Pigeon Breeders: Can Any Be Raised for Squab?

[Omniskies]

I found someone selling their pigeon flock of 30 for $50 (most are yearlings with a few that are three years old). For a price like that I'm guessing I can easily resell them if I decide I don't like pigeons (I've had white doves in the past and loved them - they were just horrible parents and kept sitting on broken eggs).

I don't know what type of pigeons these are, yet. They're "many colors" including white, so I doubt they're the Kings. Are there some breeds that just can't be raised for meat? I don't want to unintentionally buy the Leghorn of Pigeons

. Are there any breeds I should stay away from, or certain breeds I should jump on that are good for meat?

I have a pen I can set up for the flock if I go through with this, but any tips or suggestions are appreciated. I've scoured for meat pigeon forums and all of the ones I've found so far would skin you alive if you mentioned eating them, so I haven't found as much information as I'd like.

Thanks in advance

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

I use any breed thats as big as my homers or bigger.

I eat any extras of my homers, esspecially blue bars and checks, got enough of those in my flock.
Certainly are tasty critters.

I would contact commercial sqabbers and ask them where to aquire stock(maybe they would part with some of their own?), I know I had found several websites from more commercial operations. I will check if I can find those again.

Anna

 

[Omniskies]

Thanks. Google is flooded with information about the whole King Pigeon scam/problem, but very little seems to be out there for the backyard squab grower.

I found out that there are a few rollers, some "feather footed" (I forget what the name was), croppers and some mix breeds. I'm guessing I can sell off the fancier ones and keep the others.

The price went up, though. They're a two hour drive from here to look at them

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Try this farm, they acctually sell live birds and breeding pairs of squabbing pigeons;
http://www.bokhari.com/

I am sure they can give you a few pointers.

 

[BeckyLa]

I couldn't bring up the site.

 

[Omniskies]

More often than not their website is down or there is some sort of strange error. I tried for a bit and managed to get in today using http://.bokhari.com/ - I don't know if dropping the www made a difference or I just got lucky.

Thanks for posting the link. If you hadn't I wouldn't have bothered trying to load the page again

Edit: Raahr! http://www.bokhari.com/handbook.html and http://www.bokhari.com/insider.html from that site has a wealth of information.

 

[kees]

I remember eating squab as a child often as a delicacy in Chinese restaurants and they were absolutely delicious! But then my mother told me what they were...

 

[Just-Like-Hatching]

If you want big squabs get the Giant Runts. Biggest pigeon there is. I have a few and they are huge. Only problem is they are so big that they break their eggs a lot. But I just move their eggs under some of the smaller breeds and hatch them out.

 

[Omniskies]

If you put down enough nesting material does it fix the problem? And do they ever learn how to not break their eggs? I don't mind getting some Giant Runts, but I don't want to have twice as many pigeons and have to throw away eggs.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:
"King Pigeons" are a breed.

The scam was a guy who called himself the
"Pigeon King"