PIGEONSBy Robert Mangile

http://mail.sumnercomm.net/~rmangile/Pigeons/index.html

Some things about myself.

I love spaghetti and meatballs!

Some things about myself.

I love Ice Cream!

Some things about myself.

I love Pigeons!

And little great grand daughters!

Have been involved with pigeons since eight years of age.

Above: Me with a pair of Swiss Mondain pigeons - about 1950.

•Spent 35 years building heavy machinery at McNally Manufacturing Corporation in Pittsburg, Kansas

Inside vacant McNally building after it closed in Feb. 2002

These are two of several dam gate hoists that wound up back east. The large gear is 12 feet in diameter.

Have no formal higher education but many say I possess a degree of “difficulty”!

Elaborating on all the various aspect of pigeons and pigeon keeping can a very lengthy process. Being unsure of what might be of interest to the general public is a dilemma so I’ve broken this presentation into a mixture of those aspects.

Courtship and reproduction.

Associations with Man

Hobby

Food & Business

Military and Homing Pigeons

Research

The word ‘pigeon’ is derived from the Latin word ‘pipio’, meaning ‘young cheeping bird’. The word ‘dove’ is of Norse origin and first appeared in the 14th century as ‘dova’ or ‘douve’.

Names for pigeon in various languages.

Dutch = duif

German = Taube

Irish = colm

Norwegian = due

Italian = colomba

Czech = holub

Hungarian = Galamb

Polish = Rzecz

Swedish = duva

Scientifically speaking, there is no difference between a pigeon and a dove. There are about 300 species of pigeons/doves in the world.

Emeraled Dove

Inca Dove

Diamond Dove

Crested Pigeon

Crowned Victoria Pigeon

Orange Fruit Dove

Seychelles Blue-Pigeon

White-winged Dove

Nicobar Pigeon

Rock Pigeon C. livia

Wood Pigeon C. palumbus

Stock Pigeon C. oenas

Band-tailed Pigeon C. fasciata

Snow Pigeon C. leuconota

Spectaled Pigeon C. guinea

Very strong fliers.

Monogamous - pair for life.

•Build flimsy nests.

•Lay only one or two white or creamy white eggs per clutch.

•Both sexes incubate eggs and feed young.

•Feed newly hatched young “pigeon milk”.

•New hatchlings are altricial - (baby chicks are precocial).

•The only birds that drink in drafts - like a horse.

•Produce various versions of a cooing sound.

Some things about all pigeon species.

Breeds range in size from six ounces to over three pounds.

Male pigeons are called “cocks”.

Female pigeons are called “hens”.

Courting males do what is called a “Bow Coo”

Male & female pigeons physically “kiss” - called “billing”.

Tend to be cavity nesters if given a choice.

Male pigeons produce a long groaning “nest call”.

Male pigeons “drive” their mates to the nest site.

Nestling pigeons are called “squabs”.

Fledglings are called “squeakers” because they squeak.

They love taking a bath.

Some things to remember about Columba livia .

Rock Doves/Pigeons are considered to the the ancestors of all domestic breeds and weigh from 10-15 ounces.

The operculum on a pigeon is the fleshy tissue at the base of the bill. Pigeon fanciers call it the wattle. The fleshy tissue around the eye is called the cere, a term used for the waxy substance on the bills of raptors.

It is likely that the original wild Rock Doves (now called Rock Pigeons), due to interbreeding with feral pigeons, are no longer considered “pure”. Sometimes called Blue Rock Pigeons.

A real Blue “Barless” Rock Pigeon from Europe.

Bow Coo by male courting female - dragging his tail to produce a swooshing sound.

Courting and billing.

Top: Mating - male treading hen.

Right: Swing Pouter flight. Most free flying pigeons glide in the fashion after mating.

Fighting - pecking at each other’s head.

Fighting - slapping with wings.

Pigeons love taking a bath.

Flimsy nest of coarse material - even wire. White pigeon eggs which are laid about 44 hours apart.

Brooding parent on a nest of pine needles & feathers. Hatching takes about 18 days. Body temperature 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

The egg tooth, used to pip open the shell, is absorbed in a few days after hatching.

An Oriental Frill regurgitating pigeon milk to its new squab.

Crop/Pigeon Milk is produced by both the cock and the hen. It develops as a thickening of the crop wall during incubation and is about 50% protein.

Well fed squabs - notice the large crops full of milk. Solid food in gradually included at about a week of age.

Leg bands are actually applied to the foot!

How to apply a seamless band at 5-7 days of age.

A photo sequence showing the down plumes that are mostly worn off at fledge. Each down plume is pushed out by the incoming feather.

Fledglings are called “squeakers” because of the squeaking sound they make.

Notice the soft pale wattle on upper bill, dark eyes , the dull plumage and lack of down plumes.

Though completely defenseless squabs display a formidable appearance by standing upright, puffing up their body to appear larger and will wing-slap and/or thrust their head forward making a popping sound with air from their lungs.

Top left: One week.

Bottom left: Two weeks.

Top right: Three weeks.

Bottom right: Four weeks.

Food ration should contain 12-16% protein depending on season.

Whole Yellow CornWhole PopcornWhole MiloWhole Wheat

Hog-Finisher PelletEgg-Laying PelletsPigeon Pellets

Canada Field PeasMaple PeasAustrian Peas

Mineral Mixture - also called “grit”.60% Crushed oyster or clam shells.38% Crushed limestone or granite.2% Trace mineral salt.Fresh water available at all times.

