A few of our young birds

blueskylofts wrote:

Skywalker wrote:

Lofty wrote:

Yep you got it, well done luke[/quote

Video looks OK to roy

Nice little vid' Skywalker.

I like the look of your young birds.  I very much like the grizzles - what breed are they.

If I could give you a little advice re carpentry.  I noticed that you just have a piece of battening screwed to a cross member, for the birds to sit on.  If you want to stop the screws splitting the wood - drill through the battening before you screw them.  For the type of dry wall screws you have used, a 3 mm or 1/8 inch hole is good enough.

Also you will find that the 'chip board' you have used will get damp and start to expand and warp in time.  Could you give everything a coat of emulsion paint.  I know ply is really expensive, but chip board is not the best thing to use in a loft.  I guess many use it because it is cheaper than ply, but still ....

All the VERY best with your birds.

Yours in Sport
Phil (blueskylofts)

Agree with comment about chip board but disagree about paint, the Jansenn Bros liked their wood uncoated so that it could breathe. Paint looks nice when new but once the birds have crapped everywhere it looks messy.

MDF is not good in the loft it cannot deal with a scraper, laminates are ok and although I have not used it I think the laminate flooring would be good to use in the loft as flooring or perches.

Lofty wrote:

DAVID, are you reading this, see there is 1 person in the world that likes me, ( if he didn't my daughter would give him a dogs life )

one person in the world lofty ? your son in law ? I take it your daughter doesn't like you then.........

Only when I put my hand in my pocket Dave

I know the feeling lofty, mines 23 years old, works, and still I`ve got my hand in my pocket......

It never stops David, it never stops

Back to the birds, 6 of the oldest are now raking quite a distance and are in the air for around an hour, includes the red pied and the dark chequer in pic number 2, and the chequer Luke put up that he liked, hopefully the younger ones won't be to far behind them now , then the road work will start, Luke won't sleep when that starts

sounds to be going well lofty, glad to hear it .....

how many ybs you got ?

We're up to 18 now David, there's some in the nests still, and we've got another 6 promised from club members, we'll see how training goes and if we drop a few then yb racing won't happen, just train them up for yearlings next year and start from there again, we know we have to take things steady so not going to push to hard

Lofty wrote:

We're up to 18 now David, there's some in the nests still, and we've got another 6 promised from club members, we'll see how training goes and if we drop a few then yb racing won't happen, just train them up for yearlings next year and start from there again, we know we have to take things steady so not going to push to hard

Looking forward to what ever happens tho roy I really am

great to see such enthusiasm s/walker...

David wrote:

great to see such enthusiasm s/walker...

I won't lie David so far I am really enjoying and I feel it's only going to get better

yep, it will certainly get better when you start racing and getting into the positions..........

caramel wrote:

blueskylofts wrote:

Skywalker wrote:

Lofty wrote:

Yep you got it, well done luke[/quote

Video looks OK to roy

Nice little vid' Skywalker.

I like the look of your young birds.  I very much like the grizzles - what breed are they.

If I could give you a little advice re carpentry.  I noticed that you just have a piece of battening screwed to a cross member, for the birds to sit on.  If you want to stop the screws splitting the wood - drill through the battening before you screw them.  For the type of dry wall screws you have used, a 3 mm or 1/8 inch hole is good enough.

Also you will find that the 'chip board' you have used will get damp and start to expand and warp in time.  Could you give everything a coat of emulsion paint.  I know ply is really expensive, but chip board is not the best thing to use in a loft.  I guess many use it because it is cheaper than ply, but still ....

All the VERY best with your birds.

Yours in Sport
Phil (blueskylofts)

Agree with comment about chip board but disagree about paint, the Jansenn Bros liked their wood uncoated so that it could breathe. Paint looks nice when new but once the birds have crapped everywhere it looks messy.

MDF is not good in the loft it cannot deal with a scraper, laminates are ok and although I have not used it I think the laminate flooring would be good to use in the loft as flooring or perches.

