We never planned on having pigeons. Strangely it started with someone at my husband's work who bred them bringing him a box of his culls. Normally he'd just kill them and bin them and I think hubby must have asked why the waste when he could eat them. The box turned out to be live birds (he thought they'd be dead) and my daughter got fond of one so asked if we could keep her. I relented and she got to live in the quail run. No issues until a white, crested pigeon with a blank tag land in the garden exhausted and we nurse it back to health, but couldn't find its owner. It's a male and hubby and daughter tell me to let them sit on the eggs and see what happens. What happens is lots more pigeons, of course, but it's actually a bit easier than incubating and raising quails, so meat birds they became.

Yes, I harvested the excess male quail and just kept a few for breeding. I usually only hatch a replacement batch once a year, so I don't do it large scale.