S.C. Press Association 2023 2nd-place award for lifestyle feature writing (daily division)

A look inside Palmetto Pigeon Plant

On Broad Street in Sumter, wedged between an urgent care and an auto repair shop, is a unique business.

It takes up 20 acres of land from Broad to Jackson Street.

It’s one of the largest of its kind with ties across the world from Asia to the White House to England’s royal family and has a history dating back exactly 100 years as of late October 2023.

It rivals the streets of New York City - not in number of buildings, people or amount of space, but in pigeons.

Yes, pigeons. And squab among other dinner plate-friendly birds.

To use the word “wedged” to describe Palmetto Pigeon Plant’s place between Colonial Urgent Care and Brakes 4 Less may be misleading, because the plant has surpassed just about every structure along that road in age. Sumter grew around it, careful not to encroach on its long narrow expanse of production pens.

Current CEO and president of Palmetto Pigeon Plant, Tony Barwick has to pull out his calculator when asked how many birds he has.

“It varies but we got 1,330 production pens and every one of them has 32 producing pairs in it, so I have to do the math everytime,” he said.

Squab, which is a pigeon that can’t fly yet, is most similar in taste and texture to duck, Barwick said, and it’s been on dinner plates around the world throughout history and is often considered a delicacy. British royalty have enjoyed birds bred in Sumter. And even today, the plant is filling orders from the White House.

Pigeons have held a few seats in history, in and out of the kitchen. At their reputational peak, the birds were revered, thought to be beautiful and helpful as messenger birds. On the other wing, city slickers may refer to them as rats with wings, in Woody Allen’s words.

Nevertheless, Palmetto Pigeon Plant has thrived amid the bird’s ever changing reputation.

The plant was founded by the Levi and Moise family in the early 1900s. And the streets around the plant are named after relatives of the founders such as Milton Road.

Today, the plant employs about 50 locals and produces around 6,000 ready-to-sell birds a day. Some days, it’s 6,000 squab. Others, it’s 6,000 Rock Cornish game hen, poussin or silkie chickens. And the company’s sales are well into the millions.

All the birds are bred and born at the plant amid rows and rows of pens that far outdate Barwick. Upon the aged wood shelves lie these ugly little fowl nurtured by their far more regal looking pigeon parents.

Fun fact: pigeons are monogamous. They mate for life.

And squab grow very fast. At about 28 days old is when they’re taken from the pens and sent next door to get processed.

Barwick says he likes to first sear squab then finish baking it in the oven. And it’s great with all the typical Thanksgiving fixings like potatoes and green beans.

But like any meat, you can get creative with it.

Palmetto Pigeon Plant’s birds themselves are fed what’s called grit. It’s a mixture of oyster shells for added calcium, charcoal and grain.

And the birds are guarded by multiple rat-hunting dogs not much bigger than the birds themselves.

The plant has that organized chaos feel. The pens are separated by breed. Some pigeons are white and others look more like what you would see ravaging city streets for crumbs. The occasional bird gets loose and bounces around, but the majority stay in their pens. They’re used to humans and won’t stampede out when the doors are opened.

Barwick said he and the company are there to stay. Sumter is home to the original plant, but the company has farms in a few other areas throughout the state.

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