Cleaning

[hotrod]

 

it was the 2nd folkestone ob national the pigeon was a yearling that topped combine and was not a flash in the pan as it topped fed in 2007 as a yb i didnt once say that not cleaning out for 4 years was ok as i clean out everyday without fail was just trying to say winners can come from all sorts of lofts ok hotrod

 

SORRY i though you were meaning that it was ok to do this ,the one thing i can say about your friend is he's luck he's still got birds that CAN STILL RACE with all the disease that MUST be in his loft.

[Guest strapper]

There two types of clean at least. There is clinically clean as in free from disease carrying organisms and there is the sort of clean most of our lofts are. Floors, drinkers and feeding troughs are usually contaminated and it would be just about impossible to have them totally free from contamination. In any case we are walking bug hotels and carry bugs everywhere with us. So, we are probably cleaning for the look of things and our own comfort. However, I learned the hard way, from when I kept sheep, that the worst enemy of a sheep is another sheep. Healthwise that is. So I am very careful about who comes to my loft and I never allow a stray in at all.

I have always kept my young birds very clean but in spite of my best efforts I always get some YBS every year. I have learned to expect it and I make sure I prepare for it by having the medication in ready. After having a conversation with a vet, in which he suggested that I have been much too fussy and I could be doing more harm than good, I have decided to change. According to what the Vet said and what I have read since, birds need to build up their immunity and that it is no accident that they peck at all sorts of things. This includes their own droppings. Something I have definately tried to avoid them doing. Well it seems that I have probably been wrong. Immunity comes with the gradual exposure to the various pathogens that are in the droppings. According to what I have been reading, it is important to expose the birds to dry droppings. Apparently dry droppings do not carry worms or cocci so in that sense is fairly safe. So this year I have decided to give it a go. It will be deep litter for me. Mind you, I will have to be careful about the state of my boots when I go to the house because my dear wife will go balistic if I carry any of it there. I would be very interested in the views the rest of you to what I have said.

 

 

refering to the boscheind flyers who i mentioned a while back...they have dried droppings in their lofts that have been there a long while...which they explain in their vid that it builds up natural immunity to diseases.

 

 

[david.j]

one of top fliers in club hotrod and has been for long time from 70 mls to 570 mls i was in his loft last sunday and i can say they look absolutely class in health and contentment so all i can say is hes obviously doing something right

[Guest Vic]

I have aways been a daily scraper believer, but as the years roll on, it can become a chore. For the last five years , at least, I have been using  newspapers in my nest boxes(breeding or not) which I find is the best method. I normally use a full newspaper for each half the w/h nestboxes, and folded the right way. are very easy to extract when need be. The paper also absorbs the moisture from the dropppings on damp days, and occasionally I  remove 2 sheets at a time. I have now started to use easybed in the ob sections, on the floor, after experimenting with it in my yb loft, for the last five years. No threat of dampness with this method, which afterall is our worst eneny. Never had it so easy! ;D    

[heather down]

I clean out first thing in morning before the birds are fed and then in the afternoon. Whilst they have young in the nests I clean out more often. It keeps the loft fresh and clean, much healthier for the birds and myself, stops diseases spreading. Fresh water every day if not twice daily.

[Guest strapper]

a lot of diseases that enter your lofts are from ourselves on the bottom of our shoes.

imagine what has been in the garden in the night and what could they have done outside the loft ready for us to tread in and carry into the loft.

i use deep litter ,clean out perches/boxes each day...thorough clean on weekend,and a spray of loft cleanser down on floor.

i use items that are in my household in the drinker each day.

 

[hotrod]

one of top fliers in club hotrod and has been for long time from 70 mls to 570 mls i was in his loft last sunday and i can say they look absolutely class in health and contentment so all i can say is hes obviously doing something right

 

can you still get IN THE LOFT ?, must be about 2feet deep lol

[john@formula 1 lofts]

Y/b's just like young children if you keep them to clean and away from germs as soon as they go to school or in the race basket they are always ill. kids that grow up playing in the dirt and young birds that are not cleaned out don't seem to get ill.

 

The floor of my y/b's are not cleaned from the day they are weaned until after the last y/b race, perches are scrapped once or twice a week. and my y/b's race as well as most. And a very good friend of mine never cleaned out his birds from 1 year to the next and he won many top races combine fed even getting a bird home from Rome into essex another year he had 8 from 12 on the day from Thurso 500 + mile when less then 30 made it home in the whole combine.

 

Deep litter is also very good

 

As for drinkers i have seen some of the best distance flyers in the country with drinkers Green with alge 365 days a year

 

JMO

 

John

[phillips]

like to keep the birds clean 24/7 the birds get used to you being around them also if you think about it would you live in a dirty house or would you drink from a used mug ?

clean is good

[terry mccarthy]

takes me about 3 hrs to clean lofts and thats with easy bed in racers on floor and barley straw on babys and stock i try to do it as much as possible but at moment working out every other day drinkers are cleaned every day

[OLDYELLOW]

Y/b's just like young children if you keep them to clean and away from germs as soon as they go to school or in the race basket they are always ill. kids that grow up playing in the dirt and young birds that are not cleaned out don't seem to get ill.

 

The floor of my y/b's are not cleaned from the day they are weaned until after the last y/b race, perches are scrapped once or twice a week. and my y/b's race as well as most. And a very good friend of mine never cleaned out his birds from 1 year to the next and he won many top races combine fed even getting a bird home from Rome into essex another year he had 8 from 12 on the day from Thurso 500 + mile when less then 30 made it home in the whole combine.

