Carneau

The Carneau is a domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) bred in France for the table. It is a solidly built bird, medium in size, with a full, rounded body and a settled, upright stance. Most Carneaus seen today carry an even red coat, though other colours turn up too. A grown bird typically weighs between 600 and 750 grams, putting it among the larger table pigeons without the sheer bulk of the giant meat breeds.

Two things make the breed worth keeping. First, the squabs are large and put on weight fast. Second, the parents are steady feeders who mind their young with barely any help from the keeper. Carneaus are placid and good natured, easier to manage than the flightier utility strains. They settle into confinement without fuss and take readily to a standard loft.

Fanciers keep the Carneau as a table bird, for showing, and as calm stock to steady a mixed loft. That mix of hardiness, gentle temperament, and dependable parenting has kept the breed in use since the late nineteenth century.

Who it suits

The Carneau suits a keeper looking for a productive table bird that is no bother to keep. Its calm nature suits anyone new to pigeons who is wary of handling them, and its steady parenting takes the hard work out of rearing squabs. Anyone wanting a quiet loft bird that doubles as show stock will find it a practical choice.

The Carneau takes its name from a region straddling northern France and the neighbouring part of Belgium, where farmers had long kept local pigeons for their squabs. Generation after generation, they selected for size, quick growth, and parents that could rear young unaided.

By the later decades of the nineteenth century the Carneau stood as a breed in its own right. French and Belgian farmers kept large flocks for the meat trade, and a plump young squab was a common sight on the table.

The breed crossed to Britain and the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, where it drew interest both as a commercial meat pigeon and as a show bird. Breed clubs drew up written standards to fix its shape and colour, and the red Carneau became the form best known on the show bench.

Commercial squab production has fallen away in most places since, but the Carneau lives on with hobby breeders and exhibitors who value its history, its placid nature, and its dependable qualities at the table.

The Carneau carries a broad, deep body fairly upright, with a full, well-rounded chest and a broad back. The build is sturdy rather than sleek, in keeping with its work as a table bird. The head is clean and smooth, without crest or muffs, and the legs and feet carry no feathering at all. Close, tidy plumage gives the bird a solid, compact outline.

Coat and colours

The best-known Carneau wears a solid, even red from head to tail. Yellow, white, and dun are recognised in several standards as well. In the coloured forms the feathering should be uniform, with no flecking or patchiness, and the colour should carry right down into the flights and tail. White birds should show clean plumage throughout. Depth of colour and evenness of tone are what catch a judge's eye on the show bench.

Few domestic pigeons are as steady as the Carneau. It is calm and biddable, and it settles into handling and loft routine without fuss. Birds that get regular contact from an early age grow properly tame, standing for a health check or a lift from the nest box without complaint. That trait suits everyday care as much as the show pen.

Around people it is gentle and seldom flustered. It shares a loft peacefully with other pigeons too, though, like any pigeon, a breeding pair will stand its ground over the nest box. The Carneau has none of the racing strains' restlessness: it is no flyer and no homer, and it is content to stay close to home. That settled, home-loving streak is as much a reason keepers value the breed as its qualities at the table.

The Carneau is hardy and asks little, though it does best on a steady daily routine in a clean loft. With clean legs and a smooth coat, it is far less work to groom than a feather-footed or crested breed.

Grooming

• Put out a shallow bath two or three times a week so the birds can keep their feathers in order.
• Check feet and claws once a month, and trim any overgrown nail with care.
• Watch the legs for scale or scab, a sign that mites may be at work.
• Through the annual moult, keep feed quality up and stress down to help feathers regrow properly.

Exercise

• Give the birds daily access to an open aviary or flight pen so they can move about.
• The Carneau is no great flyer, so a secure pen suits it far better than free flying from the loft.
• Room to stretch and flap, with enough perches for everyone, helps keep off the weight that table breeds tend to carry.

Environment

Keep the loft dry and free of draughts, with good airflow, individual nest boxes for each pair, plenty of perches, and solid protection from rain and wind. Ireland's cool, damp climate is no trouble to the breed as long as the loft itself stays dry: it is damp, dirty bedding, not the weather outside, that brings on chest trouble and foot problems.

A Carneau does well on a standard pigeon mix of grains and legumes, maize, wheat, sorghum, peas, and beans. As a meat breed it puts on weight easily, so outside the breeding season portions are best measured out rather than left down all day. Once a pair is feeding squabs, they need extra protein and energy to keep growth on track.

Treats and supplements

Leave insoluble grit and a mineral or pigeon-grit mix down at all times. It aids digestion and supplies calcium, which laying hens need in particular. A pinch of small seed, canary seed or safflower, works well as a treat to tame a bird down. Keep fresh water topped up daily, and add vitamins or probiotics only when needed, during the moult or while a bird is recovering from illness.

The Carneau is a robust breed and carries no widespread inherited health faults. Given a clean loft, decent feed, and routine care, it commonly reaches 8 to 12 years of age. It is a heavier table breed and can run to fat if overfed and under-exercised. That is the main husbandry risk to watch for. Otherwise, the health problems it faces are the ordinary ones common to all domestic pigeons rather than anything peculiar to the breed.

Preventive care

• Keep the loft clean, dry, and well ventilated.
• Quarantine any new or returning bird before it joins the rest of the flock.
• Worm and treat for external parasites on a regular schedule.
• Keep grit, minerals, and clean water available at all times.
• Do not let the loft get overcrowded, and do not overfeed.

The Carneau's quiet nature makes it easy to handle. It was never bred for racing or homing, so training here means settling a bird to the loft, getting it used to people, and teaching a show prospect to stand calmly under a judge. Birds handled young turn out the tamest. Patience and a steady routine do more good than any particular technique.

Basics

1. Handle young birds gently and often from weaning onward so they get used to contact.
2. Feed at the same time each day so the birds learn to come to you.
3. Use a small seed treat to reward a calm approach and to call birds in.
4. Practise lifting and holding in short sessions to get birds ready for health checks and shows.
5. Keep each session short and quiet, and stop before the bird gets stressed.

A standard pigeon loft suits the Carneau well, provided it stays dry and free of draughts while still getting good airflow. Being a calm, ground-settled breed, it has no need of the height that flying breeds are given, but it does need enough floor space and a nest box for each pair so breeding does not turn into a squabble. An attached flight pen gives the birds fresh air and safe exercise.

Setup checklist

• A dry, raised floor with absorbent bedding, changed on a regular basis.
• One nest box per pair, fitted out with a nest bowl and nesting material.
• Enough perches that every bird has one to itself.
• Water and feeders kept up off the floor, away from droppings.
• Grit and a mineral source down at all times.
• Predator-proof wire across every opening and a door that shuts securely.

Reliable natural breeding is one of the Carneau's strongest points. A hen lays two eggs to a clutch, and the cock and hen share the sitting between them, the cock by day and the hen through the night. The eggs hatch in around 17 to 19 days. The parents manage the job so well that most keepers leave them to it, stepping in only if a pair fails outright. The figures below cover both the natural process and the settings to use if eggs go into an incubator instead.

Hatching steps

1. Give the pair a clean nest box with a bowl and nesting material.
2. Leave both parents to incubate the two eggs undisturbed, candling around day 7 to check fertility.
3. Keep the loft quiet and settled for the whole incubation period.
4. Expect hatching around days 17 to 19, and do not help a squab out of the shell unless it is plainly stuck.
5. Let the parents feed crop milk for the first few days, and check that both squabs are getting fed.
6. Step up the protein in the parents' feed while they are rearing the young.