# Recommendations for my pigeon house



## dakke (Feb 17, 2011)

Well, I say 'my pigeon house', yet it's the one of my dad. He's getting older and I'm taking care of his life-long hobby, namely the breeding of race pigeons. Though I grew up with them, I'm not an expert at all. Let alone, how to take care of it. That said, he's a bit the old-fashion guy, doing stuff how he did back then. So need some advice from you all.

First of all, let me sketch *the house*:
- entirely made out of wood (so can't clean with water).
- Little airing (1 in front for each nestbox)
- metal 'bars' 10cm above floor (so dirt falls through), kinda like a sifter
- food and water is on floor (that is on top of metal 'bars')

He uses sand (sometimes wooden dust) on the floor to keep it all a bit more dry. 

*What I need* to know (one of the more urgent questions):
- what type of mouth mask should I use (I somewhere read that the common paper ones are far insufficient and that the small particles require a lot more filtering with e.g. a carbon filter). Brands would be ok, but I would surely prefer the more technical description (e.g. 4 micron at least).
- Do I buy a mask from the pharmacy or the DIY shop? 
- what should I put on the floor and the cabins of the pigeons (instead of sand or wood dust)?
- Wouldn't it be wise if I open up the house a bit, so to stimulate more airing?
- He has a vacuum cleaner, yet not a good one. Which type should I buy?

I want to avoid getting my lungs damaged because of it and I would like to provide the pigeons with a better housing... Any help is much appreciated.


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## billyr70 (Jun 11, 2009)

i would recommend a respirator that has two filters. (Go to a auto paint shop, they sell great ones there that filter really well and don't cost a arm and a leg)


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## dakke (Feb 17, 2011)

Well, yes, true. But the hard part is not to know 'where' but to know 'what' to buy. 

I'm at this point quite puzzled on what to buy. How good should the filters be? P1, P2 or P3? Or any other parameters that apply?

Good info here and here (dutch), yet no exact answer, since they only talk about the mask and not the filters (or at least not what type of filter one needs).


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