# Looking for Lean-in loft plans



## Marinebri68 (Sep 17, 2017)

Hi I'm VERY new to this...as in my wife was just talking to her sister who's husband has been racing pigeons for about 50 years now and now she's got it in her head that this should be a new hobby for us. He is going to be sending us 4 babies and a breeding pair next spring for free since nobody else in the family has shown any interest in this till now. That being said I'm looking for some plans to build a lean-in style loft for them and I see pics out there but they are all external and I'm trying to learn what the needs are for healthy happy birds.

I can build just about anything myself so that's not an issue. I'm looking at having it on our deck on the back of the house that faces directly south. I live on the border of PA and WV so it gets cold here in the winter and I know that it needs to stay dry inside. I'm wanting something that's about 3-4 feet off the ground and I'll build a mesh floor with a pull out tray for cleaning. I know I'll need perches and nest boxes for the mating pair.

What I'm not all that sure about is should I make it so there's 2 halves to keep the juveniles separated from the adults and what's the best way to have the aviary? I see a lot where the aviary looks really small.

Any suggestions anyone has would be appreciated and actual plan designs would be great so I could just modify it to my needs and I want it to look nice as well.

Thank you


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Not sure what a lean in style ft is. The lofts you see with the very small aviaries are people who fly the birds all the time so they get outside for sun and exercise. If you are keeping them as pets and not letting them fly outside and take a chance of hawks grabbing them, then you want to connect a good sized aviary to the loft for them to go outside into the fresh air and sunshine. Also that's a great place to put a bath for them to enjoy. Are these birds just going to be pets? I don't see any reason to separate the parents from the babies if you are just keeping pets. Unfortunately a lot of the lofts people have posted on here, people used Photo Bucket. Photobucket recently changed their rules and decided that everyone who wanted to used their "free" survice to post photos, now has to pay quite a bit for it, so because people didn't want to do that, Photo Bucket has now deleted the photos that used to be on here. 

I hope you will post pics as you go along.


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## Marinebri68 (Sep 17, 2017)

Hi Jay, thanks for responding. I saw the term lean-in loft for ones that you don't walk into. They are small enough for you to "lean in" and do what you need to do.

My wife would like to race the birds eventually. The ones we will be getting from her brother-in-law are from his breeding stock and do extremely well in races from what I understand. I believe he's got somewhere around 300 birds at the moment. He has been racing them since he was 10 and he's in his mid 70s now. I'm sure I'll be picking his brain on all this but he's in the Seattle area and I'm in Morgantown PA.

So now not only am I trying to figure out how to go about building a loft but also need to figure out how to train them lol. Seems like it'll be an interesting year next year.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Thanks for explaining that. Now it makes sense.
Just remember that they do breed and you don't want to over crowd, so make it as large as you can. Each bird should have 2 sq. ft. of floor space to live in, so think about how much room you need for about how many you want to keep. Also, I would buy some fake solid plastic eggs for switching out with the real eggs when you have reached the number of birds you want. 

It'll be fun for you guys, and something to do together. I hope you will post about it as you go along, with pictures, of course.

Look online at the different kinds of lofts out there, and get ideas. I don't think that many ever build a loft, without later wishing they had done something different. I would always want a walk in loft myself. So much easier to work with the birds when you can go in and close a door. A lean in loft is harder to clean or do anything with them, without them getting out. Easier to tame them too if you can be inside with them and spend time with them. Check on babies, or anything. Think about it. Let us know how it goes.


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