---

From: Barna Mink <barnoat@gmail.com>
To: MickaCoo@mickaboo.org
Sent: Mon, June 28, 2010 10:21:33 PM
Subject: [MickaCoo] Review: Nest Boxes from NEPLS

Hello,

I wanted to send a review of the nest boxes I recently ordered from New England Pigeon and Livestock Supply:

http://www.nepigeonsupplies.com/catalog.php?item=346&catid=Nesting%20Supplies

Until now my birds have nested in cardboard boxes, but for a long time now I have been planning to upgrade their housing to something better. I am pretty good with tools and lumber, so I kept wanting to build boxes myself, however I am really busy and could never get around to do it. I realized that this is unfair to the birds, so I broke down and ordered four of these online. Yes, they're expensive and shipping was exorbitant. Yuck.

The company itself was nice to deal with and shipping was prompt, though it's not the kind of company I'd do business with usually -- frankly that I gave money to something with "livestock" in its name makes me sick -- but, again, the birds needed better housing and I had no time to spend on building them better houses.

The quality of workmanship is about what I think I could have produced (that is to say, rather amateurish), but it does the job well. The boxes are sturdy and will last a long time. The front  panel is removable, giving easy access to the inside of the box for cleaning. Originally the boxes come with a sliding tray with a center divider that's supposed to be good for breeding; obviously I have no use for such a thing, and I find that removing the sliding tray altogether works well for my purposes and also leaves more room for the larger kings.

This nest box design does seem to speak to pigeons -- my birds took to them very, very fast. Currently 3 of the 4 are occupied.

One thing that's nice for me is that you can close and lock the "door" on the boxes. I hear that breeders use this to mate birds by keeping them locked up for longer periods of time. I however use it to lock up the couples on nights when I want to sleep in the next day... My loft is directly under our bedroom and some of my more rambunctious males make sure to start making noise at 5:30 AM in the summer. It can get pretty bad at times, so the realization that when the males are locked up together with their mate, they stay nice and quiet until I unlock the doors in the morning, is sort of a breakthrough for us. (They are never locked up very long into the day -- just a little longer than 5:30 AM :).

Overall this was a good purchase, and while expensive, still worth the money, given my particular situation. The birds love nesting in these, and they have made my loft a good deal quieter and also neater looking. Someone handy with more time on their hands could easily build these themselves.

Barna