Raising pigeons Egyptian style

I was watching Andrew Millison’s latest youtube upload on a trip to Egypt and the challenges for permaculture design in such an arid environment.

He talks about pigeon towers about 14:15 minutes in - I can’t link directly to that point in time, alas.

The towers are used to protect pigeons from predators and give them a place to roost. The people who build the towers collect the rich guano from the base and pigeon meat is also a local delicacy. I can see how this fits very well into a food forest and a permaculture landscape. Is this something that could be replicated in, say, North East Coast USA? In the UK pigeons are considered a pest by farmers. Would the destruction not be worth the benefit?

I briefly investigated the idea of a dovecote as an lower maintenance alternative to chickens and found out that it is specifically prohibited in Chicago.

Although if I were after guano, I could shovel up loads of it from under the train viaducts.

I looked into pigeons a while back. They used to be common in the UK, especially for the aristocracy, and the design of rat proof dovecotes was something of an art form in and of itself.

I ultimately decided it was unethical to do so, because in an agricultural area the primarily forage on - and do heavy damage to - other peoples crops. We have large flocks of wild pigeons already, and pigeon meat can be hunted just with a few hours, a shotgun, and permission to shoot over a crop field.

My fertiliser needs are met by my own chicken now, who free range my own property most of the time.