Pigeon traps

[Cathode]

If you are running short of protein stores between seasons, a great source is pigeons. You can make pigeon traps or buy them, they all work the same way just about. Or you can make snares with fishing line with a slip knot.
In the tropics we used rice a lot as bait for pigeons, but bread crumbs seems to be the king of baits for them and doves.
Pigeon fried rice, pigeon and mushroom pasta, pigeon stew with potatoes and carrots, roast pigeon with pumpkin and mashed potato are the main ones. You can make pigeons go a long way with staple foods with them.

Bait an area with bread crumbs for a few days or a week beforehand, but leave your traps out at the same time so birds get used to them. Then bait your traps.

 

[kyredneck]

I remember eating squab as a child, how 'cute' the little birds looked on the dinner table, but for some reason Mom stopped preparing them, probably because Dad was able to provide better eating by that time.

I've read that pigeon towers in Europe provide mostly free meat because the pigeons will feed off the neighboring farms.

 

[Cathode]

I remember eating squab as a child, how 'cute' the little birds looked on the dinner table, but for some reason Mom stopped preparing them, probably because Dad was able to provide better eating by that time.

Some of them are not so small. Ate thousands of them in PNG, mostly shot them with sling shots with bent 2 inch nails. These were the big wild pigeons not the domestic feral pigeons.

I've read that pigeon towers in Europe provide mostly free meat because the pigeons will feed off the neighboring farms.

Sounds good if they are eating grains. Don’t think I’d eat smog breathing exhaust stained garbage eating city pigeons.

 

[kyredneck]

Ate thousands of them in PNG

What's PNG?

sling shots with bent 2 inch nails

Interesting. Got pictures?

 

[kyredneck]

pigeon tower - Bing images

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Some of them are not so small. Ate thousands of them in PNG, mostly shot them with sling shots with bent 2 inch nails. These were the big wild pigeons not the domestic feral pigeons.

Sounds good if they are eating grains. Don’t think I’d eat smog breathing exhaust stained garbage eating city pigeons.

GREAT….And with a side order of crickets we can reduce the carbon footprint and that will make the oligarchs happy

 

[Bible Thumpin n Gun Totin]

We've got dove season here. Lotta folks breast them instead of cooking them whole. I imagine dove is similar to pigeon? I know with critters like possum the taste of their meat is dependent on what they been feeding on. So a possum eating trash will taste like trash. Is it is the same with pigeon?

I knew a fellow down in the piedmont that used to eat possum. I've "cooked" one before, but never ate it. There was a mean old possum that used to break into my brooder each night and kill some young biddies. Well I sat out there with my semi-auto .22 one night, and up come this big, fat possum coming into the coop for another meal. I nailed him with the 22 and gutted him. Next morning I took an old stock pot and boiled him up then threw him in the chicken run. Them chickens ain't never ate so good since then!

Nowadays I don't bother cooking possum, I just bury them, or throw them in the woods for coyotes to get. I had an aggressive one on my porch the other day. It was trying to live in my grill. My daughter plays near the grill and the possum would scare her whenever she was out there around dusk, but it would run away when I'd come out. Well, one night I come home and I seen him at the grill again. I tackled that sucker and broke his neck. No more possums scaring my daughter.

Now that second possum story is what I plan to tell any young men that come a-courting for my daughter, less'n I wind up having some more pertinent encounter between now and when she starts dating.

 

[kyredneck]

We've got dove season here. Lotta folks breast them instead of cooking them whole.

I've been to many dove shoots and eaten many a breast from 'breasted' doves, they're delicious. But I'd have to be hungry now to kill one. We feed the birds year around and have a flock that easily exceeds 100. They mate for life.

 

[Bible Thumpin n Gun Totin]

I've been to many dove shoots and eaten many a breast from 'breasted' doves, they're delicious. But I'd have to be hungry now to kill one. We feed the birds year around and have a flock that easily exceeds 100. They mate for life.

I've never taken any as I just can't fathom plucking, and then cutting off two little silver dollar breasts. I've heard they're absolutely delicious, or as a friend of mine put it who dove hunts, "filet mignon of the sky", but there's so little usable meat on them.

