This is Anna’s dove pen.
It used to be a small cage that hung on the wall and was difficult to get into not to mention didn’t afford the doves much room. Her father conceded to give up his fire wood stacking spot (the reason for the plywood “wainscoting”) and built this pen for her. Kathy gave Anna yet another replacement dove after the pen was built, thank you Kathy (see, all my friends are too good to my children).
Shortly after the new replacement, Anna’s doves were laying and hatching out their eggs. Unfortunately the first hatch only produced one and it fell out of its nest. The next fertile batch were abandoned by both parents just days before they were to hatch, most likely because of a little confusion created by the inexperienced owner who left infertile eggs in a nest. Those unhatched but cheeping eggs were the eggs that Anna brought in to finish hatching in our incubator. See Anna And Her Projects for an account of the hatching. Through that ordeal of trying to raise the squabs by hand we learned some valuable things and are now prepared to try again. Maybe even on purpose.
Since then, Anna’s doves laid fresh eggs, hatched them out on their own, fed them and because we took out the Cochin hens just prior to hatching, no tragic accidents occurred. Now here they are. The young ones are in the potted tree, able to fly around and hold their own with the Cochins who were returned to the pen yesterday.
This is one of the parents sitting on the water pot. They are very sweet birds. Nothing like the Love birds Bet used to have (we actually called them Hate birds after awhile, very mean, very loud, sharp and shrill).
This is the other parent.
This lovely blue box you see here used to be a home made incubator that was a poultry project when Stephanie, our oldest, was in poultry 4-H. Now it covers the dryer vent so we don’t have dryer lint flying all over the front yard. This dove cage is off one end of my laundry/propagation house that sits across the driveway from our house.
Our house and farm is very interesting but we love it. The laundry machines were moved out of their spot in the house during a remodel. They never fit the space that was made for them by previous owners, unless a person really ought not to mind not being able to fully open the dryer door. So I, being the perennial ideas person, thought it would be great to give them, the laundry machines, their own space out in my old shop.
My shop used to house all my 4-H doings including my computer. But the computer had come into the house five years prior in order to be hooked up to the phone lines and the sewing was, at the time of remodeling, heading upstairs to a soon to be empty room. The remodel was all happening because my second oldest was getting married at our home, which freed up a room upstairs.
I’ll take you for a guided illustrated tour of our house and farm soon. I promise. I will make it a goal of mine for August, a priority. There is a lot of history behind our place. Most of it prior to our living here but I certainly am more familiar with the stories of what has gone on in its last 23 years since we have rented it from Doc and Norrine.
