Doves and pigeons are just two different terms of the same birds.
The value proposition for pigeon keeping is 1. Anybody can climb a cliff and steal away some wild pigeon babies, after theyâre old enough to thermoregulate themselves but before they can fly, then set them up in a nice dovecot/pigeon loft and hand feed them until theyâre grown up. Then you just open the door and they go out and find their own food and come back at night. Since pigeons mate for life, and the couple move in together at whichever of their places is nicest, and a human-protected loft is always going to be the best place to live from a pigeonâs perspective, your young pigeons are going to probably bring home some mates too. Theyâll poop in the dovecot, giving you all that wonderful guano to use as fertilizer and increasing your food via better plant performance and you can also sneak into the loft while the pigeons are sleeping and take some of their babies, called squabs, to eat and the pigeons wonât know it was you.
Also bonus communication! If you are going on a journey, just take some pigeons with you, and tie a note to one before you let it go. It heads home to itâs family as fast as possible, taking your message with you. Extensive communication networks could be based on pigeon lofts with regular shipment of birds between them.
So, very low effort, low cost fertilizer and protein source, and the premier form of fast, secure long distance communication up until the development of radio and telegram, still used in substantial numbers in the First World War, and for more discreet and secure communication during World War Two.
Falconry works somewhat similarly, in that it is traditionally carried out by stealing a chick from the nest and then arranging the circumstances so that itâs natural behavior benefits you, but hawks, falcons, and eagles are antisocial carnivores who must be bribed with food to not run away, and still run off sometimes. They are used as tools for hunting small game; mostly squirrels, rabbits, doves, and ducks. Falconry is pretty demanding of time and attention, but historically could be an easy way to increase protein intake. Birds of prey are NOT useful for communications, although they can be used to disrupt and intercept pigeon-based communications, as pigeons are usual prey for many hunting birds.
Horses are FAST and, after the development of the horse collar, able to apply greater force than oxen. The equine digestive system also does not require cud chewing, and so horses do not require âdigestion breaksâ from labor like oxen. Hence, draft horses can plow more in a day than oxen, can move more freight farther, oh, and also you can feed them higher calorie grain to make up for some of their grazing time now being time working and their digestive systems can handle that.
Also, horses are dumb enough to allow themselves to be run to death. Which, if it absolutely positively has to get there overnight, can be useful for small packages and messages. Donkeys wonât put up with that shit.
Donkeys are slightly different from horses, are a bit slower, respond to fear by freezing rather than running, require less food and water, more sure-footed, have slightly greater endurance according to some, are particularly good as pack animals, and have a greater sense of self preservation than horses. Reproduce slightly slower. Unlike horses, donkeys can be used as livestock guardians, protecting sheep and similar animals from wild canines in the same way as livestock guardian dogs, but can eat the same feed as the animals they protect, unlike a dog.
Mules share many of the strengths of both horses and donkeys, but few of their weaknesses, instead being infertile is their main weakness. They can be bred as riding or draft animals, depending on the breeds of the parent horse and donkey. They can even be âgaitedâ and be extra comfortable to ride, suitable for folks who are too disabled to ride regular horses or mules for long hours.
Sheep are NOT smol cows. Goats are smol cows; eat a lot of vegetation other animals wonât, can be used for meat, dairy, fiber production, and used as smol traction/load bearing animals if you canât afford anything bigger. Also capable of defending themselves against wild animals somewhat.
Sheep are NOT capable of defending themselves and are vulnerable to prowling canines and falling into holes, and so require at least a livestock guardian animal to protect them if not a shepherd, almost constantly. They can be milked and eaten as lamb or mutton, but their main value is turning low quality land into wool while pooping on it and improving the land.
