264 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 19 10 



THE HANDICRAFTSMAN 



Conducted by A. Russell Bond 



An Amateur's Birdhouse 



By Sally Field Stevens 



VER since seeing the thatched bird-houses 

 in England, we have longed for one of 

 our own. There is a picturesque quality 

 in a thatched bird-house that no other 

 kind possesses. Last summer, this idea 

 was still more impressed on our minds, 

 when seeing a print of a quaint old Scot- 



In this garden was a bird-house of very sim- 



tish garden. 



pie proportions — in fact, the body of the house was very At this stage we gave the whole keg two coats of a warm- 



the floor, the other higher up. Good-sized steps were placed 

 and well braced in front of each. This is a most important 

 point as the birds never fly directly into a doorway. They 

 must alight and hop down to the nest. 



Our next step was to erect a center pole. This was 

 made from a well-seasoned and sturdy oak sapling with the 

 bark peeled off. It was secured to the bottom by driving 

 a large nail through the keg into the butt end of the pole. 



much like a nail-keg that we had 

 been cherishing — its staunch- 

 ness having appealed to us as 

 too good to be wasted. A 

 timely article on thatching which 

 had recently appeared in one of 

 the magazines made it possible 

 for us to attempt it. 



We had, the previous sum- 

 mer, cut off, about six feet from 

 the ground, a tree that was dy- 

 ing at the edge of the wood. 



On the stump, we had placed 

 a bird-bath — but the birds did 

 not use it. 



It was too high or too ex- 

 posed. Hereafter they shall 

 have their bath under 

 rugosa-hedge. 



This left the 

 much in need of 

 hence the necessity for the bird- 

 house. 



It was in August that these 

 ideas came to us when we had 

 nothing to do but to admire the 

 phlox and pick tea-roses which 

 insist on blooming the whole 

 summer through. Therefore, 

 we could begin at once. Our 

 bungalow is in a summer 

 colony, far from town or farms 



and we had great difliculty in obtaining rye straw. This 

 is a requisite for good thatching — oat straw being too brit- 

 tle and uneven. A chance encounter with a young farmer 

 who purveys ducks and chickens at cottage back doors, 

 solved our problem. He sent down a fine bundle of it by 

 rail the next morning. 



In the meantime, we found plenty to do in turning the 

 nail-keg into a bird-house. We first cut two doorways with 

 a fish knife, our most formidable tool; one was cut near 



the 



stump very 

 decoration — - 



A little thatched bird-house appropriate to bungalow surroundings 



gray pamt. This color harmon- 

 izes well with the thatch and the 

 woodsy surroundings. We 

 rested from our labors while it 

 dried. 



We had yet to settle the ques- 

 tion of the framework for the 

 thatch which had been a source 

 of uncertainty from the begin- 

 ning. We knew that we must 

 have strong supports from the 

 top of the center pole to the rim 

 of the keg — forming a conical 

 roof. We first tried some pieces 

 of fine molding, but found that 

 they were too clumsy for so 

 small a roof. A chance sugges- 

 tion proved to be the right thing. 

 There are many oak and maple 

 second-growths in the neighbor- 

 hood and from these were cut 

 strong yet supple wythes. These 

 were bound to the top of the 

 center pole with picture wire 

 and radiated at equal intervals 

 towards the rim of the keg. 

 They were secured there by tacks 

 and fine wire. We allowed them 

 to extend a full four inches be- 

 yond the rim to form the over- 

 hang. In addition to these 

 "rafters," if we may call them 

 such, we had to provide horizontal supports which were 

 hoops of heavy copper wire lashed to the wythes with pic- 

 ture wire. The sketch at the right of the headpiece shows 

 the keg with the bare frame in place. We were now ready 

 to thatch. The house — it already had a cozy look — was 

 taken to the shady porch and the real work began. 



The way of thatching is this — small bundles of straw 

 are tied to the hoops, first at the top, then at the bottom. 

 Though fine copper wire is undoubtedly the best medium 



