"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "DB01" contains these words:

Hi
My wife wants to know how long do they live and how often they mate
and rear
their chicks each year

Most pigeons lay only two eggs at a time, which produce one male and
one female chick. Because the chicks are fed on regurgitated parental
stomach contents (called "pigeon milk") they mature incredibly fast and
the parents can lay a new brood of 2 every 6 weeks. This is why doocots
used to be a very popular source of all-year meat.

As to how often they mate; IME (from keeping them), males think of
little else but sex, all year round.

Janet.

Many thanx Janet
We started feeding birds last year, mainly sparrows, blue tits, robins etc.
This year a pair of wood pidgeons have built a nest in one tree.
Should we encourage the pidgeons or will they drive all the small birds away

eugene