Trapping Made Easy

One of the aspects of pigeon racing I really enjoy is visiting other peoples lofts. Everyone has such interesting ideas. It’s always fun to check out someone’s loft and get some ideas on how you can improve your own loft. And as everyone is proud of his or her loft and birds this gives them a chance to show it off.

But one of the aspects of loft design that really bewilders me is the different trapping methods I have seen. I have seen some pretty straight forward trapping methods like a open window to some pretty complicated routes where a bird coming home from a race has to get out a road map to find his way in the loft, or be a contortionist. I can’t imagine how the fancier ever got his birds trained to find their way in to begin with. I have seen shoots on the roof where the birds slide in. Multiple holes where they go out into the aviary through one hole with bobs, back into the loft through another hole with bobs, and on race return through a third hole with bobs. I have seen traps on top of the aviaries, under the aviaries, along side of the aviaries. I know sometimes because of loft design everything can’t be perfect but why make it harder than we have to. Here’s my thoughts on trapping.

All of our aviaries have hinged fronts that hinge down to the ground. There is only one hole that the birds go in and out to and from the aviary. All our aviaries are four feet wide and whatever length the loft is. 6, 8, or 12 feet. The aviary fronts don’t have to be sloped like ours are. The birds naturally get used to going in and out of this single hole to and from the aviary. When we fly them we just hinge the aviary front down and away they go. On return from flying the aviary floor is the landing board. They land on the aviary floor and with a couple of steps walk right in. They already are used to this single hole so they don’t have anything new to learn coming home from a race.

Our trap or hole is sized according to our electronic clock’s antenna or sensor. In our case 20 inches wide by 12 inches high. On the inside of the loft I have a door that is hinged at the top than folds down to cover the hole. The door can be latched up to let the birds out or let down to cover the hole to keep them in. When we train or race the door is propped open about four inches at the bottom of the hole. This makes the bird stop on top of the sensor, look down and then kind of fall in. This slows the bird down so it will get clocked and keeps the bird from getting out once there in. Most of you have heard of the “Wicked Flag Lady” and her training methods. With this system and Linda’s training the birds never land anywhere but on the landing board just a few steps from the sensor. Quite often the birds will dive in from a race and land right on the sensor and just dive right in.

This system of folding aviary front and only one hole has worked really well for us. This year a fellow club member adopted our aviary style and he said even with out any additional training his birds now trap right in with out landing on the roof first. He figures this has saved him about 30 seconds per bird. Last year we missed a concourse first by three seconds, and this year missed a 100-mile club first by .035 yard per minute. That’s 1 and ½ inches from 100 miles. In today’s age of electronic clocking where races can be decided by tenths of a second our birds need all the help they can get. Make life easy for them and they will reward you with fast trapping on race day.