Texan Pioneer Pigeons

[3mina]

Feral pigeons will work just fine and you can't beat the price

 

[mystang89]

Feral pigeons will work just fine and you can't beat the price

lol, that's what I'm thinking.

Look on the national news for "Crazy man swinging net under overpass trying to catch pigeons" and that'll be me

 

[3mina]

Mystang, that wouldn't make the news, not even up here
Not crazy enough by a long shot, sorry

 

[DumansArk]

I was looking for more info on pigeons in general and came across this site http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/204998/the-texan-pioneer-utility-pigeon-a-tutorial/100. I saw your post on the last page Duman. It seems that it might be a bit expensive to raise them for 12 or so squabs a year. From reading it seemed that over 600lbs of food is eaten by a pair of pigeons that aren't able to forage for themselves. I'm boarderline right now on whether to get started on this or not.

I might try a utility bird that flies or at least see if there is such a thing.

Indeed I am hoping to raise them too and have put out feelers to find some. I saw old posts where birds were $10 each with shipping at $60 but nobody has responded to my PMs or emails so far. I will grab the phone numbers I was given and send them to you in case you like calling people more than I do (I hate calling. Give me email or correspondence by ol' fashion snail mail any day.)

Re: feeding --- I had read that too. I am shocked too if that is true. Now he feeds different than we do and his birds are BIG. I know ours aren't 2lbs at 30days. But 600lbs of feed for a PAIR, as in 2 adults and the 2 squabs they are feeding... surely (hopefully) this is a miscalculation. Or maybe a different food would make a difference. Everything he feeds is in a seed mix except for the Swine pellets. (We don't feed swine pellets)

Our Flock Feeding: we try to keep the numbers to under 40 adults. Each pair of ours raises two squabs with no trouble (rare to have just one squab in a nest here, and rare to have them raise 3)
A 50lb bag of Wild Bird Seed mix from our co-op lasts more than a month here. We mix in BOSS too (yes it is in the WBS but they REALLY like Sunflower and may be able to eat it exclusively but we have always offered the WBSeed mix). We mix BOSS into everything from goat feed to rat treats so I can't say how much sunflower the pigeons go through, unfortunately. We only buy that every 2 months or so too.

(I can tell you that I give out 2 cups of it but volume to weight...I need a scale to see what it would be in pounds.)

Ooookay math time...(bare with me; I paid better attention in Art class than Algebra 1.)


Since we can't do BOSS let's look at WBSeed.
50lbs / 40 birds = 1.25lbs of feed per day per adult x 365 days = 457lbs in a year for 40 adult breeder birds. (I think I did that math right. Jump in if not! ;D)

That's a little more than 9 bags of WBS a year. It's been about $8 a bag but it's now $13 so it jumped from $80 a year for bird seed to what will now be $120. Did I do that right? Dang, when I look at it that way I am getting a headache thinking of what I spend on rabbits :no:

This is what the mix looks like:

Anything else they eat is what they get on the ground and search for.

On a thread at HomesteadingToday it was brought up that, like MSD said, the idea behind it is to let the pigeons go off and find food for themselves and stick around to raise their young in the shelters you provide.
One person on that thread mentioned that just shoot and eat the adults since the babies won't be as big as they'd be if you were feeding them. No real $ into them and they'd raise what they'd raise.

__________ Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:10 pm __________

From reading it looks like butcher times for squab is 4 - 10 weeks ish. I tried to find some pigeons around here to buy and....wow...

$155 for a pair of kings. $60 for a pair for Texans. I can't imagine why pigeons would cost so much. I did check on CL and in a 100 mile radius found 1 pigeon for sale. It was more resoonably priced at $12 and it was a king. I don't know if it was a show or utility bird though.

I read on one of the forums that someone just went out under overpasses with a net a got a bunch lol. I can understand why hehe

You can also put out an add saying that you will take pigeons out of haybarns for free.
You'd get great birds that way. Cage them, feed them, Let the parents go when they raise you squabs to keep and then if the parents fly away you still have the offspring. If the adults stick around you've got birds that will forage at no cost to you and hopefully come back to lay & raise.

In WI, the Amish and Mennonite sold a lot of pigeons. The going price for "just pigeons" was $2 and $3.
Here, we don't see them often. But where are you located in KY?? There is an Exotic Animal Auction in Cookeville, TN. LOADS of pigeons. Mennonite & Amish have some nice cheap birds there too.

