My husband has been keeping pigeons for over 10 years now. We have homing pigeons that he uses in bird dog training (his side business). As his business is growing, so is the need for a renewable resource, hence the pigeons. Our current pigeon coop is a fraction of the size of what we needed to allow for a healthy breeding and reproduction of these homing pigeons, so we decided to build a pigeon mansion for the birds. We upgraded them from a 4x4 building that was overcrowded and falling apart to an 8x10 building that will also have room to raise quail.
I have to admire my husband's skills, ones he has kept from me for so many years, as he is not a carpenter or farmer, he is actually a nurse by trade. What he did is, in my mind, pretty magnificent, considering he really didn't have any plans. What is really cool too is that these projects are completely financed by the really neat old distressed barn wood we sold from the demolition of our old barn.
We decided on a spot that we will construct 3 of these livestock buildings. The buildings are all going to be 8 x 10 buildings with one housing the flying foul (pigeons and eventually quail), one housing the chickens (repopulating our flock next month), and one for our daughter's rabbit business, or if that doesn't fair well, possibly as an outdoor canning kitchen for me! (though hoping the bunny biz goes well- as I sit here typing we are expecting kits any moment!)
Hubby and I priced out the lumber and he drafted a rough sketch with a supply list, off we went. First the floor, then sides and a roof that our 10 year old helped nail down.
If you keep pigeons, or are fascinated by this idea, check out my many pigeon and livestock boards on pinterest,