lofttour

Falcone Fantails Loft Tour

Falcone Residence/ Loft of Falcone Fantails

Building the home from scratch was quite a chore but also had many advantages in the sense of making the loft integral to the home. I presently can go from my home to the loft in a short sleeve shirt in the dead of winter via the garage. In this photo on the top right, the dormers above the garage are significant of the loft area, in total approximately 500 square feet dedicated to the hobby I love. The photo on the right shows the house entrance via the garage and the stair case leading up to the loft area, excuse the mess there is still some contruction going on.

"Air Quality No Problem? "

Air quality during the winter months was one of my biggest troubles. New homes are built with extreme tightness/draft free. The air that was in the loft typically stayed all winter long. The solution was an air exchanger as seen in the above photo, it has a capability of 97% heat recovery and changes the air many times per day, the photo on the top right is an exhaust port which is located in different parts of the loft. Presently there are three exhaust ports located in loft. The photo on the right is the fresh air inlet from outside, the air quality is just as though you were standing outside. Another neat feature is the air exchanger has a built in dehumidifier which is adjustable, presently I have it set at 50% humidity level.

Falcone Fantails Loft Tour

"Air Quality No Problem? "

As for heat there is no supply of heat accept for the air preheater for the outside air seen in the photo on the left, simply heats the outside air before it travels through the air exchanger where it gets filtered. As you can see on the right photo temperatures seem to vary dependant on outside temperature but on this particular day it was - 22 celcius ambient. The preheater also has different settings on it so you can control how much the air is preheated.

In With The Birds

The south side of my loft is a double pen holding homers in the rear (5 - 7 pairs) viewed in the rear and loose breeding pen toward the front. My choice of breeding fantails is in individual breeding cages but some times you get that hen that gets backed up and gets about impossible to fertile so in they go in an open breeding pen, typically in this area I will allow up to six pairs to breed, leaving me with three empty nesting compartments.

Upon entry to my loft this is the view as seen in the photo on the left, this would be the north side of the house (front) An Interesting note, there are four rooms and all preety much hit all four directions of the compass bang on. In warmer months the door upon entry is left open and all three dormer windows are opened giving the loft plenty of ventilation, in this and other pictures you can see one of the downfalls of the loft design is the angles of the walls and ceilings are hard to work with when building breeding cages and pens.

The picture above is on the east side and typically is used for the young birds. This area is approximately 120 square feet of floor space. In the future I will probably build a suspended cage in the rear to allow for more room.

Before my fantails go in either loose breeding pens or in individual breeding pens the pair will spend at least one night in the boxes in the above photo to make sure that they know what I need them to do.

This time around I spent a good deal of time designing my individual pens and they turned out quite nice. All levels can be opened up to make one large pen, and have beened designed for easy clean up, the section viwed below the door on the right side photo is not in a fixed position, when removed the debris can be easily removed, all pens have individual water dishes and feeders which are elevated off the floor 4 inches to prevent soiling. The water dishes are the parrot feeders with a water bottle inverted for self feeding. Presently I have 15 pens in different sections, a 9 unit viewed the above left photo, a 4 unit, and a 2 unit. All pens are 30 x 32 x 18 in size.

" MY ROOM "

YEP!!!! Just like the subtittle says......This is my room, separate from the loft area is where evaluations are done. This room has been wired for television, phone and internet......what more do you need. Unfortunatly I could not back up far enough to have one photo of the whole room so I'm forced to take a couple of shots, the photo on the left is one of my favourite thing about my loft, NO LUGGING WATER AROUND!! and I have hot water too. The computer is also used for keeping track of petigree's and breeding records. The photo on the top right basically is a show pen like everyone has but take note at the height of the walking surface relative to my chair, I like to evaluate my breeding pairs/show pigeons at eye level, not looking down at them. One other interesting feature of this show pen is the center door is hinged which makes it great for taking photos.

This is a photo looking into the breeding pen room from by Show room.

" My Support Division "

My two biggest supporters and helpers Felicia and Pina, on the photo on the left they are watering and feeding the fantails in the individual pens and in the photo on the right Pina is holding the first youngster of the 2004 season.