MMMMMMmmmmmmm clash of cultures here I suspect all my breeding boxes are made out of chip board etc & painted also & they have been in place for 25 odd years. One would admit thou of a better quality than what Skywalker has used & much the same for my floors here which get a regular varnish as such. Horses for courses but laminate type floors or perches are just to slipperry for the birds I've found. But then     as a wise man once said     I know nothing.

Knackered wrote:

caramel wrote:

blueskylofts wrote:

Skywalker wrote:

Lofty wrote:

Yep you got it, well done luke[/quote

Video looks OK to roy

Nice little vid' Skywalker.

I like the look of your young birds.  I very much like the grizzles - what breed are they.

If I could give you a little advice re carpentry.  I noticed that you just have a piece of battening screwed to a cross member, for the birds to sit on.  If you want to stop the screws splitting the wood - drill through the battening before you screw them.  For the type of dry wall screws you have used, a 3 mm or 1/8 inch hole is good enough.

Also you will find that the 'chip board' you have used will get damp and start to expand and warp in time.  Could you give everything a coat of emulsion paint.  I know ply is really expensive, but chip board is not the best thing to use in a loft.  I guess many use it because it is cheaper than ply, but still ....

All the VERY best with your birds.

Yours in Sport
Phil (blueskylofts)

Agree with comment about chip board but disagree about paint, the Jansenn Bros liked their wood uncoated so that it could breathe. Paint looks nice when new but once the birds have crapped everywhere it looks messy.

MDF is not good in the loft it cannot deal with a scraper, laminates are ok and although I have not used it I think the laminate flooring would be good to use in the loft as flooring or perches.

MMMMMMmmmmmmm clash of cultures here I suspect all my breeding boxes are made out of chip board etc & painted also & they have been in place for 25 odd years. One would admit thou of a better quality than what Skywalker has used & much the same for my floors here which get a regular varnish as such. Horses for courses but laminate type floors or perches are just to slipperry for the birds I've found. But then     as a wise man once said     I know nothing.

This is turning into a marathon so here goes.

Paint will protect chipboard but still does not allow loft surroundings to breathe, can understand about slippery laminatetes as flooring but suspect could be more suited for perches and easy cleaning.

The only laminates in my loft are on top of the feed hoppers, one home made and two others from Pallats which were good value.

While typing I recalled SWE Bishop had his loft floor covered with vynil floor tiles the equivalent of todays laminates. Easy to clean with a mop or similar after scraping and resistant to invasion by parasites.

Please excuse my spelling errors, fat finger syndrome I suspect

caramel wrote:

Please excuse my spelling errors, fat finger syndrome I suspect

Not a problem/issue Caramel  all spelling mistakes here  carry no penalty etc, & if they did, I would be ratsh*te . Now !!! I have the Bishop book it's the one where the loft is so long one would need a bus to reach the other end there & the black & white look     must have been in vogue I suspect, when he had the tiles laid down in his new loft. Now, back to the chipboard bit As I suspect you know/understand I live in a very dry climate down here & your thoughts/concerns do not really come into play for the vast majority of flyers & paint & chipboad tends to be the in thing, as such .

you can buy a specialised chip-board for bathrooms which is designed for damp areas even the ordinary stuff is ok if you give it a lick of unibond it will last years personally i paint nothing in the loft and use ply but do have a set of box perches made from chipboard the type for bathroom floors a lot of lofts are for the owners benefit when it should be for the birds...so long as they look happy and healthy i say use what ya like but mdf is a non starter

ive nest boxes made from both, chip board and ply...and I prefer the ply ones, one thing that is a problem is the floors of the chip boxes tend to bow ...probably because I feed and water in the nest boxes when breeding, but a tip from our "Geordie type" Raymond really puts a stop to this....he suggested fitting a piece of wooden dowelling into the centre hole of the block if fitting widowhood fronts, this stops any bowing of the horizontal parts of the nest boxes........