Jack and I discovered inadvertently that both of us have forbears who raised pigeons and doves. That led us to contemplate their possible uses for the backyard homesteader or rural farm alike, and whether they might be a good and affordable "fit" for us as far as harvesting for food, feather, and fertilizer (and beauty...I love birds...)
For more ponderings, this was the subject of my post today over at Not Dabbling in Normal...
Got squab?
5 comments:
Pigeons are fun creatures and not dumb at all when you're talking about breeds other than the street pigeons.
Sadly, the ones you grow for fine food aren't the same as the ones you would keep for beauty, companionship or even eggs (though I've never had one and don't know what it would taste like.)
Pigeons are super fun. Mine was trained to walk around the house, interacted fine with cats, sat on my shoulder, took showers and baths, smelled lovely, and even do a sort of vocal mimicry of patterns in order to communicate. Very cute.
Growing them for food would be tough. They grow out of their ugly stage and then immediately need to be slaughtered in order to provide the finest meat. At that point, they are curious, rambunctious, fun, cute and friendly. Not a good combo in a meat animal!
I always wanted to get those pigeons out of our silo once and for all, I'll send them to you! Our silo has a broken hatch at the very top (about 50 ft) this is where the pigeons enter, they are messy leaving droppings all over. We have thought about catching and releasing them, however, I have read that no matter how far away you take tem, they know their way home and will return every time.
I love pigeons... don't know if I could eat one, though!
I know I couldn't wring one's little neck....
Christy, yes...theory meets reality :) I'd be far too tempted to make them all pets, but my husband is less sentimental. We'll see how that works out...
Mel...hey maybe all we need to do is to plop a used silo on our property and voila! ;-)
Barb, that's how I feel about most birds but I know some of them we'll have to have for practicality, though I do think there will be some that will forever be pets :)
Michelle, oh yeahhhh, I SO told Jack he'd be doing the dirty work if we ever go down this little road...
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