........and I was pretty strict with them. They'll get the hang of it.

Beautiful setup Renee ! It certainly shows the pride you have both with the loft and the condition of the birds .

Good luck with the open loft experiment , well , if it doesnt work out you can always go back to the old ways . Doesnt hurt to try new things . I'm certain the birds are loving it ! I think the bigest problem will be with hawks . We have quite a few here in AZ , but ( knock on wood ) no problems yet . The Coopers are the worst by far .... at least out here . When you see them around , you had better lock up or you will loose birds . Very aggressive and fearless critters . I've had the bloody things swoop right down within a very few feet of me while feeding my birds . Kind of scary when it catches you by surprize ! And once they zero in on your loft and birds they are hard to get rid of too ! Just play it by ear ..... who knows ..... maybe they all migrated down here for the winter

Again , very nice job .

Hambone

Just a little update. Birds continue to be on open loft most days. If the weather is bad, I don't let them out and if we have a day or so of storms, rain, high wind, etc........I keep them in the first clear day. Figure that if the hawks have a hard time finding food in bad weather, a pretty day might make my birds an easy target. So far everything is good. 9 out of the 13 pair are down on dummy eggs.......so, they're all happy.

Hi Renee

Thanks for the update on your open loft birds. Glad to hear that they are all doing well! 8)

Lindi

Hi Renee,

Perhaps you can answer this dumb question for me. When I look at your loft design or anyone elses for that matter with similar bobs and entrances, what's preventing a predator from entering?

The holes aren't that small and the bobs would seem to be able to allow a small or even medium sized predator entry into the loft. A small cat, medium sized hawk, weasel or any other small climbing predator could easily get up to the landing platform and would seem to be able to enter the holes and bobs to gain entry into the loft.

Perhaps I'm missing something that I've never known about not having been a professional pigeon flyer myself.

Brad wrote:Hi Renee,

Perhaps you can answer this dumb question for me. When I look at your loft design or anyone elses for that matter with similar bobs and entrances, what's preventing a predator from entering?

The holes aren't that small and the bobs would seem to be able to allow a small or even medium sized predator entry into the loft. A small cat, medium sized hawk, weasel or any other small climbing predator could easily get up to the landing platform and would seem to be able to enter the holes and bobs to gain entry into the loft.

Perhaps I'm missing something that I've never known about not having been a professional pigeon flyer myself.

Well, actually, people DO have predators of all kinds go in their lofts. The traps have to be designed to keep that from happening and just hanging some bobs doesn't do it. In the OB loft, (small loft) I have a metal rod that feeds through two eye-hooks and keep the bobs locked down in place, however, with the trap being on the inside of the aviary, if the loft is open, then either the birds are out on open loft, which means the windows are open anyway OR we're waiting on race birds and I'm right there keeping an eye on things, so nothing is going to go through the bobs. Once the birds are in, when I close up the loft, absolutely nothing can get in.
On the big loft, Everett built a really cool new trap with a screen door that can close against the openings, so there's no way for anything to get in there either. During the day, I don't worry too much about critters getting in. We've got one or two cats that we see once or twice a month and at night of course, everything is locked up.
Here's a chance for me to use the YouTube instructions you gave me............LOL....this is the new trap that Everett built.
Well, shoot!!!......I got the video in the wrong place in my post...........but at least I GOT IT THERE!!!

PS: I forgot at the end of the video I said I thought the birds could get out. I never had one escape.

Hi Renee,

Thanks for the explanation and video. That is a great mechanism that Everett installed on the bobs to secure the loft at night.

I guess I was sort of under the impression that there was some kind of failsafe way that the bobs would only allow a pigeon inside and since I've never seen one in person.

Have you ever had a hawk try to enter your loft during the day through the bobs? Or have you ever seen one land on the landing platform looking like it might try to get in?

Brad wrote:Hi Renee,

Thanks for the explanation and video. That is a great mechanism that Everett installed on the bobs to secure the loft at night.

I guess I was sort of under the impression that there was some kind of failsafe way that the bobs would only allow a pigeon inside and since I've never seen one in person.

Have you ever had a hawk try to enter your loft during the day through the bobs? Or have you ever seen one land on the landing platform looking like it might try to get in?

I've never actually seen a hawk trying to get in, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Every hawk we've ever seen was in flight giving chase to the birds. Maybe once or twice have I seen on actually land near the loft. Once on the ground in front of the big loft and once on the roof of the big loft. Can't think of any other instances.

This is new to me too. I enjoyed your informative video and loved Everett's neat security design! 8)

Lindi