bag of pigeons

[simcgunner]

What do you do with all the pigeons you shoot. Do you eat them? feed them to your dog?use for fertilizer?

[Scully]

32 minutes ago, simcgunner said:

What do you do with all the pigeons you shoot. Do you eat them? feed them to your dog?use for fertilizer?

Here we go again! 🙂

Some are eaten, some go to the dogs, some the ferrets and the excess are dumped. 
If the farmer wants you to shoot as many as possible then you have to do so whether you have an outlet or not. Nobody worries about dumping corvids, foxes, rats or whatever, and pigeons are no different; it’s pest control. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh no!

I must be that time of year AGAIN!

[Scully]

6 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Oh no!

I must be that time of year AGAIN!

🙂👍

Edited August 26, 2022 by Scully

[Gas seal]

Hi simcgunner l noticed you are in the USA. Maybe you have limits or tags for pigeons , in U.K. there are no limits for birds shot and they can be shot all year , no closed season. There’s not a lot of demand for pigeons now in the U.K. the pigeons I shoot go for animal feed or l give them to anyone who wants them to eat. With avian flu in the U.K. the government advice is not to feed birds of prey with any shot wild birds as the virus can remain in frozen birds for over one year. As said its pest control, when crops are still growing a lot of pigeons will be left where they fall . Some shooters will pay hundreds of pounds a day to shoot pigeons and the agent will try to sell the shot pigeons for a few pence, a bit like commercial game shooting. I would say a lot of pigeons now go to as you say ( fertiliser) . 

[Pushandpull]

Some respondents perhaps forgetting that the OP is from the USA ?

Our wood pigeons are much bigger than your doves, and they do make a nice meal. It is entirely legal to sell them to a game dealer or to a local restaurant. I am not sure how things have changed after Brexit but quite a lot were exported at one time.

The only wild game we can not sell is geese.

Gas seal beat me to the point re USA by a minute.

[Scully]

25 minutes ago, Pushandpull said:

Some respondents perhaps forgetting that the OP is from the USA ?

 

I know he’s from the USA due to a previous post, but I’m not really sure what difference that makes as to what others do with their bag? 

[PeterHenry]

I eat all mine - I've got a good line in pigeon and bacon burgers as well as pigeon ravioli - both of which are great as you can make massive batches and they freeze well. The livers also make good ravioli filling or pate if mixed 50 / 50 with chicken livers.

If I find some time on my hands on a Sunday, pigeon and kidney suet pudding (from Archie Coates book on pigeon shooting - but with extra juniper) is a firm favourite.

I know some shoot bigger bags - and ultimately pigeons are an agricultural pest, which provides us the legal justification for shooting them - but it really is a sin to waste such excellent food, and even more so the way some pepoles finances are going.

Edited August 26, 2022 by PeterHenry

[Scully]

4 minutes ago, PeterHenry said:

I eat all mine - I've got a good line in pigeon and bacon burgers as well as pigeon ravioli - both of which are great as you can make massive batches and they freeze well. The livers also make good ravioli filling or pate if mixed 50 / 50 with chicken livers.

If I find some time on my hands on a Sunday, pigeon and kidney suet pudding (from Archie Coates book on pigeon shooting - but with extra juniper) is a firm favourite.

I know some shoot bigger bags - and ultimately pigeons are an agricultural pest, which provides us the legal justification for shooting them - but it really is a sin to waste such excellent food, and even more so the way some pepoles finances are going.

Sounds very very tasty.👍

[PeterHenry]

5 minutes ago, Scully said:

Sounds very very tasty.👍

👍I think as long as you know vaguely what you are doing, and use good ingredients (like wood pigeon) it's hard to go wrong.

Strangely, my younger brother who shows very little interest in food in general, rarely doesn't ask for seconds of pigeon pie. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by PeterHenry

[old'un]

26 minutes ago, PeterHenry said:

👍I think as long as you know vaguely what you are doing, and use good ingredients (like wood pigeon) it's hard to go wrong.

Strangely, my younger brother who shows very little interest in food in general, rarely doesn't ask for seconds of pigeon pie. 

Perhaps your brother as heard about all the shooters that have died from lead poisoning.

Sorry misread the “rarely doesn't ask for seconds of pigeon pie”

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by old'un

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 hour ago, Scully said:

I know he’s from the USA due to a previous post, but I’m not really sure what difference that makes as to what others do with their bag? 

Klop!

Edited August 26, 2022 by TIGHTCHOKE

[Bigbob]

I try to freeze everything i kill to feed the ferrets during the summer i run 3 freezers and find its a lot easier to get dog food from the slaughter house than it is to get food for the ferrets without paying for it 

[PeterHenry]

38 minutes ago, old'un said:

Perhaps your brother as heard about all the shooters that have died from lead poisoning.

Sorry misread the “rarely doesn't ask for seconds of pigeon pie”

 

I accept I could have phrased that better.

He was a very good shot with a rifle at school actually - but he's never been into game shooting. I think he takes the view that as a lot of pepole in our family have shot and been fairly long lived and relatively successful, there's probably not too much to be worried about consuming the odd peice of lead shot. But still, if that's the way the tide is flowing.....

Anyway, that's a completely different subject to the one at hand.

[old'un]

1 hour ago, PeterHenry said:

I accept I could have phrased that better.

