It's a very hot day today so I think we're going to enjoy a bath
but whilst they're getting in there let's talk about this loft. All right well it's still
quite warm out here but it looks like the birds have finished their bath let's talk about this loft.
People are quite often asking me to share the design of the loft because they want to copy it
but the truth is the loft isn't built this way because it's a good design, it's built because
I don't have much space and this is the best I could do in the very limited space I have.
So I thought today I'd go through five of the things I don't like about this design
and maybe me telling you what I don't like will help you guys avoid them in your own designs.
Let's start outside. So the first thing I don't like about this loft is probably a bit hard to see,
but it's actually the height. If I go and stand up next to the loft you'll see what I mean.
This loft is actually way too tall, and it makes it quite difficult for me to have
control over the bird. For example if there's a bird on the landing board and I want to chase it in
that's as high as I can reach. The reason the loft was built like this is because this area is prone
to flooding and I didn't want a flooded loft, but I definitely should have thought
about the height when I built it. Number two, still outside,
is the mess that these aviary sections make on the front of the loft. I'm actually planning on putting
a little bit of wood just on the lip there and I'm hoping that'll stop most of the droppings that end
up on the outside of the loft here. But it really looks disgusting and I didn't foresee it at all
when I first built the loft. Now as we go into the loft we can see number three is this door.
It's actually way too tall and plenty of times I've had birds jump out of the
loft as I'm entering. I really should have designed a much shorter door. Number four is
actually the size of the loft itself. this loft is actually the biggest size that i was able to
build legally without getting council approval and for a proper breeding and racing operation
it is pretty small. It's it's quite tight, and I really have to stay on top of numbers here
because it's very very easy to overcrowd this loft. And then finally number five,
is the orientation of the loft. So behind me this loft actually faces south, which here in Australia
is not what we usually aim to do. Most of the rain and the weather comes from the south which means
I've had to close off most of the front of this loft to keep the weather out
which impedes ventilation, but even with a fairly closed off loft like I've got
weather still does get in when it gets quite rainy which for the health of the pigeons is not good at all.
So that was just a quick run through of five things that I don't like about loft. It's still
pretty warm you can probably see I'm sweating in here, I'm going to wait a little while longer for it
to cool down and then we'll get these birds out to fly. All right well it's already after 6:30 pm
but it's still 40 degrees here so I don't know if the birds are going out and do much flying.
That's 104 in Fahrenheit for my American friends. I'm going to let them out anyway
and see how they go but given the heat I don't think they're going to do much flying today.
Well they've decided to come outside at least so let's see how long this lasts.
Like I said it's after 6:30 in the afternoon but you could get away with thinking it was
still the middle of the day here, it's quite bright and quite warm.
Well the younger ones here are puffing and panting just sitting in the sun but the
older birds are actually getting some pretty good altitude today, which is very nice to see.
I think they'll come down pretty soon though.
And they've started coming down already. They were out for about five minutes but
like I said it's very very hot today, I didn't expect to do much flying at all. let's get them some food.
Even the babies in the nest are struggling with heat unfortunately.
This is the first really really hot day that these birds have experienced so some of them
are struggling after trying to get out and do some flying. Tomorrow's going to be the same, I don't
know if I'll let them out tomorrow, if I do I might wait until even later in the afternoon
because they really didn't enjoy that time out in the 40 degree heat.
Anyway guys I'm going to finish feeding these pigeons, you can
click here and watch another video that you might enjoy, and I'll catch you guys next time!