Corn Cobb Bedding....

seen some pictures of fanciers using corn cobb as bedding, anyone used it, or got any thoughts on it...?

This from anoher site.
""Corn Cobs - Once ingested, corn cobs can remain in the body for years before causing illness or death. Ingested corn cobs absorb moisture and swell, which can cause impaction, bleeding and death. Baby birds can also develop bacteria and yeast infections from the ingested material. When wet or in humid climates, cobs can grow Aspergillus molds which cause a respiratory disease in birds. This disease is difficult to treat and can be fatal. The cobs will also absorb moisture from your bird's droppings, promoting growth of organisms and hiding loose poops. It's a poor material for examining droppings.""
I assume shavings are the same, regards mould etc,. So I always but Diatamaceous earth powder or Stable Boy (powdered clay) on top. Light sprinkle.
PS. Will be trying Peat moss (acidic) in a week or so.

thanks for that hal, interesting reading....

Well, went to the feed store and picked up a bale of peat moss. Cleaned out some shavings from first 8 x 8 section ( yes, I did say I was not going to use them again a while back) and put down a thin layer. Had scooted the birds in to the second section. Have 3 they can wander back and forth in. All 8 x 8. The birds were very reluctant to venture in to the loft with the dark floor. Strange to them of course. 30 young birds plus 20 old birds. They have all flown together since Spring. No segregation. Also have a 12 by 6 footer that houses 12 pairs racers.
I used a thin layer of peat moss as it is slightly damp when purchased. It will be dry about now, 6 hours later.
However, back in the UK at 14 years old I worked on a farm that had many hen houses. Peat moss was the deep litter. But weekly had to go in and spread lime and fork the litter over. Seems like one neutralizes the other? I do not know.

cleaned one of my sections out today that has horse bedding in, was going to put new down, but decided to leave it just scraped, clean floor........best move I made I think.

gone off bedding now, 3 sections are scraped floors now and 2 still have bedding, for now until I get chance to take it out.

David wrote:

cleaned one of my sections out today that has horse bedding in, was going to put new down, but decided to leave it just scraped, clean floor........best move I made I think.

gone off bedding now, 3 sections are scraped floors now and 2 still have bedding, for now until I get chance to take it out.

Peat moss, corn cobs/straw these days I'm just a sh*te type of guy . Soon turns to what I call powderd droppings. Birds happy I'm happy & especially also my back .  

expensive david but I think you can hose them down...using sand in my lofts from now on less dusty ,sieve it through once per week scrape boxes and perches twice per day

Welcome

peel bros wrote:

Welcome

welcome to you too Raymond............

It went on wrong topic somehow lol...anyway I don't like the look of those cobs..I will stick with shavings

peel bros wrote:

It went on wrong topic somehow lol...anyway I don't like the look of those cobs..I will stick with shavings

Your mixing with the wrong crowd here Ray To many strange types here I suspect & you appear/seem to be loosing the plot, unfortunately .

Interesting from Belgium.


How to avoid dampness in the loft

Keeping your loft dry is one of the most important requirements for a successful career in pigeon racing.



The materials used, the location and the layout of your loft are important things to consider. Secondly, the fancier has to take the necessary precautions to keep his loft dry and to avoid dampness.

The lofts of Cattrysse-Beuselinck in Moere that were built above the corn loft of their warehouse faced north east. This is the direction from which rain is usually not coming. Their lofts are fairly old already and not very modern looking but they are cleaned every day. However, they are not too strict about that. The wooden floor and even the nest boxes are covered with lime. Sometimes you could find lumps of chalk nearly the size of a fist. Their lofts have always been dry as a bone.

We noticed the use of straw for the first time in the loft of Jules Vandaele in Kortemark. He uses a thick layer of straw in all lofts: the breeding loft, the racing loft, as well as the young bird loft. However, he also applied a thick layer of chalk on the wooden floor, then a layer of old jute sacks and then the straw. The entrance of his lofts face south east and the lofts are always completely dry.

At the moment quite a lot of fanciers use straw. Even the late Robert Thange used a layer of straw on the concrete floor of his spacious aviary where the hens were housed.
Others use white sand or wood shavings; the use of peat has mainly fallen into disuse because of the dust. An increasing number of fanciers take an interest in air fresheners. Some lofts seem to be very comfortable but there is no room for fresh air supply. In that case pigeons will not get in good shape. Many garden sheds do not create the perfect environment for your pigeons..