We sell at the flea market sometimes in Crossville. We do a lot of trades but when we do cash, we generally get $3 per bird.

If you don't care that they aren't going to get as big as Kings or Runts or Texans (all around 2lbs at 30 days) maybe we can meet up someday and I start you with a set of cheap pretty pigeons. (I've always wanted to visit BreyerFest in KY! Roadtrip!) :mrgreen:<br /><br />__________ Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:41 pm __________<br /><br />I am sorry for such long posts but there were so many good replies!

MaggieJ thanks for that link!!!
I spent several hours going through that and wow! Good information.

MyStang you could put up a building or give them hutches with an open end or open door for them to fly into and roost/nest in the back. Whatever you have room for.

I wait til the squabs are learning to fly. I only take one. The parents keep an eye on their fledglings (Example: the last few days a lone cock has been hanging around and cooing at a new fledgling. Her parents leave their nest (they have already started laying again) to chase off the cock. By the time they are too busy to leave their new nest, this fledgling will probably be old enough to pair up with this cock.) and it upsets them if their fledglings go missing.

Friendly: MamaSheepDog's Condor --- THAT IS SO NEAT! =) And he even followed you; so sweet! I love birds.

MyStang dontcha love nutty chickens :roll:
Too bad Cochins don't grow as big or fast as Leghorns. They are puppy dog birds
You can handle them when they are young squeakers, and as fledglings right before they figure out how to fly (easy to catch then) and I used to ring up Flight Suit sales to people with pet house pigeons as sweet as MSDs Condor but I have never worked with mine that closely. Would love to someday though. I love these red speckled crested babies I have right now and really want to just hug them when I see them.

 

[mystang89]

I saw old posts where birds were $10 each with shipping at $60 but nobody has responded to my PMs or emails so far. I will grab the phone numbers I was given and send them to you

Send me that number if you don't mind and I will call them and try to find out some info from them. I don't mind calling people, I just don't leave messages. I hate answering machines.

Since we can't do BOSS let's look at WBSeed.
50lbs / 40 birds = 1.25lbs of feed per day per adult x 365 days = 457lbs in a year for 40 adult breeder birds.

I think that sounds alot more reasonable than what was on the website we were looking at. But at the same time it gets me to thinking that if pigeons were used during the Depression in order to have some cheap meat since even chickens were too expensive, how did they pay for the pigeon feed. I'd probably wager a guess that they just cut their losses with feed to weight ratio and had birds that were foragers so they didn't have to pay. That is probably what I would end up doing. Maybe supplementing a bit of seed here and there.

You can also put out an add saying that you will take pigeons out of haybarns for free. You'd get great birds that way. Cage them, feed them, Let the parents go when they raise you squabs to keep and then if the parents fly away you still have the offspring. If the adults stick around you've got birds that will forage at no cost to you and hopefully come back to lay & raise.

That is a great idea. I was wondering where to find some wild ones, besides overpasses. I think I will put out a craigslist wanted add tomorrow and see if anyone has anything.

But where are you located in KY?? There is an Exotic Animal Auction in Cookeville, TN. LOADS of pigeons. Mennonite & Amish have some nice cheap birds there too.

I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. I tried looking online for swaps or auctions but I couldn't find any except one that was already over with. They have the Kentucky State fair every year and I know they have pigeons there but the cost to get and then the cost to buy a pigeon just isn't worth the hassle. I will keep look tomorrow after I post the CL list though.

We sell at the flea market sometimes in Crossville. We do a lot of trades but when we do cash, we generally get $3 per bird. If you don't care that they aren't going to get as big as Kings or Runts or Texans (all around 2lbs at 30 days)

Wow, $3 sounds MUCH better than $60. I might have to also check out the local flee markets. I've always wanted to go just to see what was there.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Mystang,

if you do decide to go with wild caught birds, make sure to worm them and treat for cocci. Pigeons aren't called flying rats for no reason... I believe they carry quite a few diseases.

You will need to do some online research to find out exactly what you will need to treat for, but I am sure it will be pretty easily managed.

 

[grumpy]

King's were the standard meat pigeon for decades. As with the rabbit meat industry, "white-kings" were preferred because of the pin-feathers.

