Monday, April 18, 2011
Swallow houses
The swallows showed up a few weeks ago and are now looking for homes. A swallow went in one of my existing boxes, so it's time for my bird habitat project. It's a variation of a traditional dove cote ("home") placed in a gable, in this case, for the dormer gables. Originally, this type of cote would be accessed from inside the home or the the attic and the eggs taken out. Like quail and chickens, doves tend to keep laying and don't notice that the number of eggs doesn't increase. I'm making mine for swallows (and won't be harvesting the eggs.) On the right you can see that the innerds are divided into three compartments. On the left is the cover with the access holes for the swallows. The cover is "half timbered" and even has a green stucco finish to match the house.
The compartments are attached to the facia board in the peak of the dormer. Then the cover is attached.
Here's a close-up of the installation.
If you click on this picture a couple of times, you can zoom in. For the larger gables, one will get a larger "swallow cote" or maybe an "owl cote." The other will get a the same design, but it will be a "bat cote."
# posted by gnome-honey @ 2:34 PM 
