Advice on Free Range Peafowl

[new 2 pfowl]

LittleRedShed,
Please don't clip Oscar's wings. Flying is the only way peas have to get away from predators (even though I know you think you don't have predators...) and any other dangerous situation.

There really is no way that you will be able to keep him off the road, and I notice that in an earlier post you say that there is a lot of traffic on this road? I'm sure Oscar is enjoying free ranging. But you might want to reconsider letting him roam for his own safety, and also, as others here have said (I have no experience with this), because you will be liable if he causes a traffic accident.

 

[zazouse]

So Oscar is really finding his wings. Should we clip them? He almost flew onto the road.

Sweetie if Oscar can fly to the road he can also walk to the road or run, mine can run about 8 miles per hour, clocked them running beside me on my 4-wheeler, i am sure they can run faster but after 8 MPH they took off flying to get ahead of me

Never ever clip their wings they can still jump a fence but can't get away from wild things and dogs.

Now i am gonna tell ya, being as that road is close enough to see you can bet your britches he will get in it before you can catch him and turn him back, first time some road kill attracts a buzzard or someone has a flat and is on the side of the road in his view he is gonna be his nosy self and go see what is going on. this is just how free rangers are, you put them in a pen and they are scared of everything but they get use to being free and they are just the opposite, very nosy and territorial birds and there territory is as far as they can see, my place is completely surround buy creeks thick undergrowth and forest , they can not see the outside world and that is why i can free range and not worry about a road with traffic or neighbors, my only neighbor is my daughter and they are not allowed there but sometimes they still try when she is making some kinda noise over there out of the ordinary.

I would hate to hear you lost Oscar to a auto or he causes and accident.

 

[LittleRedShed]

This is why I only let him out while I'm home. Anytime I leave for more than an hour he's corralled back into the pen. He was left out the other night by miscommunication, but thankfully he is safe. He must have rooster on top of the barn.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

I don't know your exact situation, of course, but it doesn't necessarily make any difference if you are home or not unless you are watching him all of the time while he is out ranging. It doesn't take them long to go astray, those nosy things!

 

[LittleRedShed]

Recently we butchered our meat chickens and up until that point we had no problems with any predators whatsoever even on the trail cams the most we ever saw was a possum or raccoon... However, ever since we butchered the meat chickens, we've had a fox start trouble in our coop. Thankfully we have the hanging roost for Oscar to perch on. But now he has company from several other birds late at night. We have reinforced all the fencing and have reconfigured our coop. Five years and no problems then we butcher two meaties and now it's all gone bananas!

 

[stacir]

I've been free ranging my peafowl for several years. I am on 40 acres with about 5 acres in my yard and the rest in fields and woods. I've never had mine wander off the property.my wild turkeys wander far and wide bit not my peas. I do have a fairly long driveway. Mine roost in trees at night during the summer and in the the barn. The do the barn most of the winter. I have had some predator problems with chickens, ducks and giuneas (mink and owk). I've been lucky last few years. But did have an owl get two peas several years ago. He took one right out of the tree and got one through the flight netting. No more owls.

 

[KsKingBee]

We turned a two year old cock out to free range the other day. He explored with our other three year old cock for part of the afternoon then we did not see him for about 24 hours. When he came back he looked tired and a bit ruffled, but what a change in temperament. Not the flighty scared bird he was in the pen anymore, he comes right up to us within arms reach and seems to be enjoying his new found freedom. DW now calls him Freebird.

He seems to know where the pen door is and wants back in. The mature cock in that pen really wants out with his little buddy.

 

[zazouse]

We turned a two year old cock out to free range the other day. He explored with our other three year old cock for part of the afternoon then we did not see him for about 24 hours. When he came back he looked tired and a bit ruffled, but what a change in temperament. Not the flighty scared bird he was in the pen anymore, he comes right up to us within arms reach and seems to be enjoying his new found freedom. DW now calls him Freebird.

He seems to know where the pen door is and wants back in. The mature cock in that pen really wants out with his little buddy.

Bet something spooked him and he flew up into a tree and got his feathers ruffled, hard to see a limb with all those leaves and when them are in a panic.

I watch my younger peas for a couple weeks after the trees got their leave hurl themselves blindly into the trees hoping they caught a limb coming down.

they finely learned that now they would have to get under the trees and make their way to the top via limb hopping

well all except the top dogs here the roost on the very top limbs where they have warn the bark off and no leaves grow.

 

[LittleRedShed]

Hello everyone. New question for a friend - she has a pair but is considering gettingn another peacock. Would that peacock need a peahen or would it be fine?

 

[JoeCole]

Little Red,

last year, I got another peacock and hen pair to add to a pair that I already had, and all I got was trouble from the new peacock. He was a beautiful black shouldered two + year old that would not quit chasing the other peacock as well as attacking every chicken he could. Months went by, his behavior only got worst, and I finally got rid of him; it was too bad, because he had nice feather coloration.

This year, I got 3 new pea's, 2 one year old cocks, and 1 year old hen. Every one got along except the original male now has chased the original female every chance he could, to attack her. This went on for weeks and then the hen disappeared, only to reappear a month later with an animal wound on her little head. They are my original starts and are brother and sister, and for some unknown reason he got very aggressive toward her, even though he gets along with the new commers.

So, who knows what goes on in the pea sized head of theirs; what was normal behavior just the other day could suddenly change. If you want, you could tell your friend to get the peacock and see what happens; just make sure there are 2 separate pens incase the two don't get along. Mine all run loose on 10 acres and roost 40 feet up in an old pecan tree.

Wish them well.....JC