Sexing pigeons is really pretty easy.....once you've had them for 25 or 30 years. LOL. Back in the day, I could sex 2 and 3 day old youngsters just by the minute differences in structure and appearance.

Homing pigeons are a little larger than regular run of the mill pigeons. Modena's are a good sized bird that would serve as a meat bird quite well. Hungarian House Pigeons are the biggest breed available, (I think).

Reuters kept a line of pigeon lofts in operation before the telegraph was invented, strictly for the transmission of information on world economics and news.

They are very gregarious. Some of them can become extremely tame, flying down to land on your shoulder and begging a treat or two. Crumbled soda crackers used to be a favored treat for my flock.

Given the opportunity, they will bathe daily. SUNFLOWER SEEDS IS NOT A GOOD FOOD FOR THEM. Their gizzard can't grind the hull off of the seed. Hulled sunflower seeds is an excellent food, but very high in fat content.

I started raising Homing Pigeons in 1958. I kept a competitive flock of racing homers until 1998 when I sold my stock to a fancier in Japan. They are an interesting and unique animal with a relatively high intelligence level.

grumpy.

 

[mystang89]

Mystang,

if you do decide to go with wild caught birds, make sure to worm them and treat for cocci. Pigeons aren't called flying rats for no reason... I believe they carry quite a few diseases.

You will need to do some online research to find out exactly what you will need to treat for, but I am sure it will be pretty easily managed.

Very true MSD. Will definitely need to quarentine them away from my other animals for a while. I could probably use the same stuff I use on my chickens - Corrid, Wazzine17 on them but it's definitely something that needs to be looked up.

 

[DumansArk]

I think squab are very young birds ...maybe a month old. Years ago I ate some good ones and some bad ones. I think age is importatnt to taste!!

We let ours out every day to just fly around or take them from here and let them "home". Very fun to watch!!

Will take a look at the texans!!

You aren't alone in that experience (some taste good, others don't) and yes it is recommended to eat the birds at a month old.

After reading the amount of food Texans eat, if that wasn't a typo (600lbs of feed a year per pair of birds) then I think I will get a pair & keep adding their offspring into the flock in hopes to breed an auto sexing factor in. From there I'll select for 'easy-keeper' birds who won't need as much food.

__________ Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:30 am __________

Sexing pigeons is really pretty easy.....once you've had them for 25 or 30 years. LOL. Back in the day, I could sex 2 and 3 day old youngsters just by the minute differences in structure and appearance.

The guy I got my 1st pair from said he could do this too! I asked him how I could tell and he said you've got to develop an eye for it. I picked up books and went online afterward and 'learned' that it isn't accurate to sex by eye, but I came home with a young cock & hen that day so it seems a bit more than one heck of a lucky guess then

SUNFLOWER SEEDS IS NOT A GOOD FOOD FOR THEM. Their gizzard can't grind the hull off of the seed. Hulled sunflower seeds is an excellent food, but very high in fat content.

I have seen the WBS mix (w Sunflower in hull) / Sunflower discussions on pigeon fancier forums. Most of them advocate using a pellet/crumble diet and that is great that it works for them. I raise mine on the feed my 1st pair were raised on, and I have read accounts of others who feed just WBS mix too. If it is bad for them, mine are very tough birds indeed and raise nice babies anyway. I have never opened up a bird to find them full of seed hulls either so that is interesting.

For all the flying mine do, maybe they need the fat. None of my birds have trouble getting around or breeding so if they are a bit on the heavy side it isn't stopping them from what they do well.<br /><br />__________ Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:35 am __________<br /><br />MyStang, I sent you a PM with those #s. I hope someone is still raising them for a decent price

 

[mystang89]

Sent you back a reply. I guess it all depends on your definition of "fair price".

Some were a good price $10 but didn't have the autosexing feature, others were expensive and others just didn't have any. There out there someone though.

 

[DumansArk]

Thanks! Nope, not my definition of fair price I haven't paid that much for a rabbit let alone a single pigeon that may, or may not, be/produce auto sexing with it's mate.

Oh well. I'll stick it on the back burner and be shocked one day when I see them at the county fair or something.

 

[Beekeeper10]

I think I would be interested in trying a few pair of Texas Pioneer Pigeons. If anyone finds some for sale, please PM me.
Thanks,
Tommy