This pigeon farm, called the ‘World’s Greatest,’ lay (flew?) between Elysian Park and the Los Angeles River. It is now occupied by maintenance yards of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the MTA.
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From a stereopticon slide by the Keystone View Co., 1903
It takes about eighteen days to hatch a pair of doves, and they never hatch more than two eggs at a time, but each pair hatch about six pairs every year. The full grown birds are kept for hatching and the squabs are taken from the nest and sold in the market when they are twenty days old. From this farm there are sold about three hundred and fifty dozen per month. They bring $2.50 per dozen at wholesale and $3.00 at retail. They are fed cracked corn in winter and wheat in summer, and they find fresh water in the Los Angeles river, which flows within five rods of their cotes. They never wander away from their city, but prove loyal to their community and homes. Fresh straw is scattered on the ground in front of their cotes every morning, and the doves come and help themselves to enough to make their nests fresh and wholesome for the next twenty-four hours. It costs $550.00 to feed these 16,000 pigeons each month.
