Feed for birds

[terri]

Could someone please tell me what type of bird feed is needed for pigeons (smaller birds)? We are a seed cleaning plant and have been selling wheat, peas, hulless barley and oats, lentils to different fellows who have birds. We need to know more.

[Smithy]

My Dad, who is a very serious pigeon fancier, has always fed wheat and maple peas with a little corn thrown in for variety. He also feeds them small amounts of flax.
He has been racing and showing birds (and winning) since the late forties, so he probably knows what he is doing.

[alexoderkirk]

Commercially prepared feeds contain ingredients like: corn, popcorn, Canadian peas, Austrian peas, maple peas, wheat, hulled oats, vetch, buckwheat, safflower, sorghums( kaffir, millet & milo).Various other grains can be used. A substitutes for peas are peanuts, vetch or heat-treated soybeans, hulled barle, rice, buckwheat in small amounts, rye, flaxseed and "Pigeon candy" called hemp seed. This info and more can be found in a book by Cynthia Haynes called " Raising Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, Pigeons and Guineas"