He was a very good shot with a rifle at school actually - but he's never been into game shooting. I think he takes the view that as a lot of pepole in our family have shot and been fairly long lived and relatively successful, there's probably not too much to be worried about consuming the odd peice of lead shot. But still, if that's the way the tide is flowing.....

Anyway, that's a completely different subject to the one at hand.

The reference to shooters dyeing from lead poisoning was a bit tongue in cheek, as far as I know I don't think there has ever been a proven case of death from eating lead shot game?

[Wilts#Dave]

Can of worms 😂! Some don’t mind dumping them, others think differently and ensure they’ve an outlet for them. 
If you put the effort in it’s possible to get rid of larger quantities but it is a lot more difficult nowadays due to the lack of gamedealers. 
Does seem criminal to dump what really is good food, but it is pest control at the end of the day and that point can’t be argued. 
Doesn’t sit well with me personally and I’ve managed to find other avenues to get rid of them so far with considerable effort, but understand there may come a time where they do have to be disposed of/dumped. 

[PeterHenry]

2 hours ago, old'un said:

The reference to shooters dyeing from lead poisoning was a bit tongue in cheek, as far as I know I don't think there has ever been a proven case of death from eating lead shot game?

No worries 👍

Edited August 26, 2022 by PeterHenry

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Can of worms 😂! Some don’t mind dumping them, others think differently and ensure they’ve an outlet for them. 
If you put the effort in it’s possible to get rid of larger quantities but it is a lot more difficult nowadays due to the lack of gamedealers. 
Does seem criminal to dump what really is good food, but it is pest control at the end of the day and that point can’t be argued. 
Doesn’t sit well with me personally and I’ve managed to find other avenues to get rid of them so far with considerable effort, but understand there may come a time where they do have to be disposed of/dumped. 

I agree with your post virtually word for word and how things are going with the demand and supply situation I cannot see it getting any better , in fact if anything it will get worse , while I had a market for shot birds I was happy to go as much as I wanted to knowing how ever many I shot I could move them on even though at times I was losing money , the satisfaction I had was whatever I got for them they were going to used in one way or another .

This Summer I have managed to off load most of the birds when things were quite , but since the harvest started we have had a lot of Pigeons and even shooting smallish amounts my freezer was filling up faster than I could move them on , now I limit myself to twenty , sometimes I can them without a lot of trouble and other days I am lucky to get half that in the time frame .

I did start a thread in the past about ( Will the lack of demand for shot Pigeons affect the pigeon population ) and now a couple of years later I honestly believe it will , with the big bag pigeon shooters either giving it a miss , or cutting down to the numbers they can sell on , like I said , these past four or five weeks we have had good numbers and so have a lot of other land owners , and I did report that when I was shooting last Saturday in ideal Pigeon shooting weather I didn't hear anyone else shooting on what for most working people is a day off , so when do all these Pigeon shooter's go Pigeon shooting ?

[simcgunner]

I do not Know anyone here in the States that eat a pigeon we consider them flying rats.  What we call pigeons are actually rock doves. They make good homing pigeons and some city dwellers keep coops on rooftops.. many dog trainers keep some to use as training aids for pups. The mourning dove that we shoot is excellent fare and much smaller than our pigeons. barn buildings that are used to store animal feed almost always have resident feral cats keeping the pigeons and rats in check . We exterminated our last pigeons The passenger pigeon at the end of the last century by blasting the roosting birds out of their roosts with cannon loaded with bird shot. the rock dove and the English sparrow(thanks a lot for that one) moved in took their place and we have no means to eradicate them. I believe the sparrows got here the same way Grey squirrels got over there, someone introduced them on purpose.I have tried squirrel and do not care for it. they are listed as a game animal and there is a season and limits set for them also. Rarely seen or heard about is the live pigeon shoot. We call box birds. Invitation is by word of mouth and by invitation only as this game is targeted by antis and protests are over the top. 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, simcgunner said:

I do not Know anyone here in the States that eat a pigeon we consider them flying rats.  What we call pigeons are actually rock doves. They make good homing pigeons and some city dwellers keep coops on rooftops.. many dog trainers keep some to use as training aids for pups. The mourning dove that we shoot is excellent fare and much smaller than our pigeons. barn buildings that are used to store animal feed almost always have resident feral cats keeping the pigeons and rats in check . We exterminated our last pigeons The passenger pigeon at the end of the last century by blasting the roosting birds out of their roosts with cannon loaded with bird shot. the rock dove and the English sparrow(thanks a lot for that one) moved in took their place and we have no means to eradicate them. I believe the sparrows got here the same way Grey squirrels got over there, someone introduced them on purpose.I have tried squirrel and do not care for it. they are listed as a game animal and there is a season and limits set for them also. Rarely seen or heard about is the live pigeon shoot. We call box birds. Invitation is by word of mouth and by invitation only as this game is targeted by antis and protests are over the top. 

Very interesting how you class Pigeons over your side of the pond , Your Mourning Dove would be very similar to our Collard Dove which I have eaten and to me they are just alright , nothing special and I would sooner have a young Wood Pigeon anytime , most of our Wood Pigeons went abroad as there is little demand in the UK compared to the quantity that was sent overseas , once that market got flooded out it have never got back to how it once was , and I doubt it ever will get back to those far off days 

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

Eat mine or give to friends / family. I used to have a ferreting friend that had the remains but now I leave them out for the local fox.