Drinking in long drafts unlike other birds.

Egyptian pigeon towers.

Iranian pigeon towers.

Two views of the same Colonial Williamsburg dovecote.

Thomas Jefferson designed a grand dovecote for Monticello.

South Carolina dovecotes. The cote on left built before 1880 and a more modern cote on the right.

English dovecote. Squabs near fledge were tethered.

Hapyco Lofts

This loft belongs to a correspondent of mine in Minnesota.

Walsh Loft in North Carolina.

My original loft built in 1968 - later moved to current residence.

My 32 individual breeding coops. One pair per coop to insure legitimacy of offspring.

In 1855, Charles Darwin started raising pigeons. He wrote, “The diversity of the breeds is something astonishing,”.

Nature produced the Wolf, the Rock Pigeon, etc. through a process referred to as “Natural Selection”.

Any inheritable change that offers a benefit to the survival of any particular individual increases its chance of passing it on to its offspring.

Domestic animal breeds, as opposed to wild species, are established by human selection (not nature) and are held together and perpetuated by an “idea”!

Human selection has established some bizarre animal breeds that would not survive in the wild, albeit that some may serve man well with regards to food, work animals and beauty.

The following pictures are of pigeon breeds created by man.

About Domestic Breeds of Animals in General

Pigeon Show Rooms

Archeological records suggest that pigeons trace their domestication back to 5000 BC. Greek and Roman writings refer to selective breeding and housing in dovecotes, which must represent one of man’s first recorded attempts at intensive animal production.

Commercial Squab Farming

Squab have been commercially raised in North America since the early 1900s. As of 1986, annual production in the United States and Canada was one and a half million squabs per year.

Owner, Wendell Levi (left) and plant manager Harold Moise.

Aerial view of the Palmetto Pigeon Plant, Sumter, SC.

Whitehall Farms, Norristown, PA showing 232 pens.

Pedigree pens of Dr. Oscar Riddle at the Carnegie Institute, Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y.where famous experiments were carried out - 1915-1845.

The sport of Racing Pigeons was established 3,000 years ago.

Around 776 B.C. pigeons brought news of the Olympic Games to Athens, Greece.

In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, the terminals of early telegraph lines.

Pigeons were the fastest means of communication until the electric telegraph and radio.

In WWI and WWII pigeons were vital communication. Birds were donated by Pigeon Fanciers for military use. Camp Crowder housed them in large numbers. The birds were dispersed to the public when Camp Crowder closed. Locally they were known at Crowder birds!

Pigeons used for communications.

Cher Ami (French for "dear friend", in the masculine) was a homing pigeon which had been donated by the pigeon fanciers of Britain for use by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I and had been trained by American pigeoneers. She helped save the Lost Battalion of the 77th Division in the battle of the Argonne, October 1918

In “The Origin of Species” Charles Darwin wrote, “Few would readily believe in the natural capacity and years of practice requisite to become even a skilful pigeon-fancier.”

Leon Jacob Cole was said to be the “Forgotten Ornithologists” who is known as the father of American bird banding. He made major contributions in genetics by hybridizing pigeons and doves.

Charles Otis Whitman hybridized several species of pigeons and did not embrace the theory of “natural selection” but sought to confirm orthogenesis - a form of internal force that modified species.

In 1939 Oscar Riddle was on the cover of Time magazine for his discovery of “prolactin” - trying to resolve why both male and female pigeons produce crop milk. When injected with prolactin some male mammals will produce milk. Riddle studied under Charles Otis Whitman. Riddle missed receiving the Nobel Prize by a single vote.

Willard F. Hollander (1913-2004), genetics professor at Iowa State University, studied under Oscar Riddle. Advanced pigeon genetics with the laymen in the pigeon fancy. Author of “Origins and Excursions in Pigeon Genetics”. Simply known as “Doc” in pigeon circles.

William Keeton, biology professor at Cornell University, studied homing pigeons and their ability to find their way home by using the earth’s magnetic fields.

Wendell M. Levi, a lawyer and owner of Palmetto Pigeon Plant who authored:

“The Pigeon”

“Making Pigeons Pay”.

“The Encyclopedia of Pigeon Breeds”

In the 1860s, Austrian monk and scientist Gregor Mendel proposed in his study of peas that each parent contributed some element he called "elementen,” to the offspring. His work was ignored for almost 40 years.

Around the same time, British biologist Charles Darwin independently proposed that traits could be passed on to successive generations in packets he referred to as "gemmules.”

In 1882, German biologist Walther Flemming describe what scientists now know as chromosomes.

Near the turn of the 20th century Walter Sutton observed meiotic cell production, i.e., the production of sex gametes.

In the early 20th century Thomas Hunt Morgan identified the “gene” through his work with fruit flies.

Cholesteroal turmors or Lipomas (Xanthomas?)

Before closing I’d like to direct you to the material on the table. I doubt that the general public is vaguely aware of the various aspects of pigeon keeping.

I’d be glad to answer any questions you have in the time allowed. Most aspect of pigeon keeping need verbal explanations.

Thank You For Listening

http://mail.sumnercomm.net/~rmangile/Pigeons/index.html