As doves were primarily kept for food, they were housed in large buildings, known in England as Dovecotes, Pigeon or Culver houses, 'culver', being the Anglo Saxon for pigeon.  Many of these houses were huge, providing nesting for hundreds, even thousands of doves and providing food for the entire household, masters and servants alike.  For many years only the aristocracy were allowed to keep doves.

The original houses were round and mostly made of stone.  Gradually square and octagonal houses were built, and wood was used more often.  As the custom of keeping doves for food declined, people began to keep them for decorative purposes, and the smaller dovecote you see today became more popular.   Of course with the passage of time anyone could now keep pigeons.

When you get your doves, they will have to be kept in the vicinity of your dovecote, by homing them.  We find it is best to keep them in a homing box for approx. 4 weeks.  After this enforced captivity, they will be set free, and then will remain in the area of your dovecote.

The doves will need clean fresh water every day, and of course this is essential.  They will eat a wide variety of food, however, we find one of the best is a mixture of crushed maize wheat and peas.  This can be bought from your local pet shop, already mixed. Most doves will eat about 1oz of food a day, which can be given in the morning, or if you prefer, you can give them two smaller meals a day.  It is necessary for all doves to have access to grit, which is kept in the gizzard and performs a similar function to teeth, breaking down the food into easily digestible pieces.   Always use pigeon grit, as poutlry grit is not suitable.  If possible, feed your doves at the same time every day, they will benifit from the regularity, and will look for you coming out to feed.

Your doves will breed throughout the year as long as the weather keeps warm.  The cock will woo the hen by blowing out his crop, strutting and dropping his tail, while cooing loudly.  The nest consists of a few twigs or straw, which they will gather from their surroundings and lay on the floor of the nesting box.

The first egg will be laid about ten days after mating, usually in the early evening.  The second egg will be laid approx. two days later.  Both eggs will then be incubated by both the hen and the cock, and the parents will take it in turn to go and feed, which they will continue to do when the squabs (baby doves) have hatched, approx. 18 days later.

The squabs are fed on dove milk, which both parents produce.  Doves are unique in producing this extremely efficient food, and it is so nutritious that the squabs can double their weight every two days.  The squabs will be weaned from their parents at about three weeks old, when they will be ready to feed on their own.  However, the parents will often continue to feed their offspring until they are able to fly competently, which will be at about five weeks old.

We hope that you have much pleasure from these beautiful creatures, however, if you do get any problems with your doves, please do not hesitate to ring us, and we will do everything we can to help.