# eight foot or four foot sections?



## Nodaksnakelover (May 29, 2013)

asking for your thoughts on this... I'm building a loft that will be 20 feet long and eight feet in depth. I will have a four foot wide section that I walk into first that will be my feed room and area for some cages for injured or sick birds. The other sixteen feet I was thinking to divide up into four sections, four feet each. So they would be four by eight foot in length. With the idea that smaller room makes for tamer birds if they can't get far away from you anyway. Each section would have a loft that will be the width of the four foot run and stick out about 32 inches from the loft. This will enable me to catch birds from the aviary area should I need to. So was going to do two breeder sections, and two young bird sections. 


But the more I thought of this...the more I question the wisdom in it. I'm back to the idea that maybe I should just do two sections, an eight by eight section for the breeders, and an eight by eight for the youngsters. And if I want to seperate the sexes, I can do so in the late fall. 


So what I'm asking, is in your experience, what would be the best way to go? As this is the biggest loft I can afford right now, and really all I want to build. I still have my older loft which is close to four by eight that I was just going to keep my Damascenes and Satinettes in. 


I appreciate your thoughts on this! I was thinking too it would be easier if I have less sections or doors to try to walk through to get sections cleaned when it comes to full clean outs as i keep a deep wood shaving floor system. Would I really notice a problem trying to catch birds up in an eight by eight section? My thinking is they are still going to fly into the aviary section like they do in the current smaller loft where I catch most of them. I might start out catching a few from perches, but seems as soon as I bend down to put a bird in the basket the rest high tail it into the aviary section.


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## Paragon Loft (Jun 27, 2009)

hey buddy that's a nice sise loft.just my thought,i had a 30 x 8 with 5 sections nice and roomie my problem was catching the birds I wish I would have made a hall way all the way across the front of the loft that made the sections 6 x 6 easier to handle the birds.im sure what ever you decide just make sure you are happy with it.good luck.


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## Flapdoodle (Nov 8, 2009)

What kind of birds are you talking about? Racers? I have a 40 x 8 with 5 sections, If I was to do it again I would make it into smaller sections. I think the birds are a little more tame. Part of my issue is the loft is very open, wire floors and I can only walk on 12' cat walk going down the center of each section. I have to catch the birds in the dark or run them out into a settling cage on the landing board. It works and I am not unhappy about it. However if I was to do it again I would go the hall way route Paragon suggested. If you set it up right the birds could use the hall way section most the time, during a race or when you were working in the loft you could lock them in there individual sections. A little more hardware to do this but I think in the long run it would be worth it.


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