If I may ask. Why are you breeding May? I thought it was generally a bad idea to use feral birds because we don’t know their genetic history
Of course! It's a great question.
It's because feral pigeons have a type of intelligence that can't be ethically sourced any other way.
There is a huge difference between maintaining intelligence over generations and building it up in the first place.
The same way Racing Homers are more structurally sound and fitter, with a much more robust and adaptable immune system than any other pigeon, because they are bred to race hundreds of miles and thousands of them from all over the country are exposed to each other all at once and then to the wild when they are transported to a race and then released.
No other breed has that kind of strength or stamina, and no other breed has to endure exposure events of such magnitude.
Ferals have the single most rapid uptake of new information and highest learning flexibility of any pigeon breed because they survive entirely on their wits.
Racers are the second most intelligent breed, capabpe of independent decision making, with a very long memory.
But they are extremely rigid thinkers. Once something becomes a habit for a racer, they can't unlearn that habit with new information they way ferals can.
No other breed comes close to a Racer's intelligence.
I have Rollers and Tumblers in the program because generations of working with their breeder (looking to him to be called in away from a hawk or storm) have made a very biddable bird, but they are not intelligent enough to think as independently as a racing homer, because there is no pressure to.
There is no humane way to recreate the pressures that built feral intelligence.
So, the best way to get feral intelligence into the project is to breed from a healthy feral, and then figure out what mental exercises can be done to keep that keenly reactive, adaptable intelligence into future generations.