A dovecote was originally a working building for housing doves. The garden version that carries the Lazy Hill name is a scaled-down, ornamental descendant: a small tower of nesting holes on a post, topped with a roof and often a finial.
The maker and its location
The company appears in a forest-products directory as Lazy Hill Farm Inc, with a street address on Glovers Cross Road in Colerain, North Carolina, a mailing box in the same town and a staff of one to five people. The materials it reports are kiln-dried dressed lumber. The same entry lists a Good Directions e-mail address as contact, which fits what one gardener wrote on her blog in 2016: Lazy Hill had been sold a few years earlier, and the new owner, Good Directions, changed how the houses were made. A commenter on that post said that an original founder was still building wooden houses in Colerain. The sources reviewed do not name the founders, so none are named here.
The dovecote as built
The details below come from one gardener’s blog posts, Between Naps on the Porch, not from the maker. She reports that her newer dovecote stands almost 33 inches tall and has eight nesting compartments. Its roof lifts straight off, which makes it possible to clean each cavity. By her account it fits over the top of a pressure-treated 4x4 post with no screws needed.
The same blogger says the brand is identifiable by a small copper plaque along the bottom of the house. That detail is an owner observation, not a statement from the maker.
Materials, then and later
The change in materials is the most useful thing to know when evaluating a used or older piece, with the caveat that it rests on one owner’s report. According to the blog, the older dovecote had a cedar roof with tiny shingles, laid in eight rows. A later redwood-shingled version used six rows. The blog says the roof on current versions can be copper, in polished or pre-aged finish, and describes the bodies as solid cellular vinyl rather than wood.
Durability is reported from experience. The blogger says the cedar roof of her wooden dovecote weathered to a silver-gray. She also reports that woodpeckers damaged that roof, repaired it with replacement shingles from Good Directions and later replaced the house with a newer model.
Using one for birds
Dovecotes are sold as decorative focal points, but the blogger reports bluebirds nesting in hers year after year. Small compartments are not a substitute for species-specific boxes, though. Entrance size, floor area and depth below the hole matter more to a nesting bird than the roofline does. The birdhouse section covers dimensions, and a free wooden alternative is in the plans hub.
Cleaning access is where this design works well, since the whole roof comes off. The blogger says that with her older house she cleared old nests by pushing a coat hanger into each opening.
For other makers with a regional base, see Heartwood in Mississippi and Coveside. Anyone comparing prices, stock or warranties has to consult current sellers directly; the sources reviewed here do not document them.
Common questions
Where is Lazy Hill Farm?
A forest-products directory lists Lazy Hill Farm Inc at Glovers Cross Road in Colerain, North Carolina, with one to five employees. That entry is the only operating detail in the sources reviewed.
What is a Lazy Hill dovecote?
A decorative birdhouse styled as a small dovecote, with a row of nesting compartments, a shingled or copper roof and a mount for a post. The blogger describes one with eight nesting compartments and a height of almost 33 inches.
How do you recognize a Lazy Hill house?
One gardener says the brand carries a small copper plaque along the bottom of the house, which let her identify others on garden tours.
Who owns Lazy Hill now?
One gardener, writing on the blog Between Naps on the Porch in 2016, reports that the line was sold a few years earlier and is now made by Good Directions. The directory entry lists a Good Directions e-mail address as its contact.
Has the construction changed?
Yes, according to that blogger. Her older dovecote had cedar roof shingles and a wooden body, later ones used redwood shingles in six rows instead of eight, and current bodies are described as solid cellular vinyl. These are one owner's reports, not a statement from the maker.
Do dovecotes work as real nest boxes?
One owner reports bluebirds nesting in hers year after year, though it was bought as a garden feature. Whether a given compartment size suits a species still has to be checked.