Pigeon and Squab Farming in Ghana: A Starter Guide

Pigeons are a different job from poultry, so start there

On a hot afternoon a loft under a tin roof gets warmer than most people expect, and the squabs inside do not complain. They just stop growing well. That is the first thing to understand about pigeons: they are quiet about problems until the production falls.

Pigeons are not chickens, and the habits that work for a broiler house will hurt a loft. A pigeon pair is territorial in its nest, it nests in one spot, and it feeds its young a special crop milk for the first days of life. The birds breed when conditions suit them, not when you want a sale, and they can go off the nest if they are disturbed too often. A pair that is kept well will breed again and again. A pair that is kept badly will simply stop.

Pigeons are not in our day-old chick range, so this guide is about what happens once you have a pair in your hands. We are a hatchery in Opeikuma, Kasoa, and our about page explains the poultry side of what we do. If you are comparing projects, our breeds page covers the birds we do supply, and our guide to backyard poultry is a better read if you are still deciding between a family flock and a specialist one.

Choosing a meat breed and a sound breeding pair

The names you will hear most in squab production are the King and the Carneau. Both are larger pigeons than the everyday birds that nest on roofs, and both were developed to produce young that are big enough to sell at four weeks. Ask any seller which line their birds come from, and what size the parents are at maturity.

A sound breeding pair is one that is healthy, mated and settled in a nest. Look for birds with bright eyes, clean vents, smooth feathers and no discharge from the nostrils or the mouth. A pair that is alert and feeds well on the day you buy them is worth more than a cheap pair with a sore throat. Pigeons carry some diseases without showing them clearly, so buy from a source that keeps records and will tell you about any illness in its flock.

• Buy pairs that are already mated if you can, because it saves the first breeding season.
• Keep the sexes straight. Hens are usually a little smaller, and the cock's behaviour in the nest is easier to read once you know the pair.
• Do not buy more pairs than you can house, feed and sell the young from, however good the price.

Start small. Five or six pairs in a loft you have checked for a season will teach you more than thirty pairs in a loft you have not yet learned to read.

Nest bowls, the two-egg clutch and what the pair does at night

A pigeon lays two eggs at a time, and the clutch is the unit of production. Give every pair a nest bowl of their own, placed at a height and in a corner where they cannot be disturbed by the next pair. A shallow bowl of clean straw or dry grass, changed every few weeks, is enough.

Both birds take turns on the eggs. In most pairs the hen sits at night and the cock sits by day, although this varies between pairs. Do not lift a sitting bird to check the eggs. If you need to see them, wait until the bird steps off, and keep your hands clean and dry.

1. Note the date the first egg appears, because the incubation period runs from the day the clutch is complete.
2. Check the clutch after about a week by gently looking, not handling, and note whether both eggs are developing.
3. Keep a record of the pair's clutch count over the season, because a pair that lays fewer clutches than its neighbours needs a closer look at feed and housing.

Pigeons will often lay another clutch soon after the squabs fledge, which is why a good pair can produce several rounds in a year. That is also why a pair under stress can stop altogether. The birds do not have a reserve to fall back on.

Incubation, crop milk and the first ten days of a squab

The squabs hatch blind, bare and very small, and for the first days they feed on crop milk that both parents produce. It is a rich, soft food from the lining of the crop, and it is the reason a squab grows so fast. A pair that is short of feed or water cannot make enough of it, and the young fall behind.

In the first ten days the parents feed the squabs crop milk several times a day. As the squabs grow they take more grain, and the parents bring up softer seed and grain that the young can swallow. That shift is the point where many first-time breeders get worried. The squabs look hungry, and the breeder adds food the squabs cannot yet eat. Watch the crop of each squab after feeding instead. A squab with a full crop is fed, even if it is not yet eating grain.

The table is a guide, not a calendar. Pairs differ, and a squab that is slow to grow in the first week can catch up with good feed. Use the timing to plan your sales, not to predict the day a squab will be fit.

