Advice on Free Range Peafowl

[zazouse]

You have been given very good info, Neighbors and peas do not mix, i told my daughter long ago when the Peas came to her house run them off, she loves flowers and so do our Peafowl, but that is not a big deal to her, like i told her, you may like them now but when they get on that new truck or SUV you will not be happy, so on the rare occasion the younguns make it across the driveway she puts the wiener dogs on them and runs them off.

When my peas see something in the distance they go after it and one thing i learned is they can see things in the distance very very well, i watched mine stalking something 150 yards away , when i got closer i saw a coopers hawk fly off.
Peas are very territorial, they try to run off critters and wild birds bigger than themselves many times.








This is what you will have to worry about most.
Peas on automobiles they like to get up on things.

We were having some construction, i warned the workers not to leave their autos in certain areas but they just parked where they wanted and this is what happened with 10 minutes, they did not care they parked their 3 more days.






Also you stated you have no predators.. Think again, we all have them around, may not see them but they are there.

 

[LittleRedShed]

Thank you! Great info! If we don't let them free range, what's the best size pen for his run?

 

[MinxFox]

He needs enough room to display so it can't be too narrow. The pen should be at least six feet tall and at least 10ft wide. Many people go by 100 square feet per bird. When deciding on how big to make the pen, make sure you take into account if you will be adding more peafowl into the pen in the future. Peafowl can be very addicting as many members here will tell you, so you might want to plan for more additions. I mentioned the pen should be at least 6ft tall, but because peafowl love to roost up very high the higher you can build it, the better. It is nice to have high up roosts so that the peacock's train doesn't touch the ground and get dirty while he roosts.

You might be able to let him out eventually from the pen every now and then under supervision. I let my birds out sometimes to let them explore a bit in the yard and then I herd them back into the pen. When you herd them it works to do it slowly and watch all of their behavior. If he starts to crouch down he might be getting ready to take off flying so you need to back up. Normally I have just had issues with peahens wanting to fly off when I try and herd them. The peacocks are generally more calm, but that is just with my flock.

 

[Ellaluvsbirds]

We live in the middle of a fairly large forest so I am nervous to let my birds free range because of predators.

 

[LittleRedShed]

Went out for the nightly feeding and water refilling and Oscar was fanned out! He's so cute

 

[Trefoil]

I live on 40 acres with light woods around my coops, I free ranged until I lost my 3rd bird to the road and then gave up. I couldn't convince them to return to the coop at night and had a really hard time catching them when I needed to.
100 square feet is 10' x 10', and that isn't nearly enough room for a pea run. I didn't notice where you live, but I have one of the pvc moveable pens and although I've never tried to move it, with a little modification, it works great. I got the plans for it from U of Tenn, but they are no longer on line, I think this is close to the same plans.
http://docs.snowshoe-farm.com/poultry/MoveablePenForFowl.pdf
I used 1/2" hardware cloth and when it was done & up went around it with a 2' apron of the 1/2" hardware cloth. But that's because I wanted to keep weasels out. On top I bought 6' poultry fence and J clamped it together in a sheet to cover the top of the pen. In the center of the pen I put a 12' 4 x 4, buried 3', and 7.8' out from it on all 4 corners I put another 4" x 4". I used the 4 by's as posts for roosts as well as roof supports. I put a plastic frisbee on top of each of the posts to protect the wire and draped it over the posts and to the sides, connecting it with the sides with J clips ( is a pain, but lasts). In spite of the super heavy snow this year, it stayed up. I poked it from the inside a couple of times to bring the snow down off it, but that's all. You can make these pens as large as you can afford wire for, they are much cheaper than any other secure kind of fence I've seen. Get uv protected pvc.

 

[LittleRedShed]

Our pen is a 10x12 - 120 sq ft pen with a clear roof. That way the sun peeks in. We also added a roost hanging from the ceiling beams just for him. I'll post a picture if I can. The roost is about 6 1/2 - 7' off the ground.

 

[LittleRedShed]

Without the roost for the peacock.

 

[zazouse]

Nice size pen but chicken wire is a bad thing in most cases, just about anything but a chicken can get threw it, just wanted to mention this as i have read about many losses to predators here on BYC and 9 times outa 10 they were enclosed in just chicken wire.
A roll of 2 by 4 welded wire attached to what you already have would fix the problem fairly easy and give your birds a safer enclosure.

I have a pack of dogs to keep things safe here but i still use layered wiring just in case.

 

[MinxFox]

Oops yes he needs more than 100 square feet! Sorry I am silly.

I didn't think I had predators or at least I didn't think much about them, I mean what is going to kill a big peafowl? I knew there were coyotes but I wasn't worried about them since they stay in the back of the property. I got a beautiful pied peacock that I REALLY wanted. I enjoyed him for about two years maybe then raccoons broke into the pen and killed him. Soon they killed another peahen and now raccoons are sometimes an issue for me. I can't have an outside dog to guard the area but I am looking into hotwiring the pen. It is better to be safe than sorry because that was such a nice bird I had an now he is gone.

You never really know what is out there lurking at night. We had a snare on this corner post of the pen and caught this big female raccoon. She tore up the netting really badly.