Lets Build a Dove-loft:

Gromit our Border collie tends to get fixated on different things and now I know why! "He takes after his dad!" My fixation for the last few years has been doves and in that time I have built; 5 x dovecotes, a dove-loft, a feeding station, a nursery and many other smaller dove related items.

Now let's rewind to late 2013; in a conversation with one of my younger brothers I found out something that changed one of my main views on keeping doves, i.e. I always believed that my flight of doves would limit themselves to around 25 birds. ''What has bought about this change of opinion?'' The fact that my brother revealed that the pigeon pie we had on a regular basis in the late 50's contained some of my tame pigeons and were not all wood pigeons as I originally thought. It appears that what was limiting my pigeons to a flight size of 25 birds was my dad's double barrelled shotgun.

Note.

I was born on a farm and my dad confined his nefarious activities to the times I was working in the fields away from the main farm buildings. Nobody mentioned it as my brothers automatically assumed I knew about it. I still think that a flight of doves will self-limit their own numbers to a great extent, but on occasion my flight of doves has considerably exceeded 25 birds. I didn't have a problem with this but it did raise the question of where they were all going to live?

After much deliberation I decided that the new 3 x compartment dovecote I had started to make would not now be big enough! For several days I pondered the problem and one morning I finalised my decision. "We will have a pigeon loft!" Of course as I intended to keep doves in my loft it would became a 'Dove-loft'.

When I initially decided on this project I fully intended to buy a ready made shed and convert it. Unfortunately my search for a suitable donor shed of decent quality at a reasonable price was fruitless. Attempts to have one made fell on deaf ears, so I decided to make it myself.

The total cost of Chez Columba was £1,162.0 and the labour time was 101 hours. But that is not the full story! A ready made shed would have needed foundations, windows and conversion to a dove loft, all of which would have put up the cost quite considerably.

The breakdown of costs was: - Foundations (sledge and gravel) = £92.20 - Loft (shed) = £945.11 - Fitting of nest boxes / compartments = £124.69 Total Cost = £1,162.0

So Chez Columba came in at £412.00 over my original budget. However I had decided at the outset that I wanted something a little bit different and I think that the end result achieved that objective, we were both very pleased with the finished result.

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