Evening star., 1944-08-18
This and That
Bu Charles E. TrdceDeu.
EAST LELAND STREET.

Dear Sir:
Il read your column each evening
and get much information and pleasure
from it.
If possible, would you please give us
an article on dove cotes?
II want to have a dove cote installed
in my large back yard. There are many
gray doves there this summer.
Gould you tell me the interior meas
urements Of a dove cote. what size Is
the entrance hole and how high Is the
entrance hole of the floor?
Gould several cotes be put on the
same pole?
How high is the cote installed of
the ground?
THE doves have been here since early
spring. win they stay if we give them
house7 Sincerely, D. w."
The word cote" Is akin to "cot."
The latter is Anglo-saxon for cottage
A cote is particularly a small shed,
shelter or lean-to for small domestic
animals.
Doves and pigeons are so closely re-
lated that anything which will house
one will please the other.
Several types of dove cotes may be
made. One is simple lean-to. against
the wall OF barn or garage. 1t is GUS
tomAry, in this type of construction, to
inclose the structure with chicken wire,
and thus to keep the doves captive.
We have seen this type Of dove cote
in many small towns. The birds are
fed and kept as are fowls.
Usually only pair is housed in this
manner.
1t is not as good a way as the dove
cote built to accommodate four pairs
and placed on high central stake.
This stake or four-by-four should be
ut least IA to l6 feet above ground,
and necessarily 1t should have 3 or
feet in the ground to hold the weight
Of the cote.
The cote Is made in four compart-
ments, two on one side and two on
the other.
Each compartment Is IL inches wide.
16 inches high and II inches deep.
This means that the front view will
show "A inches wide and 18 inches high.
The back will show two compartments,
thus making four in all
Each compartment will have a door
or entrance 4 inches wide by inches
tall.
The doors may be rounded at the
top, which gives nice appearance, or
may be straight across.
Each compartment IL inches wide has
its own door squarely in the center of
the compartment, thus leaving 4 inches
to each side.
The doors are right on the floor and
not elevated from it.
Out OF each door is shelf or perch
2 inches wide. This portico is for the
doves to rest on and may be almost IL
inches across, or cut of slightly at each
end so that the two porches are sepa-
rated.
The entire cote, or group Of four
dove dwellings, is surmounted by A
peaked roof, peaked enough to carry
OIL the rain, but not too slanting, since
the doves like to light on it.
II q yard has been 4 favorite of the
mourning doves, there is every chance
that some Of them will take to the new
quarters set up for them, provided
squirrels, starlings or others do not get
In first.
1t would be a good thing to lay a
trail of seed and grain from the reru-
lar feeding place toward the dove cote,
in order to induce them to come to 1t
naturally.
Such structure is best placed at
some distance from buildings and trees
Once doves took to it, nothing else
could get them out because they are
good fighters and could hold the roost
against all corners.
The dove makes q special appeal to
many because 1t 30 much resembles,
though smaller, that extinct American
the famous passenger pigeon.