Many garden sheds are equipped with a roof made from sliding panels that you can slide open or closed. Near the wooden floor of each loft there is an opening of 15 by 15 cm that allows for fresh air to come in. The roof is equipped with air extractors to remove air from the loft. A fancier who does not care about good ventilation and who keeps his pigeons in a sealed off room will never have fully healthy pigeons. As a result they will probably not perform very well either. When it comes to cleaning the loft we noticed that there are advocates and opponents as well.

Jan Groudelaers from Opglabbeek, Belgian Champion in 1958-1960 and 1962 and second in 1959 and 1961 had a loft in Genk, where the pigeons were taken care of by Mr. Staesen, a retired mineworker. He is generally regarded as someone with a great knowledge of pigeons and someone who takes great care of his pigeons. Even though many fanciers agree about his skills as a pigeon fancier he would never clean his loft more than once in a year. Dung simply falls on the floor and is not removed. Staesen had plenty of time to clean his loft but he did not do it. He never changed his mind about it.

Albert Boterdael from Ganshoren, a fancier in Noyau, also cleans his loft only once a year. After annual cleaning he applies a layer of carbolineum on the floor (a concentration of 1 litre per 10 litre of water plus 100 grams of formalin!). It was nearly impossible to make him change his mind. He insisted that his way of keeping the loft dry was decent and that his pigeons were not affected by his approach. In any case his results proved that his pigeons were just fine.

Nowadays you will hardly find any fancier who does not clean his lofts regularly. A fancier who has time for it will do it on a daily basis. On the other hand, a fancier who has a daytime job and who can only spend a few hours a week in his loft will still try to clean the loft as often as possible. We would not recommend the method of having the dung pile up in the loft, sometimes up to 20cm, no matter how dry the loft is. For one thing it has a bad smell; we find it hard to believe that it does not smell bad at all, as some fanciers say!

If you want to keep your loft dry we advise you to do some basic cleaning every day and some thorough cleaning once a week. After cleaning the floor and the shelves, you should apply some lime or ground chalk. The main idea is to avoid humidity in the loft at any cost. For instance you should never keep the doors open if rain can leak in or when there is a thick mist.

We advise against concrete floors because they are subject to temperature fluctuation. Do not hesitate to add a thick layer of lime of at least 5 cm. On top of that you can install lathing and a wooden floor. Do not use Eternit for the floor or the boxes for the same reason as concrete. This material does not help against humidity either. Unalit would be a better option because this actually absorbs humidity.

An attentive fancier will never lose sight of his loft. It would be useless to introduce good pigeons with great origins to win prizes if you cannot manage to keep your loft dry.

For a few years many fanciers have been using grills in their lofts, either wooden, iron or galvanised. As any approach it has its merits and its downsides. We think cleaning the loft regularly is still the better option.

interesting reading hal, thanks for sharing......

David wrote:

interesting reading hal, thanks for sharing......

True I suspect we all here fit in there some where, some how David .
*****

Put the peat moss on the garden. Back to shavings. Floor looked like crap!

halcanada wrote:

Put the peat moss on the garden. Back to shavings. Floor looked like crap!

 Sounds OK to me Hal Easy, easy on the back type thing .  

Yes, easy on the back. The peat was getting dusty after one day. Lesson learned, but had to try it.

halcanada wrote:

Yes, easy on the back. The peat was getting dusty after one day. Lesson learned, but had to try it.

True Hal "try it". Would be a boring life as such, if one was never to try something new. Step out side the square as such at times & it can become quite magical I've found .

glad I removed the bedding the other day, and left it as scraped floors.........went down the loft today and found the rain had been leaking in, the floor was and inch deep in water, which I wouldn't have seen had the bedding still been down, managed to cover the roof temporary with some black visqueen until I get chance to re felt ......as it was still raining I had to climb up on the roof and nail it down, and nearly slid off the back of the loft because it was wet.........

anyway, a sure sign I did he right thing by getting rid of the bedding......

David wrote:

glad I removed the bedding the other day, and left it as scraped floors.........went down the loft today and found the rain had been leaking in, the floor was and inch deep in water, which I wouldn't have seen had the bedding still been down, managed to cover the roof temporary with some black visqueen until I get chance to re felt ......as it was still raining I had to climb up on the roof and nail it down, and nearly slid off the back of the loft because it was wet.........

anyway, a sure sign I did he right thing by getting rid of the bedding......

Been there done that type of thing Hal magic type moment . Pigeon loft of deep litter, covered in 3 inches of water. Oh what fun .