Over the years, every possible location for a dovecote has been used. In Belgium and the Netherlands, some of the best fanciers continue to regularly install lofts and literally keep the pigeons in their lofts!

Although this is convenient and easily accessible from inside the house, it is actually not as sanitary as an outdoor space for your birds. In many places it is illegal to keep pigeons inside your home and will result in your local health inspector or public health officer locking it down.

For very little cost, you can turn almost any outdoor structure into a great loft where your pigeons will be happy. It could be a shed, a barn, or an old barn; anything has potential!

As an example of this, during World War II the British Army converted several double-decker buses into huge portable dovecotes that could easily hold hundreds of birds. The only real limit is your imagination (as long as it’s in a healthy environment: you don’t want the loft to make your birds sick),

There are fanciers who only build their lofts over the stables in the belief that the strong smell of manure will help their pigeons find their way home. It could be true, but you can never be sure! All I can think of, in this situation, is that the lofts above the stables will have all kinds of horrible fumes that will be seen in the air that your pigeons are breathing, which can cause them great discomfort.

In reality, for most people, the best and cheapest structures to convert will be old sheds, potting sheds, or garages.