Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Couldn't tell you Grunta - I was working in China at the time and the first I saw of it was when the whole deep-fried bird (plucked and gutted) was put in front of me. Very cool !

Oh - I loved them in Ice Age!!!

Mark

that would be nice, to bring back a relic from the past! apparently they didn't taste to good though, something written in a sailors journal about them being extremely greasy because of there diet of fruit, and they were wiped out by feral pigs on the island of Mauritius, that's where my old man is from.

The story of the Passenger pigeon is another strange one. This bird fed a major part of the industrial revolution in the US. It is said that when they flew over, the whole sky would get dark. They were killed off by wanton slaughter and destruction of habitat (beechwood forests, I think). Think the last one died in the 40s.

I've gone on white wing (slightly larger than the regular dove) hunts in south Texas. Unless someone just likes to hunt (don't get excited about it myself), it seemed like a lot of trouble for a little meat to me. Occasionally, I will go kill a deer for the venison (Bambi's mom), but that is just for eating. No romance in it. Usually takes me about 20 minutes in the right season. Another hour to dress it out. But little birds?

m

I've killed five gallon buckets full of red wing black birds, ripped the breasts out and made rice dressings, jambalaya and had them in brown gravies But that was before they started cropdusting poison on them in texas as nuisance crop destructive birds. They are getting kinda rare now in these parts. They used to make the sky dark.

Same. I've been, but never really liked dove hunting, seemed like a waste of shot to kill a 4 oz. bird with 1.5 oz. of lead. I can only possess 30 dove, but up here we can have unlimited antlerless whitetail (more or less, I think it's technically 36 for this region).

Anyways, I was only interested in them for their small size, and concealment factor. I live in the suburbs now, can't keep bees, chickens, or more than two rabbits for pets and all that nonsense. I've kept Coturnix before for three years, but I didn't have an ideal setup for them, and have a small pond in the yard where I've raised some bluegill up for an occasional meal.

But I've seen dovecotes as little houses or shelves that people hang off of their garden sheds and thought it'd be an interesting/feasible idea for some people. I think I have too many hawks and cats around to try it myself. The Microlivestock book, pg. 145, states that peasants in the 13th century developed large cropped birds to steal from the lords' fields, then when they returned to the dovecote they would empty the crop and use it to make bread for themselves.

Hi all,

My Dad raised Pigeons when i was a kid, for training hunting dogs. Short Hair Pointers, and Brittany Spaniel's....

my brother and i hauled a quail trap to the top of an old grainry, and captured a few common pigeons, for the 10-12 starters. they were various colors.....

we had built a large cage for them from old telephone posts set 10ft sq, with a tin roof and tin about 4ft down from the top around the sides to protect them from the wind. and 5 gal buckets for nests mounted all around the top, and plenty of roosts all over the place, and a trap door just under the side tin, for their entrance.

We kept them in that cage for 4 mo, and fed them scratch grain, and a little horse feed, then finely let them out, and they came right back....... after a while we would only feed them scratch once a week or so in the cage, as they would eat all the left over horse feed that the horse's would drop out of their old tire feeders, and were Forging for miles all around the fields and pastures for their food, as the nearest house was 1/2 mile away from us......

from the first 10-12 starters, in 5 or so years, we had over 100 Pigeons

they sometimes had to squabble with the wild bob white quail, for the horse feed left overs

every once and a while there would be a lone pigeon show up and hang around for a few days and then go on its way, a cupple of times, a flock of 10 + showed up, and they stayed and became a part of the brood

My Grandmother loved squab, and we took her several every time we could, and we eat them farely regular and they were always good eating....... I have never had a larger meat bird, so I don't have a comparison......

I like eating quail so i went on a quail hunt once but i couldn't hit the dam things with a 20 gage and No 9 shot but it was fun just walking around in the long grass with my dog getting spooked every time they would jump unexpectedly.

I do love to hunt and think you guys in the US are lucky to have the numbers of White tails that you now have, I can only dream about hunting deer and I do, all to often!

I had a deer burger a couple weeks ago. I did not really care for it, but if I ate it often enough I could see it would grow on me. I had farm raised elk before and that was nice and mild - not like the deer my uncle shot. Quail - now your talking - love them, but only had farm raised (I have a couple in the freezer now)! Tried pigeon once and remember it being nice also. I really love rabbit, and have thoughts of adding to AP, just not sure I could kill em after feeding and caring for them - just too darn cute!

Mark

Where do you live Grunta? Deer are aplenty here too.

Mark: Killing a rabbit is easy, especially when the little bastard has scratched the crap out of you a few times.
And they taste SO good.

Hi Kuda, I live near Perth, W.A. i have herd there are a few deer down south some where near margret river but i think I will have to save a few $$ and head east some time in the next few years.

where are you Kuda? and how hard is it to hunt deer over there?

Cheers.

Vic,
and it's easy now.
Deer have been declared vermin in 3 states (not yet Vic) as they're in plague proportions and destroying native flora.
I started deer hunting this year, and we've bagged two in the 2 trips we've been so far, and saw a big 5 tier buck get caught in the fence... not long enough to let me get the gun from the shed though
There are heaps around, and they are HUGE. Laws still exist in Vic that prevent shooting at night and spotlighting, but they're out during the day! especially after the fires last year decimated the bush and there's no food.

This is a bit of a hijeck though...
If you can make it over, I'd be happy to take you out hunting.

I'm sure it is easy, I am not the biggest guy in the world but I'm pretty sure I could take a rabbit... I kind of wear my heart on my sleeve and have a soft stomach... Gutting a fish is a trial for me - not at all plesent. My wife said if I will kill them, then she will clean them. I'm thinking I can do a pellet gun, but the youtube video I watched of a guy breaking the neck was a combination of nails on a chalk board and watching an IV get put in someones arm...just nausiating. I watched it three times and it did not get any better for me...in fact had some bad dreams. Taking life is just not easy for me and I would probably be a veggan if I could not just buy the meat. But still, sustainable living is my goal and I assume I will get immune to the life taking at some point.

Mark

Well Mark living in houston you probably have quite a few transplant coonass neighbors who would be happy to do the dirty deeds for a percentage of the meat. I was often giving a third of my rabbits away to a neighbor who would give me my shares to freeze already wrapped and ready! I only did it when I was working long hrs or he asked when he was running low.

I'm guessing they would taste like dove. Which is a little darker and tougher than quail. Those breasts also are good on skewers with bell pepper onion and wrapped in bacon. Probably taste a little like Mocking birds... just kidding...couldn't help it Tennesee State Bird