king pigeons
- Thread starter dmirza
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Pigeons breed easy enough and can produce 3 to 6 clutches of 2 to 4 chicks a year depending on your climate and how you raise them.
It is hard on them to keep raising chick after chick as the parents will neglect themselves to keep their offspring healthy. And the hens loose a lot of bone calcium in laying so many eggs which can lead to wing fractures.
I was pretty hands off with my birds and expected them to find most of their own food in the summer but I was in a pretty rural area - once the suburbs started creeping in I stopped raising them as more people were shooting them full of BB gun pellets and they'd come home wounded or not at all
It is hard on them to keep raising chick after chick as the parents will neglect themselves to keep their offspring healthy. And the hens loose a lot of bone calcium in laying so many eggs which can lead to wing fractures.
I was pretty hands off with my birds and expected them to find most of their own food in the summer but I was in a pretty rural area - once the suburbs started creeping in I stopped raising them as more people were shooting them full of BB gun pellets and they'd come home wounded or not at all
CochinBrahmaLover
Well-known member
I raised Swiss mondaines which is similar to kings. Good birds, very poor flyers. Huge and funny looking. I enjoyed them. Had to sell them because we could only keep so many birds and I enjoy homers more.
Can confirm they breed very easy. I had issues getting them started, but once they did it was babies *everywhere*. They're easy to keep and handle winters very very well. No heater required, no frostbite of any kind.
My biggest issue with them is they require lots of cleaning - lots of poop. Otherwise they're fun birds
My birds only get 3 clutches max per year - very short laying season here. They tried hatching during the winter (my fantails did) but the eggs froze of course. Chickens would eat the eggs too. Ended up building an aviary for the pigeons but my 5 pigeons now winter with the chickens.
Can confirm they breed very easy. I had issues getting them started, but once they did it was babies *everywhere*. They're easy to keep and handle winters very very well. No heater required, no frostbite of any kind.
My biggest issue with them is they require lots of cleaning - lots of poop. Otherwise they're fun birds
My birds only get 3 clutches max per year - very short laying season here. They tried hatching during the winter (my fantails did) but the eggs froze of course. Chickens would eat the eggs too. Ended up building an aviary for the pigeons but my 5 pigeons now winter with the chickens.
We know a guy with a lovely loft of King pigeons. The variety have been selected for production and growth, pretty much the equivalent of meat rabbit breeds. I had read about them, knew about the average weight ratios from hatching to fledgling, but wow seeing them in person it hits you how BIG these birds are.
I think it was HomesteadingToday? Or maybe a backyard chicken site that discussed the amount of feed that goes into the production pigeons daily when raising their squabs. In the end, it was found to be (by the numbers anyway) better to go with smaller pigeon varieties. You'd need more birds to get the amount of meat you'd want, but you'd put less feed into the parents in order to do it.
But if you like the idea of giant pigeons, they sure are a sight to see. And you know how it is. You want to choose the animal that YOU would enjoy caring for. Good luck!
I think it was HomesteadingToday? Or maybe a backyard chicken site that discussed the amount of feed that goes into the production pigeons daily when raising their squabs. In the end, it was found to be (by the numbers anyway) better to go with smaller pigeon varieties. You'd need more birds to get the amount of meat you'd want, but you'd put less feed into the parents in order to do it.
But if you like the idea of giant pigeons, they sure are a sight to see. And you know how it is. You want to choose the animal that YOU would enjoy caring for. Good luck!
coyotejoe
Well-known member
I had a large pigeon loft back in Colorado and started with a dozen White Kings, a dozen Birmingham Rollers, several Homers and a couple of ferals I was able to capture. My flock did very well except for the Kings. I had a problem with hawks and they especially targeted the Kings which stood out from the flock and could not fly well enough to escape. I several times saw a hawk pursuing my pigeons and the pigeons always out flew the hawk and escaped but the nearly flightless kings were sitting ducks and within a year I had lost all of the Kings.
I'd be very interested to know about kings too. Thinking about adding them to our homestead in the future. The only thing I've really found out so far is kings (or any good squabbing pigeons) are REALLY hard to find!
