Building a home for my pigeon

First off let me start off by saying I have never owned a pigeon, I am making this for a pigeon that I found out side of a local A&W cold hurt and hungry. After sending his pic to a couple of places it was decided he was probably a domestic pigeon, so I have decided to keep the poor guy. I will be getting him a friend shortly after the new cage is done, I know that they are flocking birds and figured another pigeon would be a good idea.

Bellow I have attached a rough picture of what will be my pigeons home. In reality it will be tall and long not short and stout, the picture was of a design for chickens that I modified. Sorry for the not so great edit job in advance :P It will be a lot like a modified rabbit hutch. I have lots of questions on how best to build it!

I will be keeping them outdoors and I do live in Canada, however the area that I am in is know for its modest weather. It only snowed twice here and stuck around for only a couple of days at best. I have read mixed reviews as to whether or not they need a heat source in winter. Some resources has said yes and other no, opinions?

As you can see in the pic it will have the nesting area full sectioned off if I can make it work. I would also likely add a large door with some acrylic windows so that some light will still get in there. The back wall will be solid to help protect against bad weather. The brown part is where I was trying to figure out if it should be solid or mesh, I was thinking solid to again fend off weather? The front will be mesh with a large door for easy cleaning.

It will have a water tight roof with a long window to let light in. I was thinking about making this removable so that when its nice out they can get all of the sun they need and when the weather is bad I can just pop it back on.

I am going to put a shelf along the back and scatter perches around.

The floor will be solid and covered with vinyl flooring so it can be disinfected. It will also have a small lip to allow a couple cm of shavings on the bottom to absorb droppings. I will likely put vinyl flooring on the back shelf as well as the surfaces in the nesting area so they can be disinfected as well. I was thinking I might paint the whole thing a nice forest green, what type of paint is safe to use inside as well as outside of the cage?

The location will be right outside of the sliding glass doors that lead out of my bedroom. Its sunken in and has a rock wall to the backside. In this way they will be well sheltered from the elements. Its also rather convenient because I can just reach out and feed them with ease.

There will also be vents along the bottom back wall and along the top, as well as one along the top in the nesting area.

Ideas? Thoughts? Comments? All are welcome and appreciated! Thanks in advance.

It's so kind of you to be considering housing for your sweet pigeon plus a mate!

A lot of thought has gone into this! I'm not the best person to advise you, because all of my pigeons live indoors, but I remember hearing members with outside lofts talking about the importance of making sure the housing is rodent-proof (they can be very determined, and if able to get into a loft, can cause an absolute tragedy!), to the extent of using a double wall of mesh.
Pigeons always prefer their homes longer rather than taller, and as a rule it's recommended that one pigeon should have an area 18" wide X 30" long X 18" wide. For a pair, the width and height can stay the same, it just needs to be longer.
As your pigeon wasn't born in your property, there's always a very good chance that, if allowed to fly free, he might take off to his former home. The same would apply to any adult female you got to be his mate. Taking that into consideration, the best option would be to build an extension to the loft, made of mesh, where they could sun themselves and fly a little, or at least exercise their wings.

Here's a link you may find helpful (the last 2 pictures look similar to your drawing):
http://www.pigeonangels.com/t2054-pictures-of-your-loft-or-where-you-keep-you-pigeons-or-doves

And this one has lots of cool and inexpensive ideas for accessories:
http://www.pigeonangels.com/t869-helpful-hints-and-tips

Something that I wouldn't use is wood shavings on the floor. This has proved very problematic for pigeons before, as for some reason they try to eat them and the wood shavings block up their digestive system and that's nearly always fatal.
A very simple alternative is to use sheets of newspaper. You can put seven down, and every day remove the top, soiled one. When you get to the last one, a week later, you can clean/disinfect the loft as needed, and when it's all dry you can start againwith the newspapers. It's really very time-saving, and very effective!

PS. I don't know what you have available in the American continent in terms of pigeon-safe paints, but if you ask for paints that are safe to use in a baby's room, they'll be safe for the pidgies too!

I think its about 35" wide and close to 3' tall? I have yet to take the measurements :P I went to work last wednesday and noticed a perfectly good.....not really to sure what to call it...a stand?.... I will just call it a wooden structure (it was part of the old cash desk downstairs), in the toss out area. I took one look at it and thought "wow pigeon perfect!" It was free so really I will probably only end up spending about $50 completing it as I just need to make the flight area, some legs, and other things I deem necessary, and some paint.

For paint I was thinking about using Rustolium spray paint. It is safe for children's toys and non toxic to animals (including birds) even when ingested after it has dried.

Rodents dont survive long in my yard, infect I havent seen the cats catch one in a LOOONNGGGG time. If they pijis did get into any trouble they are right outside of my window so I would hear any distress calls.

The pigeons will not be aloud to fly free due to picky neighbors and the high density of cats in the area.

I have not read about the shavings issue anywhere else..? I am currently using sani-chips. This can easily be changed but it is something I do prefer because it hides messes and absorbs the moisture in the fecal matter making it easy to clean. I will look into this further, thanks for the heads up!

Awesome comment Teresa, Just had to mention it...I really like the idea of painting it too, The pigeons will be so @ home. They may defend that whole coop wit there lives, they probaly host poker nights @ the living room table, Like that painting of the dogs playing poker. We should get a artist to paint pigeons playing poker in a living room

Teresa wrote:

PS. I don't know what you have available in the American continent in terms of pigeon-safe paints, but if you ask for paints that are safe to use in a baby's room, they'll be safe for the pidgies too!