Keeping Pigeons on the Homestead: 3 Uses for This Graceful Bird

Have you ever thought about keeping pigeons on the homestead? Anyone who has met a pigeon fancier will tell you how much love and passion they dedicate to these heavenly and biblical birds.

The human-pigeon connection is ancient. Humans used pigeons for food, sport, but mainly as reliable messengers for centuries. In the second half of the 20th century, when phones became available in every home, pigeons lost their general purpose.

Their downfall in public eyes concurred to a mass migration of people into the big cities where pigeons are looked at as a useless and annoying menace.

The truth, however, is far from that.

Pigeons and Cats are the only species that are walking the thin line between domestic and wild animals. We never actually tamed them as we did with chickens or dogs. But still, they are happy to be a part of our homes and keep returning to us when they feel like it.

Pigeon Types and Breeds

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Pigeon breeds are divided into three types, depending on their primary purpose.

Sport/Racing type

This type is kept for their flying abilities by fanciers who enjoy competitions, like racing pigeons over long distances or highfliers breeds that can stay in the air over one spot for hours. The most prominent representatives of this group are racing homers, rollers, and tipplers. Each of these groups has its unique breeds.

Fancy type

This type of pigeons are valued for their unusual and unique looks. These breeds are kept as show pigeons, and they have competitions in aesthetics of their own. This is also the type with the largest number of breeds. There are even numerous subcategories dividing them by color patterns, outstanding body features, sounds they are making, feather structure, or a combination of these characteristics.

Utility type

Even though all of the pigeon breeds can be used as meat birds for food, some are specially altered for this purpose. Utility-type breeds like French Mondain, King pigeon, or Strasser pigeon are members of the heavyweight group that serves as a meat source. Birds of this type can weigh around 1 lb on average, although some birds weigh even up to 2 lbs.

It is a tradition to use very young pigeons for meat, usually just before flying out of the nest. These young birds are called squabs. Squab meat is considered a delicacy in international cuisine. Besides its delicious taste, squab meat is low fat and commonly recommended as a healthy replacement for beef or pork.

Keeping Pigeons on the Homestead

People often make specific lofts for keeping pigeons on the homestead. Still, it’s not unusual to reconstruct some unused space on the property, like an attic or a garage, and turn it into a loft with a small effort.

Necessary space depends on a few factors. Sports breeds that spend most of their time flying outside don’t require much space in the loft. However, fancy breeds and utility breeds will rarely go out and fly around, so they will need a spacious loft to accommodate them. Another critical factor is the number of birds and considering that they can double in numbers in only one season.

The essential rule is that birds should have enough room to spread their wings and fly a bit, even indoors.

Food for Pigeons

Pigeons eat whole seeds. A pigeon food mix can be found in pet stores and farm markets. This mix contains corn, millet, barley, flaxseed, oats, maple peas, sunflower seed, wheat, and more. This should be the base of pigeons’ diet with the occasional addition of grit (once a week) for minerals and fresh greens like lettuce or kale (2-3 times a week) for vitamins.

Why Keep Pigeons on the Homestead?

The benefits of keeping pigeons on the homestead can be as various as their types. Whether the reason for keeping them is a healthy and delicious food source, boosting your competitive spirit and filling your shelf with trophies, or enjoying and showing off their aesthetics, pigeons will enrich your homestead on many levels.

Want to learn more? Pigeon Talk is a great place to learn more about keeping pigeons!

Written by Dragan Vracaric

Dragan has been keeping and breeding poultry for 20 years, including chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and pigeons. He is passionate about animals and about writing!