Everything the loft needs, except the birds
Lofts, feed, timing and race baskets, off the Delmas road since 1998
See what we stockThe loft behind the shop
Duiwehok is run by Hennie and Marika Naudé from the plot outside Delmas where we have kept birds since 1998. We fly about sixty in the widowhood section with the Delmas & District club, under the Highveld Federation, and everything on this shelf is something we use ourselves on a Saturday.
A season is not cheap and we would rather you heard that from us than found out in March. Sixty birds get through roughly R900 of mixture a month once racing starts, rings and club fees come to about R2 400 a year, and the clock is the one thing you buy once. Ask us which of it you can put off for a season — usually the answer is most of it.
What we keep on the shelf
Baskets, race dayWillow with steel corner bands and a mesh front, 80 × 50 × 28 cm, the same pattern our club has basketed with for forty years. It takes twenty birds without crowding them and it will outlast a plastic one by a decade if you keep it off wet grass and out of the sun between races. The lid straps are leather rather than nylon, and when they eventually go we re-stitch them here for nothing — bring the basket in on a Friday and it goes back with you the same afternoon.
R1 850.00Add to cart 
Timing, race dayHandheld clock for electronic clocking. It runs off the antenna pad at the trap, holds a full season of races without you clearing it, and prints a sheet the club will accept. We come out to the loft, set it up on your pad and show you how to strike it and read it back before you fly with it — that visit is included inside 60 km of Delmas, and after that it is R6 a kilometre. It is the one thing on this shelf you buy once.
R7 450.00Add to cart 
Feed, race seasonMaize, dun and maple peas, wheat, safflower, milo and a little hemp, screened twice so there is no dust left in the bag. We mix it here every second week, which means nothing sits in the store going stale or picking up weevils over a wet January. One 25 kg bag carries a section of twenty about five weeks in racing condition. Bring the empty bags back on your next trip and we take R10 off each one.
R610.00Add to cart 
Loft fittings, waterHot-dip galvanised, five litres, with a lip narrow enough that the birds drink from it but cannot climb in and bath. That matters more than people expect — a fouled bath drinker is how half a loft ends up on medication in February. Five litres carries twenty birds through a hot Highveld day without a refill, and the base twists off so you can scrub it properly instead of rinsing and hoping.
R265.00Add to cart 
Breeding, loft fittingsUnglazed clay, 250 mm across, ten to a box. They hold their shape and wash out clean between rounds instead of going soft and sour the way pressed paper does by the third round. Ribbed on the inside so the youngsters get a grip in the first week and you are not dealing with splay legs at day ten. Put a mat in each one, keep them off the concrete floor, and they will still be in the loft in twenty years.
R340.00Add to cart 
Lofts, loft fittingsPine and galvanised mesh, a 600 × 450 mm opening, bolted straight onto the loft front with a landing board wide enough to take an antenna pad underneath. The bobs hang loose and swing easy, so a tired bird drops through instead of standing on the roof looking at you while the clock runs. It comes unfinished on purpose — give it two coats of exterior sealer before it goes up and it will see out the loft.
R1 290.00Add to cart 
