Loft/House Update

Winfort Lofts · Thu Sep 17, 2026 12:18 pm

Hey all,

So figured I give a bit of an update.

We have been accepted by the landlord at the new house, and they have said we can have the birds!

Great news all round!!

The next step will be getting the loft setup, and breaking the birds!

We are only moving a couple of roads over, so only about 150-160yards. We can't put a loft up until the 1st of October as that's when the agreement starts.

So what is the best plan forward for breaking the birds?

Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:13 pm

Good news for you there Matt, sorry cannot help with breaking the birds

king · Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:32 pm

Winfort Lofts wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2026 12:18 pm Hey all,

So figured I give a bit of an update.

We have been accepted by the landlord at the new house, and they have said we can have the birds!

Great news all round!!

The next step will be getting the loft setup, and breaking the birds!

We are only moving a couple of roads over, so only about 150-160yards. We can't put a loft up until the 1st of October as that's when the agreement starts.

So what is the best plan forward for breaking the birds?

This should be easy to do. Get them settled in new loft and paired up. And if possible have a trap/sputnik that they can see out. Let the hens out first when they are on eggs. When they are returning move on to the cocks. Its important that you ONLY let then into the old loft as a last resort (say late at night, but don't feed them at the old loft) It is that easy. The more intelligent the bird the easier it is.
I've settled many birds over my time in pigeons, the last was a complete team when I moved a couple of miles. In over 50 yeas I've never had to bring a bird back from it's old loft more than twice. Most settled first or second time out. The quickest I've settled Ybs to a new loft is 4 days. Old birds around 3 weeks and was only slower because of waiting for them to lay.(a cock paired to a settled hen would be quicker though)

Diamond Dave · Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:34 pm

That's great news Matt - so will you be taking your old set up with you after all.....?

Winfort Lofts · Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:55 pm

Diamond Dave wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2026 1:34 pm That's great news Matt - so will you be taking your old set up with you after all.....?

No, unfortunately I won't be taking old shed with me, it'll be coming down and either put in storage or sold!

So the old setup is a 12'x6' shed that will be too large and impose too much in the garden, so will be going with two smaller sheds, and have them on opposite sides of the garden, to create the illusion of space instead!

Tony-P- · Thu Sep 17, 2026 3:07 pm

Great new on the move and loft set up Matt.
Good luck breaking the birds in hope it works out, King sounds like he's nailed it with his feedback so good luck.
Shame on your old loft, can you not use parts of it to form your new loft mate

Andy · Thu Sep 17, 2026 6:34 pm

I presume you are going to have to take your old loft down before you move? Which is only in a couple of weeks time. I would probably take them to where you’re moving to and release them from there a few times before you move. Once moved and settled in they will hopefully retrace their way back to you new location. But being only a couple of hundred yards you shouldn’t have much of a problem.
Good luck with it Matt.

Andy · Thu Sep 17, 2026 6:36 pm

The other thing you could do which was told to me once is put them on a bit of deep litter now. Don’t clean it out until you move. Then bag it up and put it down in your new loft. They will remember the smell. Apparently it is supposed to work.

Thu Sep 17, 2026 7:52 pm

thats good news mate, glad you get to keep the birds

Murray · Thu Sep 17, 2026 9:27 pm

Andy wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2026 6:34 pm I presume you are going to have to take your old loft down before you move? Which is only in a couple of weeks time. I would probably take them to where you’re moving to and release them from there a few times before you move. Once moved and settled in they will hopefully retrace their way back to you new location. But being only a couple of hundred yards you shouldn’t have much of a problem.
Good luck with it Matt.

You might recall that'ss what I said a few weeks ago.
Start taking them to the new place and release them half a dozen times, a dozen times, doesn't matter.
When you move put them in the new loft for a couple of days while you remove the old loft. Once you are happy that they are settled in the new loft start letting them out a few at a time. They'll go straight back, find nothing there and drift back to the new place.

Well done on finding a place that lets you keep the pigeons.