Building a loft for Ghanaian heat, rain and predators

A loft in Ghana has three enemies that never take a holiday: heat, damp and rats. Plan for all three before the first pair goes in, because a loft that has to be fixed with birds inside is a loft that causes losses.

Ventilation comes first. Use wire mesh on the sides so that air moves through the loft at bird height, and open the top so that hot air leaves. A solid wall on the sunny side and a shaded roof overhang do more than a single fan. Keep the loft high enough off the ground that the floor can be cleaned and dried.

The floor must stay dry. Pigeons do not like wet litter, and damp droppings build up fast in the heat. Use a raised slatted floor or a removable tray, and clean it on a fixed day each week. Ammonia from a wet floor stings the eyes and throat and makes the birds less willing to breed.

Protect the loft from rats and wild birds. Rats take eggs and young squabs, and wild pigeons and sparrows carry disease into the feed store. Store grain in sealed bins, close the doors at dusk and check the roof for gaps every month. A loft that looks secure from outside often has a hole at the back corner that only a rat knows about.

Harmattan dust is a separate problem. Dust settles on feathers and in the nest bowls, and it irritates the birds' airways. Cover the feed, sweep the loft in the morning and keep a cloth ready to wipe the perches. The same lofts that handle the rains well can struggle with dust unless someone is watching them.

Feed, grit and water: what a pair eats each day

Pigeons eat grain. Maize, sorghum, wheat and mixed pigeon seed are the usual base, and the blend you choose depends on what you can buy steadily and what the birds accept. Keep the feed the same from one week to the next as far as possible, because sudden changes upset the digestion and the production. If you ever mix your own ration, our guide to mixing your own poultry feed shows the arithmetic, and our feed formulation basics explains what each ingredient does.

Calcium matters for hens, because each egg takes a lot of it. A small dish of crushed oyster shell or limestone grit should always be available, separate from the grain, so the birds can take what they need. Grit in the gizzard helps grind the grain. Without it, the birds struggle to digest the seed, and their weight falls.

Water must be clean and in reach at all times. Pigeons drink a lot in the heat, and a dirty drinker is a route for disease. Change the water twice a day in hot weather and wash the drinker weekly.

Here is a rough feed sum to check against your own birds. Assume each adult eats about 45 grams of feed a day, which is a reasonable starting point for many pigeons and a figure you should test by weighing a scoop. Ten pairs make twenty adult birds. That is 900 grams a day, or about 27 kilograms a month, before you count waste and the extra needs of breeding hens. Weigh the feed you put out for a week and compare the figure with what is left. A large gap points to waste, to wild birds or to a problem in the loft.

• Grain: the bulk of the diet, given daily in a clean feeder.
• Grit and shell: always available, separate from the grain.
• Water: clean, changed twice daily in heat, drinker washed weekly.

Sick pigeons and the signs worth acting on early

Pigeons hide illness better than chickens, which makes early signs the most valuable thing you can learn. A pigeon that sits fluffed up in a corner, eats less than the others or stops coming to the nest is telling you something.

Look in the mouth and throat once a week. Yellow, cheesy patches in the mouth or crop are a common sign of a disease called canker, and they need a vet. Discharge from the nostrils or eyes, labored breathing and birds that shake their heads deserve the same call. Diarrhoea that changes colour or smells strongly is worth reporting too. Lice and mites show as a restless bird and a grey dust in the feathers, and they are easier to deal with early than after they have spread through the loft.

• Isolate any bird that looks unwell, and give it food and water within easy reach.
• Call your vet for any bird with mouth lesions, breathing trouble or sudden weight loss.
• Follow your vet's advice and schedule. Do not give drugs from a shop counter, and do not guess the dose.
• Keep a record of every bird you lose, with the date and the signs you saw before it died.

Keep visitors and other birds away from the loft. Poultry from the household yard can carry diseases that pigeons catch, and a loft that is visited by everyone is hard to keep clean. Our biosecurity guide sets out simple habits for keeping a farm closed, and most of them apply to a loft.

