In setting up the loft we covered space, ventilation and nest boxes in general. This article is about the rooftop specifically — because the rooftop in Egypt is a harsh environment: 45 degrees in summer, 12 hours of direct sun, cats, rats, and a neighbour complaining about droppings on the washing.

1. Orientation is the first decision

Face the loft opening north or north-east — the light morning sun comes in, and the scorching afternoon (western) sun is blocked. The west and south walls are the ones that heat up; keep them solid or shade them.

2. Heat — enemy number one

Pigeons tolerate cold far better than heat. Above 35 degrees the birds stop eating, the cocks' fertility drops, and eggs spoil.

  • A double roof: a second layer (timber or sheet metal) above the original roof with a 10–15 cm gap — the air passing between them carries most of the heat away. The cheapest and most effective solution there is.
  • Shade with 70% agricultural netting on the western side.
  • A mesh floor raised off the concrete — concrete stores heat and gives it back at night.
  • Ventilation from bottom to top: openings near the floor let air in, openings under the roof let it out — hot air rises on its own.
  • Cool water twice a day during heatwaves, and a drinker always in the shade. Pigeons refuse hot water and go thirsty.
  • The bath twice a week in summer cools the birds and reduces external parasites (see ectoparasites).

3. Cats and rats

  • Steel mesh, not plastic — a cat cuts plastic in a night.
  • Mesh spacing 1 cm: any wider and a rat gets in; anything over 2 cm and a cat reaches through and snatches a squab from behind the mesh.
  • A door with a real lock, not a latch — cats learn.
  • Rats come for spilled feed — a hanging feeder or a dish with a lip, and clean the floor every day. Rats are also a main carrier of salmonella.
  • Never put rat poison inside the loft — the pigeons eat it.

4. Neighbours — the problem that closes lofts

Most problems come from three things: droppings on the washing, feathers, and noise.

  • Keep the flight opening away from the neighbours' washing lines, and if that is not possible, fly at a fixed time (early morning).
  • Clean around the loft, not only inside it.
  • Train the pigeons to come in on a signal (a whistle + feed) so they don't sit on other people's roofs.
  • Most important: talk to the neighbours before they complain — and a gift of a pair of squabs to the neighbour's child solves more than any quarrel.

5. Winter on the rooftop

The problem is not the cold — it is wind and rain. Cover the side the wind comes from (usually north-west) with sheeting or timber in December and January, and leave the rest open for ventilation. A fully closed loft = damp = coccidiosis and respiratory disease.

6. Before you build

  • Make sure light construction is allowed on your building's roof.
  • Weight: a 3×2 m timber loft with its birds and equipment can reach 300 kg — on the slab, not on the cornices.
  • Keep a water line nearby — carrying jerrycans every day in summer makes people give up keeping pigeons.
A well-built rooftop loft is no dearer than a wrong one — it just thought about the sun, the cats and the neighbour before the pigeons.