Pigeon Lofts - any words of warning? Thank you

When I was a child there were several back garden lofts, each with 50 plus birds. They are kept for racing so they will regularly be let out to exercise. I don’t recall any complaints.

My dad and his pals were all pigeon fanciers and I spent hours of my childhood in the lofts, helping my dad to log them all in when they returned from a race. I don't recall any smells, noise or vermin and my dad certainly wouldn't have exposed me to such if there was a danger.

A month ago a neighbour told me he had seen rats at the back of my garden shed. I paid the council £125 to get rid of them and the "rat catcher" told me the whole of our (privately-owned estate of abt 700 houses was rife with rats, especially round the streets with a stream running underneath the roads and he reckoned that most of them had had a rat infestation at some point or another in his forty years of experience.

I've never seen one (and don't want to) but left alone a few rats can produce thousands of offspring in a year.

So a few homing pigeons can't be as bad as that.

Sorry no knowledge of this but would be wary of living nearby.

I suppose that as they aren't wild pests they are trained to return to the loft so won't roost elsewhere. The only person I knew who kept pigeons let their birds out twice a day for exercise.
Maybe you could visit to look at their flight path?
Are you thinking of moving near a loft?

I suppose it depends how dedicated they owner is whether there would be rodents, or much smell - I expect it would be hard to keep it away entirely in the heat

The loft is near a house I've an interest in, l was very surprised to see it as the area is more renowned for shooting birds than racing them. From a distance their loft appeared very clean and there was a spirited terrier dashing around which made me think he could be the master rat catcher. My own terrier was going nuts after a scent and that usually indicates rodents (or her arch enemy The Great Dane). I'm well used to, but not keen on, rats. We've escaped the heat here, one day it got to 28° (with a sea breeze easily bearable). I feel for you all suffering it, caught the beginnings in May in France, was a welcome relief to come home. Thank you for the responses.

Thank you for responding.

Is there another neighbour you could pop in on to "chat about the area" (generally) and casually introduce it if they are talkative?

I have always said "hello" to neighbours prior to a move.

Obviously they may be good friends with the loft person - so don't lead with conversation about the pigeons!

l was very surprised to see it as the area is more renowned for shooting birds than racing them.
is quite a "chatty sort of line"

I hope you get some answers.

There's a lot of information on Google regarding rat infestation of pigeon lofts. Rats are attracted by spilled pigeon feed or inadequately stored bulk pigeon feed.
Pigeon lofts can also give off a strong ammonia like smell.
I suppose these things depend on the owner of the pigeons and the level of care/hygiene.

Where I grew up lot of people had pigeon lofts . They kept them spotless to keep their birds healthy . Racing pigeons cost a lot of money and they breed them . Have been in a pigeon loft of a boy I knew his grandfather gave it him when a teenager. Pigeon fancies took pride in their birds. Cleaned everyday and spent hours looking after them . No one had problems with rats or diseases.

Racing pigeon are still very expensive especially if they race long distance .

Just watch out for your washing if the birds are flying but that can be said of any birds.

Recently walking to the bus stop had bird poo on my hair 😠 😡 . Didn't notice until I touch my hair and felt a dry patch . Good job I carry anti bac. wipes.

Normal garden bird feeders attract rats, a pigeon loft has been built for a hobby and the ones I saw were spotless, cleaner than some kitchens

Known as ‘Crees’ up here in the North East, some are works of art. I can echo Whiff’s post - some of the birds are worth a fortune and like any hobby involving birds/animals/fish, they should be very well looked after, cleaned out and attended to a couple of times a day.

As Whiff said, there is a lot of money, time and expertise involved in keeping racing pigeons and whilst it is not as common as it used to be to see pigeon lofts, they will be very well kept and so will the birds. Where we lived before there was a retired civil servant who raced pigeons (so did HM the Queen, by the way), and I took him an injured ringed bird I had found on a walk in the woods. I was amazed at his set up, which spanned the width of his large garden. He even had a hospital wing! He showed me his stock books in the house, and from the ring on its leg he could tell that the bird had been flown from Basildon and was probably on the way back there when it was injured. He contacted the owner who subsequently came up here to South Yorkshire to collect his bird.

I would be very surprised if you were to have a problem with anyone keeping pigeons where you are proposing to live. The only time we have had a rat problem locally was from someone keeping chickens, not racing pigeons.

I think Whiff is spot on. My uncle kept pigeons and whilst he never did a bit of housework at home he kept that loft spotlessly clean and attended to his birds religiously. Apparently pigeons are prone to certain diseases if you don’t look after them well and because buying one is costly the owners are careful to look after them scrupulously.
It wouldn’t bother me if a neighbour had a pigeon loft but as someone mentioned upthread why not chat to neighbours and get their take on it.

