(Not sure where this belongs, so I'm posting it here.)

I periodically have common pigeons (Rock Doves) trying to set up housekeeping in an old barn in my property.

They're very insistent, breaking through screens and going through all sorts of contortions to get in.

They also make an unholy mess. (I store good lumber etc. in the hayloft.)

My first thought is to banish them yet again, plugging up holes, and possibly plugging the perpetrators.

But maybe I'm going about this all wrong. They were domesticated as meat birds thousands of years ago. Maybe I should be encouraging them, building a nest loft to control the mess, with the option of charging "rent" in the form of meat for the pot.

Anybody have any experience with pigeons? What do you all think?

Pigeon and chicken coop instructions:
http://www.abe.psu.edu/extension/ip/IP727-25.pdf
Of course it you are putting in a pigeon loft you can just make a one way entry for them with the roosts, shelves and nest boxes inside a cage of chicken wire or whatever to close them in.
You will want to be able to leave the trapping gate open so they can go out to feed but you also might want to shut it at night so racoons or weasels can't get to them.

You could just get or make a pigeon trap too. They are not hard to build and even a fairly small one will hold 20 pigeons with space for water and feed until you are ready to cook them.

A fancy pigeon pie recipe:
http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-01423j.html

I have eaten urban pigeon. I grilled it on the BBQ. meh. not impressed.

I have had 'squab' in restaurants just to compare and it was considerably better. So it must be me.

How to cook a pigeon on a homemade cooker.

Pigeons are excellent airgun quarry (or slingshot). ;-)

Pigeon = OK

Sea Gull = Only if Desperate

My understanding is that squab is young pigeon, probably fledged but not out of the nest. (Hence the nest box idea ... "1, 2, 3 ... hey, where's little Charlie?" ;-)

Adult birds are said to be a lot tougher. The ones I've had were done in a slow cooker, in sauce.

I don't think I'd fuss with plucking a bird that small. Just take the breast and drumsticks. The ravens will clean up the rest.

On small upland birds (quail, etc) we always just cut the head and wings off, then split the skin/feathers and peeled it all off. Clean out the in(sides) and pull off the breast/legs.

Get to cooking dear......

I've often wondered if the old technique we used when cleaning pheasants in Iowa would work with pigeons, and similar birds.

With pheasants, we used to lay the bird on its back, spread one wing well out, place a foot on top of it right snug up next to the body, then do exactly the same on the other side. Grab the pheasant securely by both legs/feet, and pull strongly and steadily upward. In about 1 second you have the skinned breast laying on the ground neatly stripped from the guts and everything else, and all you have to do is cut off the wings. If you want the legs, there's a bit more work to be done, but we rarely bothered since most of the meat is in the breast. All very neat and clean. My wife would take the best feathers and make Christmas ornaments out of them for gifts, particularly for the farmer and his family who let us hunt their property in the first place.

Basically the same as we did with pheasant. On smaller birds, you just peel the flesh back at the breast almost like opening a book. With small birds, the "step on the wings" method often results in a wingless carcass or a legless carcass that still needs to be skinned.

It also helped to deliver 1 of every 3 birds to the farmer, but we were from out of state, so that was a lot easier than shipping gifts later.

When I got permission to pheasant hunt or deer hunt on someones personal property, I always gave a cut to the property owner. It ensures good relations for years to come.

There was a great shop in Billings, MT that if you brought in your deer for butchering, he would weigh out the meat and give you the option of waiting for your meat to be cut into steaks, salami, venison etc. or give you same poundage, same day already. He also had deerskin clothing like vests, chaps, pants, boots and gloves that he adjusted the prices. Gave some great flannel lined and fur lined gloves out for gifts that way.

Taking on a new protein source, like pigeons, is attractive but you want to consider what input you will have to devote versus what output you are going to get. Consider the time and money you will have to invest, constantly, versus the likely meat meals. Consider just trapping an occasional bird or raiding their nests for squab when you feel like it, and otherwise letting the birds "free range."

Can I have your share of both?
-Blast, eater of many different things...

You should always cook grasshoppers as they may have tape worms, right? Or am I thinking of another bug? Is it safe to say you should cook most bugs before eating?

Insects are intermediary hosts for a number parasites including tapeworm. For example grain beetles are an intermediary host for a type of rodent tapeworm. Although humans may not be the definitive host for these parasites, humans (aberrant host) can and do occasionally become infected by these parasites. I would cook all insects prior to consumption.

Pete

I cook everything except fresh fruit, berries and a few of the vegetables
Some of the fish from certain salt waters are safe to eat raw but I usually still cook them.

I agree, most likely it is rare occurrence to become infected with a parasite by eating a raw insect, all it takes is one time. While most of these references examine the life cycle through non-humans, keep in mind that usually humans are not considered primary consumers of these insect intermediaries. Human can act as aberrant hosts and in some cases the effects can be even more devastating than normal hosts. While I did not enough time to run a full search, here are a few references.

Pete

From Link 1

Eating the intermediate host. In other cases, the principal host may ingest the intermediate host harboring the infective stage. This is true of the lungworm Metastrongylus, whose infective larvae are ingested in their earthworm intermediate hosts by pigs.
Acanthocephalans
Eggs are discharged into the body cavity of the female worm, where they develop into larvae surrounded by a shell of several layers. The embryo, known as an acanthor, has a spiny body and an anterior circle of hooks. The ancanthor inside its thick-walled egg is resistant to the environment and can live for years outside the pig. However, it will develop only if eaten by a dung beetle grub. Pigs become infected by ingesting the grub or adult beetle containing the encysted worm larva.

From: Link 2

Remarkably, an indirect, two-host cycle may also occur, involving grain beetles, fleas, or other insects that feed on contaminated rodent droppings. Insects that ingest the H nana eggs can serve as hosts for the cysticercoid larvae. Humans who accidentally ingest infected grain beetles (some of which, such as Tribolium, are only 2 to 3 mm long) digest the cysticercoid free; digestive enzymes then act on the cysticercoid to release the scolex, which attaches and develops by this indirect cycle into an adult worm identical to that acquired by the direct life cycle.

From: Link 3

Tapeworm eggs pass through the feces of these animals and fleas and lice ingest the eggs and act as vectors to carry intermediate stages of the tapeworm. Dogs or cats may accidentally ingest the insects and the intermediate stage of the tapeworm can grow into an adult.

From: Link 4

Eggs of Hymenolepis nana are immediately infective when passed with the stool and cannot survive more than 10 days in the external environment . When eggs are ingested by an arthropod intermediate host (various species of beetles and fleas may serve as intermediate hosts), they develop into cysticercoids, which can infect humans or rodents upon ingestion.

The problem is many of the diseases that were traditionally confined to areas of the world with less than ideal sanitary conditions are working their way into many areas that have long been considered insulated from endemic and epidemic conditions.

Pete