Is Alabama alone in this?

William Reinicke said:
Idk.... there was lots of corn and grain on the dairy I shot and I opened lots of breast meat that first couple years. It never looked remotely the same as what I was getting pics of from guys who were killing them over corn fields. I really think it had to do with how close this dairy was from a major city and that these birds were living in the streets and flying to the dairy every day. Something wasnt right, and I couldnt ever bring myself to try it. I have had remote pigeon, not anywhere near a city, and that were obviously eating from fields and yes... you are right... some very tasty meat. Eat just like a dove, if not a little better.
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Yeah, cigarette butts and french fries would likely do that to a bird. Trash in, trash out.
 
The Pigeon hunting we did was mostly on Amish farms far from cities and towns. We were always welome and enjoyed the time spent with the families. After a very good hunt the farmer told us. "Neighors are now using poison the kind that is placed on the roost then killes the birds. If I were you I would not eat those birds." We had to dipose of the birds and that was the last time we hunted Pigeons. They can and do fly a long way, banded ones especially and they roost along the way in places they should not.
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
The Pigeon hunting we did was mostly on Amish farms far from cities and towns. We were always welome and enjoyed the time spent with the families. After a very good hunt the farmer told us. "Neighors are now using poison the kind that is placed on the roost then killes the birds. If I were you I would not eat those birds." We had to dipose of the birds and that was the last time we hunted Pigeons. They can and do fly a long way, banded ones especially and they roost along the way in places they should not.
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Theres a breeder here that has won a few of the big international races. He said one of his birds once sold for over 100k. I think its pretty big in NM. A few of my bands are in spanish and have "Mex" on them, so assuming they are out of mexico. Its actually a pretty wild sport. The way they train the young young birds to fly back to the coup. The way they record the progress of each bird and then cull them out and only keep a handful each year. I guess like anything in the breeding and genetic world, it all makes sense. Like mentioned earlier, I didnt realize how high the cull rate was. Once I figured that out, I didnt much care anymore about how many I was killing. Theres a few memorable ones that I question if they are still missed, but mostly those first year birds that were dumb, didnt bother me in the slightest. And yes, long journeys sometimes require food stops, even for us humans.
 
The man that was my hunting & fishing mentor and best friend was a WWII Veteran. His job was to train Pigeons to carry messages and orders to and from the command posts and troops. He had extensive knowledge about the birds and put it to use for Our Country. Everytime we killed a banded bird I would think about the stories and the knowledge that he passed on to me.

When I worked for a Street Dept, in western PA one of the jobs I was given along with another guy was to cull City Pigeons. Destroy the nests, eggs and pull the heads off the chicks. I did that for a short period of time and then moved on to other jobs. They also had policemen and their freinds shoot the birds with shotguns from the tops of buildings. That was in the 1970's. Can't imagine that happening today even though the sound of gun fire is very common in many cities these days but not from Pigeon shooters.

I'm far from being a Saint. I have a conscience and the more that I use it the better I feel and sleep at night. All Life is Precious in my Geezer years, not so much in my youth.
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
The man that was my hunting & fishing mentor and best friend was a WWII Veteran. His job was to train Pigeons to carry messages and orders to and from the command posts and troops. He had extensive knowledge about the birds and put it to use for Our Country. Everytime we killed a banded bird I would think about the stories and the knowledge that he passed on to me.
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Thats really cool. Ive read stories of prisoners training these birds to bring them back cigarettes lol.
Vince Pagliaroli said:
When I worked for a Street Dept, in western PA one of the jobs I was given along with another guy was to cull City Pigeons. Destroy the nests, eggs and pull the heads off the chicks. I did that for a short period of time and then moved on to other jobs. They also had policemen and their freinds shoot the birds with shotguns from the tops of buildings. That was in the 1970's. Can't imagine that happening today even though the sound of gun fire is very common in many cities these days but not from Pigeon shooters.
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I bet it was impossible to keep up. I didnt realize a pigeon can have up to 3 clutches a year. I was told this anyways and no matter how hard we tried, it was impossible to ever rid of all the pigeons on that dairy. but we did knock the numbers down a ton. The ol man even told me he went from losing a cow a month to every 3-5 months from disease. They were testing all the time once the feds got involved on that dairy. They were happy with his progress and they never shut the dairy down.
Vince Pagliaroli said:
I'm far from being a Saint. I have a conscience and the more that I use it the better I feel and sleep at night. All Life is Precious in my Geezer years, not so much in my youth.
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Funny how this happens. Barely 34 and I feel that way more and more. I also think working in a hospital doesnt help that situation either, but I cant agree more.
 
The county that we live in has more cows than people. I'm told the average dairy cow lives 4 years. One of the first things I noticed when I moved here 15 years ago is that many of the Vultures never leave there is always carrion to eat. Second thing I noticed is the Pigeon poplation in the village, town and rural area always stays the same, not very large. This I attribute to the large winged predator population, they do keep the Pigeon population in check very well. West Nile and the Bird Flu has taken a terrible toll on many birds here, especially Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkey. Not to mention the large amount of all types of predators. The winged predator populations other than the Night Hawk and the Goshawk seem to be doing very well. Songbirds and Game Birds not so good at all....
 
When I was a kid, crow shooting was a great way to get reading for hunting season. My dad caught an owl in a trap set for Fox when I was around 5. It wasn't illegal then to shoot them and it was the only way to get it out of the trap. He had the owl stuffed and man was that some decoy. It finally fell apart around the time I was 13. Now our crow season is October to January. Nobody shoots them anymore since there's real game to hunt.
 
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