Doves (Columbidae) are solidly built medium sized kites with a round heavy chest. They fly fast and mostly straight. It is the only bird that can suck up water with his beak.

Pigeons are long held by man as poultry to eat, as well as a homing pigeon, pets, and because of their phenomenal orientation. In (Eighty Years’ and World) War, they were used to bring messages across enemy lines. Some nouns are used interchangeably: pigeon, dove (a bit smaller) and squab (young, in the kitchen).

Under the Ancien Regime (after 1450) was known the Pigeons law. Only the nobility and the clergy was allowed to keep pigeons. The animals could eat corn on the fields without mister landowner had work or any costs there. He had (and traded) the tasty chunks of meat. Later, farmers were allowed to have a pigeon house (coop, or loft).

The last weeks of February begins the breeding season.
The male pigeon is called cock and the female hen.
Hens have only the left-hand part of the ovary developed.
Each couple will have its own breeding flat (box, cage, scale). To prevent them from coming into each breeding loft you have to let them get used. Close them two days in their own loft and then you let them take flights in turn.
A pigeon breeds sixteen to eighteen days. When brooding parents alternate. The cock incubates during the day, and the hen broods the rest of the time.

The chicks are born blind and practically naked. In 24 to 48 hours, their weight is doubled. The first month they grow immensely.

After three to six days they open their eyes. After eleven days they get feathers.
The young birds are fed milk from the crop (pigeon milk or crop milk).

The mother stops feeding after about sixteen days, then the young eat themselves.
After 25 days the young are already flying, and they are25 to 30 times as heavy as at birth.

Navigating birds do not through the iron in their beaks that would work as a magnetic compass, but through a protein in their eyes that allows them to "see" the magnetic fields of the earth. This eye protein is called Cry4 and is part of a class of proteins called cryptochromes - photo-receptors that are sensitive to blue light. Birds can orient themselves when certain wavelengths of light are available. Studies showed that avian magneto-reception appears to be dependent on blue light.

Bird manure (including chickens and other poultry) is a very powerful and complete plant nutrition. Perhaps also because the urine in solid form, as a white topping on the pellet is excreted? Better do not use it pure, but make an infusion or leave it with compost. Bird manure contains much more calcium and phosphate and nitrogen than other manure. It is the most concentrated manure. You can mix it better to use with other manure or compost. Guano are dried and sieved residue and bird droppings.


Rod enthusiasts also use pigeon dung to make bait for fishing.