CHAPTER V.

PIGEON-LOFTS AND BANTAM-COOPS.

The best place in the world for boys is out-doors, breathing good fresh air, and the best place in the world for pigeons and chickens is out-doors, breathing good fresh air. Our modern environments too often limit the amount of out-door space which boys can occupy, and also limit the supply of fresh air they can furnish their pets.

In making designs for the latter we must take into consideration the limited space of a city back-yard, as well as the fact that during the extreme cold weather pigeons, chickens, and boys, all need some warm retreat where they may roost or sleep.

Indeed, chickens really

Need Shelter

more than either boys or pigeons; the former have been known to thrive and grow lusty and strong when living like the wild animals of the forests, and every boy knows of some location where pigeons have taken up their abode with no better shelter than that afforded by an open shed, or the overhanging eaves of a house.

Chickens,

coming originally from tropical woods, will thrive better where their delicate combs and toes are not liable to be frost-bitten, and one is more certain not to lose his fantails, pouters, ruff-necks, tumblers, and homing pigeons, if he has a suitable loft in which to confine his pets. These considerations lead to the designing of a combined pigeon-house and bantam-coop suitable for the limited space of the diminutive city back-yards, or even appropriate for the roof of a rear extension, where there is no back-yard to the dwelling.

By referring to Fig. 31 you will see two boys at work upon the frame of

A Pigeon-Loft and Bantam-Coop

which is capable of holding with comfort enough pets to gladden the heart of any healthy boy.

The longest posts, A G and B H, are supposed to be about nine or ten feet high and nailed fast to the back fence. The dotted line, which cuts the frame in half, is to show that a building half the size of the one in the drawing will be plenty large enough for quite commodious quarters for the birds. After the frame has been nailed together and the protruding ends of the timbers all sawed off even with the rest of the frame, a floor must be laid to the pigeon-loft and securely nailed in place.

Rough Lumber Will Answer.

It is not even necessary to have smoothed lumber for the flooring or any part of the house, but matched and planed boards will make a much neater piece of work. The uprights and all the frame are supposed to be built of “two-by-four” (two inches thick by four inches wide), but even this is not necessary, and in the country, where trimmed lumber is scarce, the whole frame may be built of poles cut in the woods.

When the

Pigeon-Loft Floor

is nailed down, set the door-jambs in place, between D J and B H, and the window-jambs between D J and F L, as shown by Fig. 32. Nail the jambs fast to the rest of the frame, toe-nailing the loft door-jamb to the floor of the loft, and the coop jamb to the ceiling of the coop, also the two horizontal jambs of the window-frame to the two upright jambs of the same.

Shutter Frames.

Over the top-piece, C D, and the bottom piece, N, nail two boards, each about six inches wide (R and S, Fig. 32), and upon the inside of the loft erect three boards, one at each end and one in the middle (facing the roof of the coop), each of the same width as the top and bottom-boards. This is to make a framework for the shutters, with which to close the loft in bad weather. Over the uprights just erected nail the strips, Q, O, and P (Fig. 32). Repeat this with the front end of the coop, E, F, K, and L, of Fig. 31, and you will have it as represented by Fig. 32.

Roofing Material.

There are several cheap kinds of tar and gravel-paper sold which make neat and durable roofings, not only for coops and sheds, but even for more ambitious structures. In case these are not easily obtainable, roof the loft and coop with ordinary boards, using another lot of boards to cover the cracks between the first layer (Fig. 32).

It is now only necessary to nail on your sidings, and your loft-coop is finished, all but the doors and windows.

Dimensions are not given for these, because it often happens that there is some old window or hot-bed sash lying around the place, and the jambs can be made to fit the sash. The sash is held in place by nails, for it is not intended to open the window, the sash only being used to let light into the lower bantam-coop.

The open face of the pigeon-loft and bantam-coop are to be covered with wire-netting, fastened securely with staple tacks, inside the coop and loft, as shown by Fig. 33.

Doors.

Fig. 34 shows how to make the doors of boards, fitted together and secured by two cross-battens and one diagonal-batten.

When the doors are hung upon their hinges the house is finished, but not furnished. It is not necessary to have any protection for the screen fronts during the summer, but when winter comes four shutters, made to fit these openings, it will be found, will keep out the storms and protect the inmates from the cold.

The Shutters

may be made in the same manner as the doors, and hinged on to the lower sill of the loft, so that when open, during fair weather, they will rest securely upon the roof of the coop. The coop-shutters may be hinged in the same manner or simply fitted into place and held there by props of some sort, which, with the shutters, may be removed in fair weather, to admit the air and sunshine so dearly loved by your pets.

Keep Clean.

I take it for granted that you know how to care for the chickens and pigeons; that you know that no being, not even man, can keep himself clean and healthy when confined to a small room. The keeper must attend to all household duties.

If your pets are untidy, soiled in appearance, and their abode infested with parasites, it will be because of the cruel thoughtlessness of their keeper. To facilitate house-cleaning, Fig. 35 shows the internal arrangement and furniture of the coop-loft, all of which may be removed in a few moments and the whole place cleaned and whitewashed.

The Hen’s-Nest

box is made with a steep slanting roof, which will prevent the chickens from roosting on the box. The latter has no bottom to it; the nests rest upon the earth, so that you may pick up the box at any time, turn it upside down, and turn the hose on it, or plentifully plaster it with clean, wholesome whitewash.

Pigeon-Nests.

A cleat nailed to the inside wall of the loft, near the door, serves as a rest for one end of the pigeon-nests. The other end is supported by a piece of wood about four inches wide which is hinged to the back wall, and its upper end held in place by a long hook made of a piece of telegraph wire.

If this hook is unfastened the wooden support falls down and the box of nests slips off the cleat into your arms.

Pigeons are not good at perching upon twigs or sticks. Their feet are adapted for walking upon flat surfaces, and they need a broad surface for a roost. Fig. 40 shows how to make a pigeon-roost, which may be hung up against the wall by slipping the two holes bored in the top of the back board over a couple of nails in the wall.

For a Hen-Roost,

nail a narrow strip of wood, with its flat side upon the thin edge of another similar strip. The end will then look like a T, Fig. 38.

Round off the edges of the perch with a plane or knife until it is of the form of the right-hand diagram.

Fig. 37 shows a roost of this kind. Fig. 36 shows the adjustable side-rail, with slots for the perch to fit, and Fig. 39 shows a cleat to nail against the wall for the other end of the roost. As may be seen, the perch will fit in the slot in the cleat.

Drinking-Troughs.

Figs. 41 and 42 are drinking-troughs, arranged so that the birds will not soil the water.

The jug-trough was made by a farm hand, friend of the writer. He made a hole near the bottom of the jug by first nicking off a piece of the hard glazed surface with the corner of a hatchet, and then drilling the hole with a sharpened nail. When the jug was filled with water, a stopper was put in and it was set in an old dish; the water remained above the hole in the jug, but rose no higher.

Fig. 42 is an

Old Lard-Can,

with a triangle cut in the edge. Fill the can with water and place a dish over the top, hold the dish in place, and turn the can upside down, and the water will fill the dish and keep it filled to the top of the cut in the can as long as there is water in the can.

Flying-Cage.

By erecting posts at or near the lower end of the bantam-coop and stretching wire netting from post to post, and thence to pigeon-loft, a space can be enclosed and roofed over with netting, which will allow your pigeons room to exercise their wings. This arrangement does not necessarily use up a foot more ground space.

There are many other simple arrangements which these few will help to suggest to the reader, and which will add to the comfort and happiness of his pets.