# Why don't we eat pigeons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [May 4, 2026, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782 "2026-05-04T14:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/21 "2026-05-04T16:24:29Z")
my bad, I was negligent in my reply, I should have written, IN AMERICA we eat Jamaican … ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/22 "2026-05-04T16:32:40Z")
I’ve eaten pigeon, both young (squab) and old (well, pigeon). The squabs have always been a Chinese prep, while the pigeons were ones I’ve harvested and cooked on my own. They are gamey, and the older the bird, the gamier the meat. Also, when overcooked they can be quite tough and stringy, and it’s easy to overcook them. I would hazard to guess, as other Dopers have suggested, that we don’t eat pigeons on a large scale because it’s just not worth it. There’s not a lot of meat on them so you’d probably have to have one or one and a half birds per adult, portion-wise, and chickens are likely much easier to raise for the return on investment. I would not hesitate to eat them in the future, but only if somebody else is doing the cooking. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/23 "2026-05-04T16:35:56Z")
We certainly do. Where I’m from (rural south of England). Pigeons are definely on the menu. They are a standard bit of game along with pheasants, venison and rabbit. Thats out in the countryside of course, you couldn’t pay me enough to eat a city pigeon 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/24 "2026-05-04T16:38:35Z")
I suspect that pigeons being widely regarded as a quasi-pest species (“rats with wings”) turns people off both emotionally and because of fear of disease/pollution. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/25 "2026-05-04T17:08:25Z")
Reasonable! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/26 "2026-05-04T17:20:47Z")
I don’t like Wild dove. Wild duck or Wild Turkey.(The bird not the liquor) So I doubt pigeon would appeal to me. Yeah…no. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/27 "2026-05-04T17:23:38Z")
aren’t you down in roadkill country? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/28 "2026-05-04T17:25:51Z")
Exactly. Now you know why I don’t like wild meats. Never know what they’re gonna drag in. Or it’s provenance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/29 "2026-05-04T17:26:07Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Bingo! Pigeons can fly, and they would constantly be escaping captivity. They don’t need to be captive - people have been exploiting pigeons as a resource with [dovecotes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovecote) for millennia. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/30 "2026-05-04T17:29:31Z")
Granted, but does this seem a practical way to feed a metropolitan area of, say, 5 million people? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/31 "2026-05-04T17:30:59Z")
Wing clipping is done to prevent captive birds flying. I had a clatter of (tamed, well sorta) ducks I was raising. I clipped one wing on each to keep them on my pond. They lived a long time, happily not flying. Just peacefully floated and waddling. They could get off the ground a little if harassed. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/32 "2026-05-04T17:31:44Z")
I’ve eaten pigeon; it was on the menu of a Chinese restaurant (now long gone, I’m sure) in Harvard Square I used to go to. (Not often, because I was a poor student.) It was delicious and I ordered it on every visit. But then, the beauty of various cuisines of China is that they can make almost anything taste good, so it may just have been the sauce I liked. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/33 "2026-05-04T17:43:51Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Granted, but does this seem a practical way to feed a metropolitan area of, say, 5 million people? I don’t know. That wasn’t the question under discussion though. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/34 "2026-05-04T17:44:24Z")
Sounds like a great plan for you that yielded optimum results, but around 24 million chickens are slaughtered daily in the United States alone to meet the demand. That sounds like a lot of wing clipping. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/35 "2026-05-04T17:52:56Z")
Chickens bred for the mass meat market are not normally raised out of doors. Around here It’s a big long stinky chicken barn/house. In some places there will be 30 in a row. Not easy to drive by. I wonder how people live near it, actually? Big broilers probably got the wings the size of a peepers. They ain’t getting off the ground. It’s all flap no lift off. I’ve had a couple hitch hiking chickens I’ve picked up. They came off a chicken transporting 18 wheeler. I presume. Those were the biggest birds I ever raised. Worthless feed hogs. Didn’t mate, didn’t lay eggs, didn’t do anything but stink and eat. I just kept them around for sheer amazement at their size. They led a lazy happy life here. Up til the coyotes got 'em! ETA…don’t want to know about “organically” raised chickens. I prefer my chicken meat to have eaten chicken feed. Not bugs and worms wallowing in the mud hole they live in. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/36 "2026-05-04T17:55:52Z")
I really enjoy those wrenching changes when I think I know where a post is going then suddenly there’s that screeching of tires and scratching of phonograph needles as I need to completely reorient my sentence predictor. Ya done good! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/37 "2026-05-04T18:03:04Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Somewhere along the way chicken completely supplanted it in the US. Chicken were cheaper and generally easier to work with for butchering and cooking. No idea about taste, I have no clue how pigeon taste. > > I did some quick checking, it looks like chicken started taking over by 1910 and by 1950 there was very little pigeon farming left. That 1910 coincides with when chicken farming really took off it rural towns of central New Jersey like Howell and Lakewood. Similar to what happened to rabbit as a protein in the U.S. Rabbit was, as I understand it, not uncommon as a meat, and in particular, during WWII, people had rabbit hutches (and chicken coops) to grow their own meat. Mass production of chicken after the war, and changing tastes, pushed rabbit aside, and it now (like pigeons, quail, etc.) is a specialty/niche meat. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/38 "2026-05-04T18:06:38Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Those were the biggest birds I ever raised. Worthless feed hogs. Didn’t mate, didn’t lay eggs, didn’t do anything but stink and eat. Ewwww! LOL ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/39 "2026-05-04T18:07:56Z")
In modern agribusiness cost per finished pound is everything. If it can’t compete on price w beef, chix, or maaaybe pork, it’s relegated to niche status. Period. Before the advent of high efficiency factory farming, less efficient species were at least in the ballpark of price competitive. Now? Nope. You can get any specialty animal product if you’re willing to pay enough. But the mass market wants mass cheap, so beef, chix, (& pork) it is. The USA is a big place w a big appetite and a big supplier system to feed it. Google suggests we will produce 132 million lbs of fnished lamb in 2026. Compared to 25.8 billion lbs of beef in 2026. So beef outweighs lamb 25800 / 132 ~= 195 to 1. Or lamb is ~0.5% of beef. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782/40 "2026-05-04T18:13:55Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > ETA…don’t want to know about “organically” raised chickens. I prefer my chicken meat to have eaten chicken feed. Not bugs and worms wallowing in the mud hole they live in. ?? Show me a chicken that isn’t eating at least **some** bugs/worms every day and I’ll show you, well, a battery hen, basically. Any chicken that is walking around outdoors at all is eating bugs and other forage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-eat-pigeons/1029782.md?page=3)