This may seem an odd post here but: I have noticed a LOT of mourning doves in my neighborhood, ( I live in a rural area and while my front yard is in 'suburbia' my back yard is about 12 to 13 acres of country). They eat bugs so they are welcome of course. They also eat seeds and grain and I've noted a large number of young looking ones hanging about my chicken coop this winter. I do not begrudge them the chicken feed my chickens do not eat because: I'm considering trying to build, if I can find out how, a wattle and daub, dovecote (or is it dove cote?) that would allow me to have yet another source of food on my land.
Why not just hunt them like everyone else here in Texas? Guns are loud noisy things that send killing projectiles very far afield if you miss and not only am I 65 I'm to lazy to hunt! I'd rather walk into a dove cote and snatch one I've half tamed off a roost.
Besides needing to know how to build a dove cote out of wattle and daub (there are willows near my pond out in the pasture and the soil here is mostly clay anyway) I need to know what would doves, specifically mourning doves, need to be all nice and comfy enough to settle into the trap, uhm, I mean their new house.
So the questions are 1) how to build a wattle and daub dove cote (dovecote?) 2) what would these birds find irresistible as housing?
I think they would be easily satisfied as they seem to be spending nights or at least hanging out in my rather primitive chicken coop. Said coop I am also tempted to replace with wattle and daub.
Which brings me to question 3) what would I need to do to keep wattle and daub constructions from being wiped out by the occasional gully washer we can have here or the more frequent ones caused by El Nino's.

Hi Betty!

I confess I don't know a whole lot about doves, but I can answer the question about protecting daubed walls: it's wide eaves.

If the roof overhangs the walls by a couple of feet, only the most horizontal rain will ever touch them.

And of course the bottom of the walls needs to be waterproof: stone, concrete, or fired brick.

Hope that helps!

Thanks y'all. Thought it'd have to be something like that Mike. Don't know If I'll actually DO this but as usual I got plans, lot's of plans. Just have to wait to see which ones I actually get the chance (money, time, learning, etc) to implement.
Watched this great video on You Tube by a Mr. Chickadee showing how he built a two or three story wattle and daub work shed using old time tools and techniques. Through several postings it shows just about all the steps and whew! does it look like a lot of work.
What ever I end up building will be no way that ambitious. I don't have the skill or know how and as I noted earlier, I'm retired and tired (lazy).
Thanks again!