Re: Pigeons have found me
Usually depends on the barn man feeling sporting or not. Twelve gauge, no warning, 16 last minute and so on. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
Friends dad talked his boss into letting take a stevens crack shot on the job and killing the pests. He got good enough to richocet the shot shells off the roof and into the birds.
Its a same they are such pests because they are pretty birds. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
Patrick
Re: Pigeons have found me
Poorboy, Yeah, pigeons can be neat birds. As a kid I kept a barrel nosed homing pigeon. Various of my friends raised pigeons, mostly fancy pigeons. Some are great to watch as they do serious aerobatics. There are rollers, tumblers, etc. Muffed pigeons with "wheel pants" and so forth. A couple breedersof my aquaintance raised white kings and silver kings. They were considerably heavier and were raised to eat. Squab is a delicacy and brings a hefty price in a fine eatery. They are ready to dress out just as the feathers in their "arm pits" fill in. That is where they feather last. They have attained good size but are still quite tender.
Funny thing that you connected pigeons to tobacco since shredded tobacco stalks was the preferred nesting material that breeders offered the birds. It was supposed to control mites and such.
Patrick
Re: Pigeons have found me
Pat that really is interesting about the nesting material and does explain alot. It seems that the birds would rather nest in my tobacco barns than in my feed barns and I always wondered why. After I changed over one tobacco barn to a hay setup the birds left
Its amazing how much information is on these boards with people who have such varied experiences.
Patrick
Re: Pigeons have found me
Patrick, I learned from it too. I knew breeders bought shredded tobacco stalks to offer to their pigeons for their sole source of nesting material and that it was obstensibly to prevent mites etc. but I didn't know "free range" pigeons had a pref for tobacco nests.
It might have been something as simple as you can't make a nest out of grain but they seem to have voted in favor of tobacco over straw/hay and we know they will use straw for nests (at least in the abscence of tobacco.)
Thanks for sharing your piece of the crazy quilt.
Patrick