 

Deep litter is also very good

 

As for drinkers i have seen some of the best distance flyers in the country with drinkers Green with alge 365 days a year

 

JMO

 

John

 

this i agree with , just look at hospitals and super bugs as there  too clean and the bugs form resistant strains exactly same when over medicate and treat birds blind good post i tried to refrain from posting ;-)

[little sam]

just to answer this post , i or you go into the loft as it is your loft, you feed your birds in your loft the birds know you and it's you who feeds them , you or i have been doing this since they were born so they should be used to it, well my birds are and it does'nt affect my birds performances , i know i would not like to stand or walk all over $hite all day .I know if i cleaned out in the morning by lunchtime, never mind 24hrs, there would be some amount of $hit in my loft and i dont keep a big team, so if you like to keep your birds like this fine, i know i would'nt have pigeons if they were'nt cleaned out properly.

 

 

That maybe how YOU like to think about it, I will stick to my ways thanks

[NW USA]

Scraping the floor and perches doesn't have anything to do with disinfecting the loft using cleaning products. It just keeps the sh*t off of my and the birds feet. So I hardly think its preventing the birds from developing resistance. Waterers that aren't cleaned and or switched on a regular basis will mean a sik flock instead of a sick bird.

[Hogni]

I never clean the drinkers, i never have sick birds, i clean the lofts as little as i get away with, not because i don´t want to or don´t have the time, but because it is of no benefit to the birds to clean to much, again i never have sick birds, i never medicate against anything. If there is much dampness i will of course clean because then it is of benefit to my birds.

[NW USA]

I never clean the drinkers, i never have sick birds, i clean the lofts as little as i get away with, not because i don´t want to or don´t have the time, but because it is of no benefit to the birds to clean to much, again i never have sick birds, i never medicate against anything. If there is much dampness i will of course clean because then it is of benefit to my birds.

 

Sounds like its working for you. Hope it continues.

[Pego]

clean the loft 3 or 4 times a day in fact it also good for the birds to seeing  you in the loft two

 

Depends which system you fly your birds on. Some systems you are better only entering section to let out or train.

[Guest gladdo]

well all my lofts are cleaned every day bar the young bird loft at the start ...i like them to have a very good immune system but once the season starts its then cleaned 2 times a day ... i think this is important ...you ever here the saying aswell people with very clean heads may have fleas more so than the ones that dont !!!!! just do as it suits you but as long as ventillation is fine and dont overcroud the main thing !!!!! mikey

[thunderboult]

we keep our's on dry droppings and i sprinkle loft treatment on as well, as long as they're kept dry i don't think it will harm the birds. we never had yb sickness or sickness in old birds . i've never propely cleaned a drinker since i started, if there's any residue build up in the drinker i use my hand to clean it with what ever water's left in it empty that out  then i put fresh water in. we're building towards natural immunity for birds who fly the longer races.

[Guest strapper]

i think that it doesnt matter how much we try to prevent certain types of illnesses they will arise at times.

some...not all! fanciers who claim never to have illnesses or infections of canker etc dont let on that they do!  

i know one top flyer who had retired from the sport was always believed to be never using products...its funny how he had products for sale after....and they were products that had been bought in recent years.

 

its not a case of what products we use its a case of how its used!

i use deep litter and admit to having problems when /if i have them....there are certain members that send ill birds and wonder why they lose them,immunity doesnt stop your birds from having diseases...it just helps to prevent them!!

clean lofts are ok  and deep litter lofts are ok....there is a difference from having droppings on the floor and a total neglect !

as i stated in another post...there is no evidence that a clean loft produces more winners then a deep litter loft.

one thing that i cant understand is how can a clean loft help to build up natural immunity if they are not in contact with any germs  wotever?...dont we inject a small dose of viruses into our birds to help provide an immunty to them?..pmv vaccine! for instance.

[OLDYELLOW]

i feel a post brewing ill type one when i get back from the school run ;-)

[Williedoo]

Dont be long then

[pigeonpete]

I like to clean my loft most days but it is more for me then the birds

 

whats cleaning? lol

[OLDYELLOW]

Well from been a wee boy i have had pigeons via my great uncle and he kept both racers and fancy birds in two seperate lofts , and as long as i can rember these lofts were never cleaned very often and bone dry well ventilated and when i got older i cleaned them out , but these birds never ailed and were never treated for anything if ill it dint fit the bill so was removed , my uncle was a bit obsessed with the racers having fantails mainly the cocks so if a blue on had one id tell him knowing it be removed ;-) , well anyway i grew up was finaly allowed a loft bought a few pigeons ectra and kept them as pets no ailments no medications then decided to race disaster they werent up to it dropping werent right had various diseases , got friendly with a great fancier and he showed me the way of the medicine bottle and the vet had a great success but after 2 years of winning everything my birds werent fit for purpous , they were weak and why because too much treating and picked up everything in the basket going as i had weakened there immune systems . Now i have spent a few years a long with a vet and test for many years i went to the vet to test and i have treated when needed i've looked for natural products and have finaly arrived at a point where i dont treat i prevent using just a few products and work with there natural immunity , dry droppings are fine for your birds they can even get vitamins from eating them , i used to clean like i had a OCD , but now i enjoy my birds have deeplitter in 2 lofts others i scrape , i dont clean much during breeding as this can cause the birds stress however i do far better things like stoke the birds heads on the nest and play with the ybs better for them to be happy than clean ;-) at the moment as getting closer to racing my birds are getting cleaned out early morning and after first race be cleaned out twice a day , but as you can see if you want short term gain treat your pigeons within a inch of there life they'll win for 2 or 3 seasons by 4 th you'l be itching yer heed and wondering why same birds arent no good any more , Enjoy your birds ;-) 8)

[dazza]

What vitamins do they get from eating dry poo?

[OLDYELLOW]

What vitamins do they get from eating dry poo?

 

i believe it's vitamin D when i read the article many years ago , but im not 100% sure someone with a better memory will know ;-) or someone who read the article