In Schalkwijk Speaks Part 1, I mainly talked about the loft itself. But in the end, there’s one thing that interests me even more: what are the pigeons doing in it?
A loft can be perfectly built according to all the rules and still not work the way you expect. On the other hand, I’ve seen very simple lofts where the pigeons looked fantastic and performed extremely well.
That’s why I always look at the pigeons first.
How are they sitting when you walk in in the morning? Are their wattles nice and dry? What do the droppings look like? And perhaps even more importantly: do you get the feeling that the pigeons are comfortable?
That last one may sound a little old-fashioned, but after so many years with pigeons, you learn to see it.
These days, we can measure too
In the past, we did almost everything by feel. Nowadays, a simple thermometer with a hygrometer costs next to nothing. So why not use one?
Put one in your loft and watch what happens for a few days. Don’t just check it in the middle of the day, but also early in the morning and in the evening.
Sometimes you’ll discover things you hadn’t noticed yourself. Perhaps the humidity stays high much longer during the night than you thought, or the temperature changes very quickly over a short period.
That’s information you can actually use.
But don’t immediately start changing half your loft. I’ve seen that mistake many times. Someone thinks the loft isn’t right and starts changing everything. Afterwards, things may improve or get worse, but they have no idea why.
Change one thing and see what happens.
Keep it simple
For me, a loft also needs to be easy to work in every day. If everything is difficult to reach or every cleaning session turns into a major operation, sooner or later that will work against you.
The same goes for the number of pigeons. A section that works perfectly with twenty pigeons doesn’t necessarily work the same way with thirty. More pigeons simply put more pressure on the same loft.
Whether you then use a solid floor, grids or straw is much less important to me than some fanciers seem to think. I’ve seen good lofts using all three.
For example, I’ve had pigeons on the nest that did extremely well with straw on the floor. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it stayed dry.
The same applies to grids. The advantage is that the pigeons have less direct contact with the droppings. But if everything underneath those grids is left there for months, you’ve only moved the problem out of sight.
Be careful when darkening
There’s one more thing I regularly see going wrong, especially with young pigeons.
A fancier has the ventilation working nicely and then starts darkening the loft. Everything gets closed up just to keep the light out.
The loft may be dark, but sometimes it becomes stuffy as well.
That’s not the idea. When you darken a loft, the ventilation still needs to keep working.
Heating can help
I’ve had good experiences myself with infrared panels during cold and damp periods. Especially early in the season, a little extra warmth can be useful.
But I use heat as support. Not as a way of making a bad loft good.
If you have to heat the loft every day just to stop it from staying damp, I would first want to know why the loft is so damp in the first place.
The pigeons have the final say
If I had to give one piece of advice, it would actually be very simple: look first before you change anything.
Go into the loft in the morning while it’s still exactly as it has been overnight. Don’t open everything up and clean first and then decide whether the loft climate is good.
And above all, look at your pigeons.
Because we can come up with all kinds of theories about ventilation, floors, roofs and heating systems. The pigeons don’t care much about our theories.
If they’re healthy, enjoy training, recover well and look fresh every morning, I wouldn’t start changing things just because somebody else tells you their system is better.
You don’t have to reinvent a good loft every year.
Until the next blog,
Gerard Schalkwijk
Schalkwijk Speaks