That's quite a flock y'all got!

 

[Salty]

I rather go to Chick-fil-A (unless it is on Sunday)

 

[kyredneck]

I've never taken any as I just can't fathom plucking, and then cutting off two little silver dollar breasts. I've heard they're absolutely delicious, or as a friend of mine put it who dove hunts, "filet mignon of the sky", but there's so little usable meat on them.

That's quite a flock y'all got!

It can be done in seconds, you need only strong thumbs.

https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=Breast+a+dove

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I've never taken any as I just can't fathom plucking, and then cutting off two little silver dollar breasts. I've heard they're absolutely delicious, or as a friend of mine put it who dove hunts, "filet mignon of the sky", but there's so little usable meat on them.

That's quite a flock y'all got!

Woodcock… fun to hunt but not much to eat.

 

[Cathode]

What's PNG?

Papua New Guinea.

Interesting. Got pictures?

This is the wire Shanghai we made out of 3.15 mm or 4mm fencing wire. Or welding rods.

We used 5 links of 5 rubber bands and bent 2 inch nails for ammo, instead of what’s in the picture. The wire frame is the same though.
You can make a patch in the middle link of rubber bands by separating the sides evenly and wrapping in masking tape. That way you shoot heavy lead bean sinkers.

Imagine good quality rubber bands linked in 5 bunches of 5 like these singles.

The size of the rubber bands should allow a draw from your extended arm to your ear. It is a very powerful weapon, used for self defence and food procurement in PNG all the time. No welfare system, all about survival. It was their version of a handgun, especially with bean sinkers.
The shanghai is not held in a power grip on the handle. You place your thumb on the right fork and grip the left fork with middle joint of your pointer finger. Basically you shoot over your thumb webbing.

We used to get the big bags of 5000 rubber bands and make up lots of spares to change out. On their own, rubber bands are weak but combined they are like strong muscle fibres, even fairly thin ones.

We could make Shanghais in minutes, use 2 inch pieces of the same wire as ammo in an emergency.
Bamboo shafts could be used with them for fishing as well.

 

[Cathode]

I've never taken any as I just can't fathom plucking, and then cutting off two little silver dollar breasts. I've heard they're absolutely delicious, or as a friend of mine put it who dove hunts, "filet mignon of the sky", but there's so little usable meat on them.

That's quite a flock y'all got!

Doves taste better than pigeon, but you don’t get as much off them. Some of the pigeons we hunted were large quite heavy birds, but very good eating.

The best time we hunted birds was at night when they were sleeping, we used torches/flash lights and walk under trees to spot their bellies.
We used to shoot flying foxes as well, they were mostly in the mango or palm trees. Harder to kill them straight away, but you could stun them and they’d fall down, then you use a piece of pipe or timber on them.

 

[Cathode]

I rather go to Chick-fil-A (unless it is on Sunday)

Hey, that’s cheating.

 

[Cathode]

GREAT….And with a side order of crickets we can reduce the carbon footprint and that will make the oligarchs happy

Not quite yet at the stage of eating vermin and grass for the elites, but I’m sure it will be delicious.

 

[kyredneck]

Papua New Guinea.

Ah, the tropics. Is that where you're from?

Excellent info on sling shots, wish someone would've taught me this sixty years ago: "The shanghai is not held in a power grip on the handle. You place your thumb on the right fork and grip the left fork with middle joint of your pointer finger. Basically you shoot over your thumb webbing."

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

I rather go to Chick-fil-A (unless it is on Sunday)

Lol… my mothers people raised, slaughtered and sold them in their butcher shops… so they hated chickens. Mom never cooked chicken but beef and pork were commonly eaten. Also I never liked lamb so she didn’t bother with it. Mom would have laughed to see me raising chickens but that’s mostly for eggs.

 

[Van]

I sure wish the black crow could be made to be tasty, as they are found near trash barrels almost everywhere in California.

 

[kyredneck]

Dad grew up in depression era Appalachia, he says Meadowlarks and Robins are good eating.