This is my young bird racing loft.
I am not going to go into much detail about the loft but would like to point out for beginners what is important to settle the pigeons to the loft.
Please take notice of the three dots in the picture.
The blue dot is above what I call a training cage.
Below the back dot is the stall trap.
Above the red dot is the landing board
The training cage serves two purpose
1. It allows the pigeons to sit on the landing board (above the red dot) and look around. This gets the pigeons familiar with the yard and surroundings.
2. Because I keep the window open to the loft they soon learn they can return into the loft from the landing board. This is important because many lofts don't allow the birds to sit on the landing board near the entrance. As a result many pigeons are lost. Because pigeons are easily frightened,they need to know how to get into the safety of the loft. The pigeons also must learn how to jump from the landing board into the stall trap to get inside.
What I do is place the training cage on the landing board over the stall trap (below black dot). I then chase all the pigeons into one of the training cages and close the window behind them. Doing this just before feeding the pigeons will also teach them to go in quickly.
When you have the pigeons trapping without any problems (know how to jump into the stall trap) it is time to remove the training cage and let the pigeons come out on there own. This is the most dangerous time to settle your pigeons because they can easily be lost. Try to let them out for short periods of time. (Never scare or chase them and be sure they are hungry), before long they will take short flights. In few weeks they will start to fly in a group.
