The city made get rid of the chickens. Now I am eyeing up the "wild" pigeons. What do you think?

[AuberyMirkwood]

So about a month ago my city swooped in and gave me 24 hrs to remove my 7 2lbs hens or they were going to take them and dispose of them themselves. I do so love my city now.

Anyway, I rent a building downtown and it opens into about 1/10 of an acre of back alley/lot. In that space, on the building next to me is a couple of old old air conditioners attached the to side of the almost abandoned building. In these rusted out and falling apart air conditioners there is a thriving covey(?) of pigeons. Does the city remove these birds who are much much nastier and annoying then my girls, or even have the air conditioners removed because they could fall on someone's head? No. My girls where much more of a problem. Blah

So here's my thoughts. These guys are used to me, they are very pretty, and the city won't remove them. I can easily get up there so I am considering going up, removing all the eggs, and then collect fresh eggs daily.

What do you think? How well do pigeons produce anyway?

 

[yinepu]

are you planning on hatching the eggs or eating them?

 

[AuberyMirkwood]

Eating I'd eat them if I could bring myself to it lol. I'm just worried about these guys eating something like poison and it getting into the eggs?

 

[yinepu]

in my opinion you would be better off with quail.. they are little egg laying machines and you can keep them in your home in wire cages

Pigeons just aren't very good egg producers
Normally a pigeon hen will lay two eggs.. then she and her mate take turns setting on the eggs to incubate them..

For "domestic" pigeons.. every so often pigeon keepers will remove the two eggs that a pigeon lays and replace them with wooden dummy eggs since it's really hard on the hen to continue to lay eggs every month or so .. so the wooden eggs let her and her mate set "eggs" and gives her body a much needed rest instead of forcing her to keep laying

 

[AuberyMirkwood]

I live in my business, inside birds would be very unprofessional

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Pigeon eggs have clearish/opaque whites, even when fully cooked, which icks some people out. I've been meaning to try the ones my ringneck dove lays, but keep hoping she will mate with our pigeon instead and make us little sterile hybrid babies! Feral pigeon nests are pretty gross. Poop accumilates there in large numbers, which could give you respiratory issues/air transferred diseases during collection. Would definitely cook the eggs fully and wash your hands well after handling the shells. You can certainly legally collect them though.

You won't be getting eggs daily though. Pigeons only lay two eggs per clutch. Mine lays about 4-5 times a year it seems.

 

[gunnarwordon]

pigeons most surely do not lay everyday. the don't lay often. My pigeons eggs are fine quality, and I eat them. The only problem i have had with them is that they aren't as big as chicken eggs, so they don't have as varied use..... but that's a mere cosmetic problem. I would go for it!

 

[AuberyMirkwood]

Thanks!

Today I climbed up and cleaned, inspected eggs and squabs, etc. There were two nests with eggs. One single and one double. The double appear be about ready to hatch, the single was not even started. I took the single and opened it. Slightly smaller then a bantam egg and about as dark a yolk as store bought. I didn't eat it as it was dirty up there lol but I wanted to see (Mom was normal colored too). I left the two in the nest because the mom is... normal color with lots of white freckles and orange eyes that stand out like crazy so I left them in hopes of colored babies. There were 8 squabs, 4 sets. All but two were mostly feathered out. I dispatched (I know it sounds cruel), the four normal colored squabs, left two whose mom is patched with white and so are they, and one set had only yellow fluff yet so we'll see how they color out. My goal is to have only non wild colors coming out of this group. Out of about 20 birds there is one BIG white male with black around his eyes, two white patched females, and the white freckled female. The white male seems to get around lol. I thought pigeons were monogamous? Yet I see him mating several of the girls? I think he might be a meat stock descendant because he is so much larger? Also, while there are "normal" pigeons some of them appear to be taller and skinnier and this does not appear to be a sex thing. Could they be racing stock?

Forgive me I know NOTHING about pigeons lol.

 

[Stacykins]

Selective breeding and managing a wild colony of pigeons actually sounds pretty cool. Like they will be almost semi-feral birds in your care. It gives you a chance to work with birds after the city made you get rid of your chooks

I'd love to see some pictures if you can get them!

 

[AuberyMirkwood]

Now I assume that like chickens, most "colors" are going to be just mutts but do can you still answer some questions?

This is the freckled female. Is this a "color"?


And I call the one on the right normal colored, but is there something special about the dark one?


Here is the big white male What is the difference between the one on the right (Gentle transitions of color) and the ones above (Sharp transitions of color)?


You can see some white on the top bird. There are 6 like that in the flock. On the bottom ones wing that is an interesting pattern. It wild?