My FiL had a Pigeon loft, DH was involved all his younger life. Did they have any problems with Rats, etc and the answer was No.
I remember being in the loft and it never smelly or mucky.

These are Racing birds and can cost quite a lot of money, so it's a organised controlled association. The owners of these lofts are proud of them, so you shouldn't have any problems.

I wouldn't worry about a loft in the area

It sounds like this is good news OldFrill.
🤞

Yes, it's very reassuring thank you. Far better information than l gleaned by googling.

We have a flock of Pigeons visit every day. Some stay all day others come & go. Too many late afternoon as I get bombarded by feathers whenever I go to the garden. We were told at first as there were only 10-20 birds that they were from a local loft. Then he supposedly moved & some of the birds disappeared not all though! Now the flock has grown considerably! I do buy good food for my small garden birds so Pigeons get some of that also! One of the good things about having Pigeons virtually living here is that before they leave in the evening they clear all the food dropped by the little birds from their feeders. If rats come looking they would be really disappointed! Love having these birds as it does get lonely being a bit disabled & living alone so do have lots of little darlings to talk to. Sadly one of my favourites was picked on by another bird, possibly one of the crows, poor boy died so had to bury him this morning, poor Spots. So if you are worried about Pigeons please dont be? They are beautiful friendly & gentle- apart from feeding time when one upsets another! Sorry so long just want you all to see Pigeons are lovely to have around!

TBH I think any outdoor animals attract rats as they can smell the food. My neighbours years ago used to put breadcrumbs on the garage roof for the birds. My friend living next door lost her Great Dane from a rat contaminating his garden water bowl. She used to leave a bowl outside the back door in the summer for him and he caught leptospirosis from the rats. Very sad.

We had a pigeon loft 4 houses away. The rats lived under the floor and roamed around local gardens until they were dealt with by the local ‘rat man’.

I grew up living next door to a pigeon loft. The chap who owned it kept it immaculately clean and his pigeons were beautiful. He raced them and used to sit in his garden in the summer with his clock ready to check them in when they arrived home.
I never saw a rat, or any other rodent. He didn't have a dog.

So long as its kept clean smells shouldn't be too much of an issue, if there's rats in sure they take steps to control them, we're all never more than a few feet from a rat lol apart from me up on the 9th floor 🤣

The only issue I can think of is the noise, pigeons can be very noisy during mating season. There's lots of wood pigeons where I live and it's like a sex show every spring! They're in the trees cooing loudly and jumping around all day... Branches get snapped constantly haha they certainly aren't quiet about making baby pigeons.

Where we used to live our newish neighbour put up a huge pigeon loft at the bottom of his garden next to our fence (tbf they'd also put up the fence). We were very concerned but didn't need to be - those pigeons were the best kept birds you could wish for and the neighbours cared for them so well. I used to love sitting in the garden when he let them all out at tea time and watch them all wheeling round the rooftops then he'd rattle their food and they'd all come flying in one by one. We never saw a rat there although we did have cats so maybe they scared them off.

Fast foward 6 years to our present home where we own a piece of woodland behind us which houses a variety of different birds - we have seen pheasants, badgers, hedgehogs, foxes, deer but only seen one rat on the cameras we used to have out. We do have seagulls occasionally who are a much bigger problem than pigeons!!

My father was a Master Breeder of Racing Pigeons. We moved 3 times during my time at home the first loft was built in a terraced row of houses and was like a large shed. No complaints from neighbours ..ever! Just from my mother who said he’s always in the loft!
Then we moved to a detached house in an established housing estate and a new grand loft like Brighton Pavilion was built at the bottom of the garden. Dad always in the loft or gardening.
The third and final one was at the side of their retirement bungalow….for which there was a lot of building regs to get through but was finally built about a third of the size of the house. Apart from there being a ‘ race’ every weekend plus, (and the local Pigeon Club) where he was sitting out waiting to spot a returning bird and rattle his tin of seed to get them to land fast to take the ring off the birds leg and clock them in ( special pigeon clock) there were never any complaints from any neighbours, except from an occasional marauding cat who was driven away …and my mother whose constant cry was your fathers in the loft go and get him for tea!! Etc. I think the only problem was after he died and we had to get rid of the birds and all… but pigeon people came from far and wide and all was soon cleared.
I was never a fan, but many neighbours would call and chat and help him. Never a smell or other issue.

There were 4 lofts near where I used to live. The men who owned them were polite and helpful and it was good to know that there was always someone around. I enjoyed hearing them call their birds in after a race and the up combine wagon collecting them. No problem with vermin and the washing was never soiled. They are well kept birds.

A man nearby in my village kept racing pigeons for years until he moved away. Never any problems, no smell, no infestations, and it was lovely to watch them in flight.

What on earth is an 'oopsiewoopsie'? How twee. Do you mean crap, or shit? Just call it what it is.