Looking To Buy....Peafowl(2016)

Gerald this is the first peahen, only 2 peacocks at this point with chicken hens, no rooster. The peacocks will be 1 yrs old this July and the new peahen is at least 1 yr maybe 1.5 yrs old, we got her so the males would have a girlfriend for next year when they are old enough for breeding. We plan to get a few more peahens in the next few weeks because of course 1 female to 2 males isn't going to work in the long-run but there are no peahens for sale in our area so we have to travel an hour away to an amish auction that takes place twice a month....I'm still searching the area for someone that has peahens for sale so i can buy more than 1 at a time but it's just not happening yet...hopefully in the next few weeks we will have a few more peahens for the boys....the boys are very docile, we have cats, dogs etc and they all comingle with no issues, and they are happy to have their new girlfriend here, they have been hanging around the run all day talking to her and displaying and she has been talking back etc...it's my hope to get more hens asap and introduce them the same way, that way they are all the new kids and there isn't any that have been here for months or years that would chase the new girls away. Why should i leave her locked up during breeding season so she doesn't run off? What would make her run off during breeding season?
If she starts laying and you do not know how to find her nest a few things can happen, if she goes to sitting and it is not a safe place a predator can get her, if she is a confirmed sitter she may sit the eggs till they rot and bust which will attract every wild critter around with the smell and you can loose her also , if she does not know her area well enough and gets scared she can fly off and never return, they learn their area on foot not from the air, it is important they cover these areas before they go to laying and or sitting because if they get spooked and take to the sky and end up far away they will not be homed in well enough to make it back home because they have not learned how to from the ground because they are busy laying and sitting a nest
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Peahens are always hard to come by this time of year , good luck on your quest
 
I need help and I'm posting here since it's a recent thread. ..we just got a new peahen and i need to know how long to keep her separated from the rest of the flock before they can be together. The current flock consists of peafowl and chickens, all free range. The peacocks roost in the trees or inside the coop (they were hatched and raised by a chicken mama). Currently the new peahen is in an outdoor dog run and the current flock have made their introductions through the fence...so my question is how long should i keep the newbie in the run until i let her out to join the rest? We live on 7 acres in a rural area, no issues with other flock members going more than a couple acres away and never staying gone...obviously i dont want this peahen to run away as we actually bought her today...any advice us greatly appreciated, and if there is a better place to post this please let me know. Thanks!



I will put in my two cents here. I am a big believer in free ranging- But....you need to be patient and prepare carefully. Letting your bird out too soon- can't be reversed- especially during breeding season.- for males or females. Banding your birds with an easily readable band- large font tel # - see my thread on "ID Bands for Peafowl". Also - train, train, train your birds. Give treats (really irrisitable ones like meal worms or hard boiled egg yolks) several times a day while repeatedly calling (as if you were calling them in at night) use a one word call and be very consistent in tone and use. Over and over. You want your birds to be tripping over themselves to get to you when they hear that call. And use it consistently at closing time during the training period. Then always use that call and treat every afternoon before dusk when you call them in for the night. Ideally, you condition your birds to be in their pen waiting for their treat well before dusk - so they don't get in the habit of roosting in the trees early in the season- or at least until they are really well conditioned and breeding season is over.
No matter how well trained your birds are- there is always the chance that something will spook or chase them off the property- just recently a fox went after my birds and my male ended up injured and on a distant neighbors porch railing. The band with my tel # helped. (He is healed and home and The vet is $200.00 richer). Good luck.
 
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To carriemacf -
After I put in my two cents earlier- I also agree with ZAZ. When a hen starts nesting outside the pen, you won't know it in the beginning- because she comes back each evening untill the clutch is ready and she starts setting. So your all confident that she is a homebody- sticking around every day until, she disappears to sit on the nest. They are so camouflage on the nest (hence my Avatar)- you may not find her till the predators do.
 
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I am sure they will, the thing is i am retired and can monitor them 24/7 and i will know if things were going amiss with them, peafowl are much different in free range rather than a aviary no matter how big that aviary is and i believe that not forced to stay in a smaller area can make a big difference in how they perceive their world and all that is in it , i have seen it with the blues these are not nomadic birds per say otherwise they would be all over the world, instead they stay in one area dispersing their Young to the outskirts of their deemed territory where they expand onto more territory ....

Honestly do you know of anyone that has ever took the time to work with an entire flock 24/7 to see if it would work out? one that was there to see their progress and learn their habits? Friedrich Essier has photo the green birds documented them in their world extensively and he did not chase the same flocks around the world, he knows where there territory was and whet to it and found them repeatedly so this tells me they home in on an area and that is where they stay unless run to the outskirts by their parents where they eventually create their own flock;;

This may not turn out for the good but you know what i will be able to tell folks why it does not work out not just say it will never work because someone else said so and they have never even had the opportunity to try it themselves, many things come into play when free ranging any Bird and to be successfully or fail at it we must have the time to learn the ins and outs of it to help others understand how it is done and why it did or did not work out and how one got to the point of success or failure
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These birds and I are very close to me and the guardian dogs they have learned that they are safe near us when something spooks them they do not fly off and never return they fly to the safe area and behind the guardian dog because they know they are safe ... They stay close to the dogs for the most part even the few i have tethers during breeding season so they do not steal the eggs , go right where they are and dust bath, they know what protects them from harm, something you will never see in an aviary


ZAZ- love your info- and also your guardian dogs! I have just done battle with a fox this winter- and came to the conclusion I needed a LGD. I don't have the time for another puppy- so tried to take a short cut and got a rescue, who is only 1/2 Great Pyrenees. (I know, I'm a big dopey-head)! Anyway, she is a delight and is just now all settled in. But, though I can train dogs with the best of them, I have no idea what to do with a guardian dog. Is it essential I get her as a puppy, or is there a chance that some innate instinct will surface that I can work with? Any clues as to how I teach her what her job description is? Also- was she supposed to be an outdoor-only dog? Oops. Right now she is pretty good at guarding the couch.
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Maybe we should start a new thread about LGDs- since this thread was meant for buying/selling.
 
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Thank you all for your input i really appreciate it...the reason for the scramble to get peahens so fast was because the local "peacock lady" said if i didn't get some then my peacocks would kill my chickens...I'm starting to think she was a little dramatic...but now that we are here can anyone tell me how old our new girl is?

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Thank you all for your input i really appreciate it...the reason for the scramble to get peahens so fast was because the local "peacock lady" said if i didn't get some then my peacocks would kill my chickens...I'm starting to think she was a little dramatic...but now that we are here can anyone tell me how old our new girl is?
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Seeing the photo of you males you actually had nothing to worry about. They're not breeding age. They could possibly kill them but it's because chickens and peafowl are not meant to breed which can cause some problems.
 

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