(really) Old School Dovecote

[dogfuel]

Is it practical/possible to maintain a dovecote as they were years (100s of years) ago?

Imagining a tower, predator resistant with the only access though a latched door for me and a high-up poop door for the birds... after a few pair are homed there, just leave it open, occasionally feed and clean and let'em do what birds do (stealing the occasional squab). Is this crazy?

I'm fascinated by this idea but know nothing about pigeons and only a little about chickens. I'm near a small city, but there is some grain grown in the area - would this work at all? If so, should I worry about the 'dirty' food and water they may find in the city?

Thanks in advance!

 

[nchls school]

To me there is just too many possible things that could end with the birds being dead.

 

[dogfuel]

To me there is just too many possible things that could end with the birds being dead.

Thanks for your reply! I sadly know there are many things that could lead to a bad end but am interested in which of these things are 'modern' (eg dove hunters, unhealthy food from behind a fast-food restaurant or toxins we now introduce to their environment) and which things have always been there (eg aerial predators or starvation)... Thanks again for your reply, please elaborate if you get the chance.

 

[jak2002003]

I am not sure if this helps. I had an old fashioned dovecote in my garden. It was not huge like the one you describe, I could not physically get inside it myself.

I kept a few pairs of white garden doves in it. They were free to come and go as they wanted, and I fed them 2 X a day by placing their feeder on the ground and calling them, and they drank from the stone birdbath.

Sure it looked very pretty, but it was a real chore to clean out and dangerous too, because I would have to go up my stepladders and it was high up. These was little protection from the wind and rain in bad weather and sometimes the birds would look cold and miserable.

The other thing was that there was no easy practical way to really check the squabs or the nests, and the worst thing was I had no control over their breeding, so I ended up was a massive overpopulation and birds were forced to sleep outside or even on our house roof. At this stage it was getting annoying for us and the neighbours, as the birds would hang out on their property and poop on his car and windows.

I got rid of it all, and set up a proper pigeon coop, which is 100 times better in all regards, even if its not to pretty to look at.

PS, if you get hawk in your area then they will pick off your free flying pigeons gradually till there are none left.

 

[dogfuel]

I am not sure if this helps. I had an old fashioned dovecote in my garden. It was not huge like the one you describe, I could not physically get inside it myself.

...

PS, if you get hawk in your area then they will pick off your free flying pigeons gradually till there are none left.

Nothing huge in mind... just a 48 x 48" 'house' with 10-12 nest boxes. I use milk crates for nest boxes and can easily swap the out and pressure wash the used ones.

regarding the hawk note and at the risk of admission to federal crimes... I have dealt with the hawks in my (immediate) area. After they picked up (literally) a little rat dog and then attacked a fearless roo (a little bantam guy protecting his full sized girls), something had to be done.

Thanks for the response!

 

[biophiliac]

The old, old school dovecotes made sense when pigeon poop was such a valuable fertilizer(nitrogen) and squabs a valuable source of protein in winter and before refrigeration and artificially produced nitrogen fertilizer that these d-cotes were locked up or otherwise protected against theft.
I'm referring to the times of castles and only nobility were allowed to own pigeons. No cars to poop on and the peasants didn't dare complain. Finally ordinary people were permitted to own pigeons and pigeon racing became the poor mans version of horse racing...