FIG.1

Building a pigeon loft with a small budget

1. Find a factory or shop that seems to have many pallets. Every city has an industrial area so go to one of those places.


2. Ask a member of the staff if you are allowed to take some wood for an "art project". When people hear the world "art", they tend to associate it with something "not for profit" therefore the chance you will be able to obtain the materials for free will significantly increase. Try to take wooden boards that are seperated from each other, rather than whole pallets. Seperated materials are more flexible and easy to use.


3. Hire a car to take the materials to where you want to build your pigeon loft. It took me three times to transfer all the materials from the flooring company that I got my materials from to my destination.


4. Find a design of a pigeon loft by searching on the Internet. I refered to the images below.
You need a main entrance and a door to maintain the system (feeding, cleaning). Make sure there is absolutely no gap (no more than 2 inches) in your loft in order to prevent long tails from sneaking in. It's better to be off the ground.
The process of building my pigeon port (I call it "port" instead of "loft")

Obtaining pigeons for free

1. Find a local racing pigeon club's website. Check the event dates and find out the upcoming races.
Go to a pigeon marking event that is held a day before a race. In my case, it was at the back of a pub.


2. Talk to a member of the racing pigeon club. Generally "pigeon fanciers" are open-minded and happy about people outside their clubs being interested in racing pigeons. Say you want to do an "art project" with pigeons. They will straight away understand your intention and are likely to give you their contact details.


3. Negotiate with the members of the pigeon club about obtaining pigeons. You need to prove that you are fully responsible and capable of looking after their pigeons really well. Using an online presence of yourself is very effective, I used my FACT profile to prove my identity. It seemed to me that they at first thought I was an agent sent from China to investigate English racing pigeons.
You pigeon loft also needs to be fully prepared.

4. Go to your pigeon master's house to pick up your pigeons. In my case, he gave me two pairs of pigeons, 2 cocks and 2 hens so that they can lay eggs and I can see everything about pigeons.
Ask your master where you should buy food for your pigeons. Pigeon fanciers usually have their own special pet shops that are dedicated to pigeons.
At my master's house

Mersey Pet Supplies

The owner Dennis and his champion pigeon





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