Are there any pigeon breeds that are ornamental but also good for meat?

[QueenMisha]

Hi there. I've got kind of an odd question - I've been looking at lot of new species lately, trying to figure out what project I want to expand to next, and at this point pigeons and quail are the top two on my list, since pheasants and emus are both a bit much for how busy I've been lately. The pigeons especially I've been very interested in, since quail seem kind of similar to my Partridge.

I've been looking at a few different breeds, but I figured I'd ask the experts if they had any suggestions off the bat. I like the idea of King pigeons for meat, but they're pretty boring looking birds. I'm also in love with both Parlor Rollers and Fantails, and I'm crazy about anything with feathered feet, but I don't imagine most of these are very good meat birds. I'm intending on keeping a pair (maybe 2?) for pets/breeders, and then using the offspring for meat. So... are there any breeds that might be good compromises? Should I just keep one pair of meat breeders and one pair of pet/ornamentals? Do they always need to be kept in pairs or could I have, say, three or five pigeons?

 

[Lozuufy]

I think rollers would be a little small for meat, some kinds of fantails might be big enough though. Most of my mixed breed pigeons are pretty big and cool colors although I don't know what they are mixes of. Homers might also be big enough and can come in some nice colors. In my experience it is best to keep them in pairs because an extra unpaired pigeon (both males and females) will try to steal a mate and that causes allot of fighting. For a while I had an extra female who was madly in love with an already paired up male so she would pester his mate all day and even knocked their eggs out of their nest at one point, so now I make sure to keep the single adult pigeons separate from the nesting ones until I've found a mate for them.

 

[QuoVadis]

I have Kings and Strassers - both are very pretty IMO, and would be great meat producers...I also have rollers and homers and I don't think those would be the best, definitely not rollers - they are way too small!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Click on these links:
Show utility breeds

• American Giant Runt
• Carneau
• French Mondain
• King
• Strasser

 

[QuoVadis]

This is my blue bar Utility king pigeon. The Utility ones look different than show Kings.

 

[QueenMisha]

Alright, thanks for the help everybody! I've decided to go ahead and start out with a pair of pets (Fantails) and THEN get a pair of meat breeders later... just to see if their behavior and whatnot is something I enjoy (as long as they're less of a terror than my Chukar have been, they should fit in just fine). Off to go post a thread regarding transport and such. And as for meat pigeons, I was aware of Giant Runts before but I just looked at some pictures of them again and they're much prettier than I remembered so... maybe a few of those in the future?