Raising for meat hasn't been a primary drive for us, no. But with this particular breed, the TX Pioneer, they were developed for that purpose as well as for show (because they are pretty too)
But with the economy the way it is now, you bet, we are looking at pigeons in a different way than we did originally.
Most breeders raise their birds in an enclosed loft. It can be a fancy or a simple hobby - fanciers sometimes train birds to fly and come back, to fly in a "kit" (for tumbler and roller pigeons that naturally perform "acrobatics" in the air)
No need to clip wings when they are kept in a loft. Haven't heard of anyone clipping wings to inhibit flight but if you were to keep pigeons and didn't want them to fly there are a few breeds that are not known for the ability (some are raised as meat birds and are too big, others are bred so fancy their feathers aren't suitable for catching/keeping lift)
But when I got my first pair I kept them in a rabbit hutch. When we moved to a place in the woods I let ours out to fly. They loved it. So did I. So pretty to see!
Over the years they've never moved to a tree and nested there or flown away and gone "wild". They nest like crazy in our chicken loft and stay close to their babies.
They do fly though and the older ones especially go very, very high in the air, above the tree line, and fly for a longer time than I would have imagined. They also seem to do it just for fun, which is neat.
Feeding: Again, this is a hobby that can get pretty fancy with diets, worming schedules, and so on.
But I got my birds (a Mookie and a Roller made up my first pair) from a guy who kept it simple. I liked that style and I do the same. He told me a lot of people feed them corn, but they don't do well on it. They need bird seed. He said to feed them Wild Bird seed mix so that's what I started with. Years later, I still use it, although I now add BOSS and oyster shell out for them to eat as much of as they like too.
Some raise their pigeons for food by turning them loose, letting them forage on their own (not putting out food for them) and netting the birds, shooting them, or grabbing squabs out of the nest. Others say you can't efficiently raise meat breeds without giving them grain (think Runts and King birds which grow to 2 lbs or more in 5 weeks or so) --- this is true, but it's no different than NZs on pasture. It can be done, it just takes longer or they aren't as big as grain fed would be. Raise them how you like and how it works for you; pigeons can be as hard or as easy as you want to make them.
Area: I have seen pigeon breeder cages that I feel are pretty darn tiny. If I were stuck in a little cage with two or three squeaking kids (they call the babies squeakers and they REALLY do squeak - a lot!) and my mate --- I'd go nuts. But pigeons have been kept this way for a long, long time so I can't say it's wrong. They apparently do just fine.
Keeping them in a rabbit cage made ours happy but I sure love to see them fly, so I like them loose. Predators are a big deal with pigeon keepers that fly their birds, and we sure have quite a few ourselves; hawks & owls are the primary concerns for most. But I pull more snakes out of the coop (full of pigeon eggs and squabs, the scaly thieves!) in the summer than anything. The hawks are here all the time but the pigeons that have survived watch very closely and everyone gets their tail in the coop when a hawk flies by.
Mess: Pigeons are very clean birds themselves. Beautiful and shiny. But to do that, they bathe a lot. All the time. Even when we lived in WI, with temps nearly -40, those birds would be hopping in their water as soon as we were pouring it. And they make a MESS with their water. If you don't have them caged, it isn't so bad. But caged; somehow they get little seeds in there, they poop in it, and their feathers leave a white powdery/oil film slick on the water. Definitely something to change twice a day if you can.
Their droppings are no worse than a chicken's. I find them easier to clean up after than a chicken when I have kept them penned. (But they are how many times smaller and produce that much less poo too so it's all relative)
Some people hate the taste of pigeon, others love it. I am told that older birds have a different flavor. That birds that forage wild (eating no seed mix at all) taste wild.
One thing I do have to say in regards to eating: Chickens eat anything. Sure they love their layer mix and their scratch mix foods, but in the words of the comedian Bill Engvall "Chickens find things in their poop [to eat]." Chickens are wonderful clean-up crews. Pigeons forage with our goats and with our other animals on the ground, but they don't pick at the things chickens will, and they seem to stick to seeds and grasses. If I had to choose between one and the other, I'd prefer not to eat something that was picking at the dead mouse that the cat brought back
However. I do love the taste of chicken. Baked, Breaded, Grilled, BBQ'd.
And nothing, no matter how the jokes go, really tastes like chicken but chicken
<br /><br />__________ Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:25 pm __________<br /><br />MSD you are looking at meat pigeons too! NEAT!
What varieties are you looking at? (Or do you raise them already but just haven't tried them yet?)
Rittert when we do find them at our local flea markets they are around $5 for us (they used to be that $2 - $3) and that's not a bad deal for us since we have kept them as parent birds and let them turn around and raise many more. We too have our favorites, and just about all of them have names. But when a hawk gets them, it gets them. The drawbacks to having them loose, but like you, we believe that if need be most of them can be replaced.
