Americans do not do Dovecotes!

[Greensage45]

I wonder why Americans do not utilize or engage in Dovecotes?

It is almost a forgotten word: Dovecote

In Europe and the UK they use Dovecotes. They build elaborate dovecotes that fit into the landscaping.

Is it because we have more Predatory Birds ?

Here is a nice link! http://www.dovecotes.co.uk/Picture Gallery.htm

I already have pigeons and wild doves visiting my garden; perhaps I should build a home for them.

Ron

 

[Blackbird]

 

[injunjoe]

So if you build they will come?
I have a saw!

 

[Blackbird]

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Ron,
I thought you might enjoy this -- a potted history of dovecotes. There is even a society devoted to it here!

http://www.buildinghistory.org/buildings/dovecotes.shtml

I have visited various country houses & farms which have huge buildings devoted to them , some dating back to the 16th Century.

I think one would look beautiful in your garden BUT might attract your many birds of prey......!!!! Over here they even have lovely decorative duck houses that float on big ponds or lakes.

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[seedcorn]

In NE Indiana, you would have an empty dovecote because of hawks. They would clean out 1 or 2 pigeons per day.

I really wish we could. When I had rollers, I had hawk problems even when I was out there w/them training them.

I love it when the zoos have days for the kids and they tell the kids that hawks don't attack chickens and pigeons. When you try to correct them (away from people), they get VERY defensive and tell me it's another animal doing it--even tho I've caught them doing it.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

seedcorn!

I know what you mean. Where I live in the UK we have a recently
re-introduced population of Red Kites -- they were extinct in Britain for years. I love watching them flying over the countryside. But it makes me laugh when I am told by experts that they only eat carrion -- I know this isn't true as I've watched them carry away live young rabbits from the field near us. I've seen them come after a small kitten of mine & they spend a lot of time overflying my garden& sitting in a nearby tree whenever I have young chicks in their day-pen in the garden.

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[digitS']

For the 1st time in nearly 10 years, I don't have Rollers in my yard. A pair only, that slowly became nonbreeding with age, lived in a cage in the henhouse until a couple years ago.

Most everyday, they were outdoors. The wild pigeons on the schoolhouse about 200 yards away kept the little guys from venturing far. Mostly, they visited the rooftops of the neighboring houses.

I lost the old hen to a hawk, at least that was what the neighbor children reported to me. There are sharp-shinned hawks, "pigeon" hawks, and peregrine falcons that show up in backyards in this part of the world.

Even small pigeons like Rollers are messy birds. I'm not sure if I would have wanted them free-flying all thru the daylight hours. Certainly, a dovecote in my veggie garden would have been out of the question.

Nevertheless, I did appreciate the simple accommodations they require. Before I built the henhouse, they lived nearly a year in a wire cage against the garage wall with nothing but a roost and a roof over it. And, they are very pretty birds so attractive housing suits them well in a landscaping scheme. I miss them and, remarkably, so does my wife.

Steve

 

[Greensage45]

Hey there,

I think I am going to seriously think about this. I have a ton of scrap wood and can think of all kinds of whimsical doorways.

The thing with the Dovecote in my yarden, and being in the Migratory Belt into Mexico, is the exquisite number of doves there are here.

We have the traditional desert natives, but more recently in the past 20 years an influx of invasive Migrations have brought us the White Wing Dove and the Ring-necked Dove. At any given time in my yarden there are at least 20 doves, and often I have to catch them out of the chicken coop and release them.

Nearby we have swallows, both the Violet Green Swallow, and the Purple Martin; but they never near the yard level and if I built a swallow house it would go to the sparrows!

I have only had one Hawk hit a chicken, a small sharped-shinned, and the chicken made such a racket that the hawk let go! LOL I think my safety net lies in the fact that I am surrounded by so many pigeons and doves everywhere.

I will think about it! I will need a good project this Winter; and a free project!

Ron

 

[Blackbird]