A worked example: ten pairs and what the loft produces

Assume ten pairs, each raising six squabs a year. That is sixty squabs a year, or five a month on average. These are assumptions, not promises. Your own pairs will raise more or fewer depending on feed, heat and how well they are left alone, and the real figure is the one in your record. When you compare this with a poultry budget, our day-old chick price list gives the starting cost of the chicks we supply, which is a useful comparison point.

The feed bill follows the birds, not the squabs. Twenty adults at 45 grams a day use about 330 kilograms of feed in a year, or roughly 5.5 kilograms for each squab you sell. The feed cost per squab depends on the grain price you pay, which changes, so work it out from your own receipts every quarter. What you cannot change is the ratio. A pair that raises two squabs in a year still eats its share of the feed.

The lesson for planning is that a loft is only as profitable as its worst pairs. If three pairs out of ten produce nothing for a season, you are still feeding them. Keep the record, cull the pairs that do not breed, and replace them with birds you have checked. A small loft with good pairs beats a large loft with weak ones.

Do not forget the time. Feeding, cleaning and checking a loft takes a fixed amount of work each morning and evening, whatever the number of birds. Ten pairs in one loft can be managed by one person. Thirty pairs in a loft that was built for ten will need a second person and a second plan.

Selling squabs at the right age and to the right buyer

A squab is ready at about four weeks, and it does not wait for you. A young bird left in the nest a week too long is no longer the bird the buyer wanted, and it has eaten feed it has not paid back. The sale has to be planned before the squabs are ready, not after.

Find your buyers first. Talk to the households, small food sellers and restaurants you know in your area, and ask what size and what condition they want. Find out whether they want live birds or prepared birds, and how often they will buy. A buyer who wants twelve birds a week is a different plan from one who wants a dozen a month.

• Harvest on a fixed day each week, so buyers know when to expect birds.
• Keep the birds calm before collection, with shade, water and no handling in the heat.
• Record the number sold, the buyer and the price, and check the sale against the feed bill every month.
• Do not hold birds in the loft for a price that never comes.

Price is a question for your local market. Pigeons are not part of our day-old chick range, so we cannot tell you what a squab sells for in your town. Ask the buyers you have already spoken to, and write their answers down.

Mistakes that empty a loft in one season

Most lofts do not fail in one dramatic event. They fail through a sequence of small things that each seem harmless at the time.

1. Building the loft for the first pair and then adding pairs without adding space, so the nest bowls crowd and the birds fight.
2. Letting the floor get wet and telling yourself it will dry in the sun.
3. Changing the feed every month because a seller offered a cheaper bag.
4. Disturbing sitting birds to check eggs, then wondering why the clutch failed.
5. Leaving rats access to the feed store and blaming the birds for the shortage.
6. Selling squabs late, after they have started to lose condition in the nest.

Each of these is fixable early. The hard part is noticing before the production falls, which is why the record matters more than the loft.

Checklist before the first pair goes into the loft

Go through this list before you buy the first pair. If something is missing, fix it before the birds arrive, not after.

• A loft with mesh sides for air, a shaded roof and a floor you can clean and dry.
• Nest bowls, one per pair, placed where other pairs cannot disturb them.
• Grain stored in sealed bins, off the floor and out of reach of rats.
• Grit or crushed shell in a dish, always available and separate from the grain.
• Drinkers that you can wash and fill twice a day in the heat.
• A vet who will see pigeons, and a number saved in your phone.
• A dated record sheet for pairs, clutches, squabs and losses.
• At least two buyers who have told you what they want.

If you want to compare this with a poultry project, our starter budget guide lays out the costs for chickens. For questions about the birds we do supply, the frequently asked questions page is the quickest place to start, or message us on +233 24 915 1503. If you later add poultry, our broiler chicks and layer chicks pages set out what we supply.

Questions farmers ask