Pigeon tower - Bellem

The dovecote stands on the grounds of a completely renovated farm that was already known as a "walled" farm in the 16th century.

According to OS Depraet , the tower dates from the 18th century.

Dovecotes were once so important , and you often find them at castles, abbeys, or large farms, because they were a food source . Pigeons provided meat (young pigeons or "piëtons") and eggs . This was an important supplement to the diet, especially in winter.

Pigeon manure, on the other hand, was very valuable as a fertilizer . It was used to make gardens, orchards, and fields more fertile. One tower could yield tens of kilos of manure annually.

For centuries, keeping pigeons was legally reserved for the nobility and large landowners . A pigeon tower therefore indicated that the owner was wealthy and influential .
Ordinary farmers were not allowed to keep pigeons, or only a few. This right to a pigeon tower was called droit de colombier in French.

The ban on ordinary farmers stemmed from the fact that pigeons were damaging agriculture. Pigeons ate large quantities of grain in the fields. If everyone were allowed to keep pigeons, the harvest would be severely damaged . Therefore, it was decided that only those with sufficient land (i.e., those who could not cause harm to others) were allowed to keep pigeons. In some regions , laws stipulated a minimum agricultural area (e.g., 40 hectares) before a pigeon tower could be built.

During the French Revolution (late 18th century), the right to keep pigeons was abolished. From then on , ordinary citizens were also allowed to keep pigeons , but most of the old towers disappeared because they took up so much space and were no longer useful .

Pigeon towers were often given a decorative architectural style with a striking shape (round, octagonal or square), sometimes even as a tower at a castle or farm.
This made them a visual status symbol on the farm.

The tower had a round or square central space , often several meters high. Inside were hundreds, if not thousands, of nesting niches . These were small cavities in the walls , arranged in rows one above the other. Each niche could house a single pair of pigeons . The niches were usually made of brick, terracotta, or wood and carefully numbered or symmetrically placed.

In the center was often a vertical pole with a horizontal arm from which a rotating ladder hung. This allowed the caretaker easy access to all the niches to catch young pigeons, clean nests, and collect manure. At the bottom was often a lowered, easy-to-clean floor where the valuable pigeon manure was collected. A pigeon tower with, for example, 1,000 niches could produce several hundred young pigeons and tens of kilograms of manure annually—without having to slaughter the adult birds.

High in the tower were small openings (sometimes decorated with a weather vane) through which the pigeons could fly in and out. Usually, there was also a locking system to keep the pigeons inside when they were being harvested.

Willem Vandenameele