I am getting 2 peacocks and 1 peahen (need help)

[john in wa]

Ok long story short my aunt passed away a couple months ago. i am getting her peafowl. i have not seen the birds but was told they were 2 cocks and 1 hen. i am not set up for peafowl. so need to build a coop or pen for them. how much area do they need. and how tall should i build it. i will be using 1 inch chicken wire for the sides and top. would 4 feet high work for them. the wire i bought is 4 foot. i am thinking 8foot X 20 feet 4 foot high. also should i clip their wings so they can not fly just for safety if they happen to make a break for it. would also like to know if peafowl roam? i have 5 acres and would like to let them free range once they adjust to their new home maybe next spring. any help would be great thanks

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

your width and length should do for now, especially if you plan to eventually free range them (give them about 3 months in the pen first)
However the height is way too short. Even if you clip their wings, they will go right over a 4 foot wall with out even knowing they did it. I see you said you're putting a top on it, which is great, but at 4 foot, you'd have to crawl in, also your boys tails, will push 5 to 6 feet at the top when fanned out, so that would be a problem too.
I would say bare minimum of 6 tall.

my breeder pens I just built are 25x 50 10 feet tall, with roosting perches down the center of the run, and an 8x8 house on one end with a roosting perch in it too.

They sell 72 inch tall wire, I'd definatly go get a roll, 2 inch diameter would be fine too. Only $60 here for a 150 foot roll.....

 

[john in wa]

Ok called the feed store and they have the 72 inch X 150 feet for $47 i will need to go pick up a roll tomorrow and build the pen. i will make it 10 foot wide 25 foot long and 6 high. i guess my next question is can i put some other fowl in with them? i am also getting my aunts old tom turkey and i have some chickens i would like to run them all together. i have seen talk about mixing fowl some say do it others say no way. or should i just try it and see how it goes. would also like to know how to trap or catch another peahen. the people down the road bought a pair of peafowl. turned them loose right after they got them. a dog killed the peacock and now they can not catch the hen. she can out run us all and when the running fails she flys like the wind to the top of the cotton wood trees.

Thanks

 

[deerman]

Had a tom turkey kill a full grow peacock, so bad to mix.

Just make a trap for the peahen, anything from the box and rope, or ones make with a dog cage.

The old boyhood trap i used for many. Take a large wood boxs, stick with a rope tied to it, prop one end up with the stick feed under the box, when she goes to eat, just pull the rope.

Same with a large dog cage ,place feed in the cage ,rope tied to the cage door, just pull the door shut when she goes in to eat.

Have other ways if you cant be there.

Father taught me how to trap most animals when i was a small boy.

 

[Kev]

I don't recommend mixing turkeys with peafowl either. They could be compared to a bull in a china shop, with the peafowl being the china.

The reason some people say 'no way' to mixing with chickens is because chickens can carry diseases or parasites that do not bother them much.. but are very lethal to peafowl. So IF the chickens happen to have those diseases or parasites.. you are going to have very sick and dead peafowl. Unless you regularly deworm everything because that will kill off parasites that infect the peafowl and so prevent them from getting sick.

Not all chickens have these diseases, that is why you will hear from people who "never, never, ever had any problems mixing"... but the problem is you cannot tell by looking at the chickens if they have it or not. So, better be safe than sorry.

If there is a dog kennel, a coop or a shed.. can use that to trap. Just put food in there, and nowhere else.

 

[featherhead]

Kev, I have a question for you. My aviaries are 32'x40'. One is for the chickens, the other 3 for peas. My vet said that as long as the chickens are kept wormed, it wouldn't be dangerous and the chickens and peas could share an aviary. I hesitate to do this, but I have considered letting the chickens use one of the pea aviaries during the fall/early winter. The peas, when given the choice, tend to hang out in the other two pens.

I've never let a chicken set foot on pea property. What do you think? The chickens will get leg mites every year or two, but the peafowl have never had them. Would I be rolling the dice?

 

[Kev]

Feather, your vet is right. Regular deworming works by breaking up the host cycle of some diseases(Blackhead in particular) plus controls various parasites lethal to peafowl. The word is Preventative, not total cure of the grounds though.

I have chickens too, had them in peafowl pens in the past(there are a few still in with peas), don't have problems but then I deworm regularly plus due to my climate(very dry, almost desert) the various diseases just aren't very likely. The issues could be more serious in cooler, wetter areas though.. but still, can lower the risk with regular deworming plus making sure the chickens are from good, 'clean' stock.

As for scaly leg mites, tried deworming all of them to treat that? Ivermectin will work on scaly leg mites as they are blood suckers.. if you try this, treat ALL birds at once then repeat treatment in a week or two, to get mites that hatched from eggs & missed the treated blood. Scaly leg is something that is possible to completely eliminate from grounds, am wondering how they keep getting re-infected?

If peafowl can get scaly leg mites(got to say never heard of such a case.. can they get infected with scaly leg mites?) then it is possible the chickens will spread it to the pea portions.. scaly leg mites can and do get off the bird to infest a new bird- such as on the roost or if they sleep next to each other. If they can get infected then I'd suggest deworming the chickens with ivermectin a couple times before letting them mix at all..

 

[featherhead]

Hmmm... interesting. All the birds are wormed regularly with a rotation of SafeGuard and Valbazen. Haven't used Ivomec yet, but will get some. I've never had blackhead or worms and occasionally take a fecal to the clinic just to look. I also use a coccidiostat a couple of times per year as a preventative.

For the chickens' leg mites I've always used Vaseline on their legs for 10 days. That has always cleared it up, but the chickens get them again in a year or two. Because the occurrences are so far apart, I'm wondering if maybe they could be contracting the mites from wild birds. ???

Most of the 15 chickens have been here for a few years. I must confess that we recently bought 4 at a swap because they were very underweight and not well cared for. They (Gladys Knight and the Pips) were quarantined for 3 weeks while I ran every drug thru them and put some weight on them. They're crosses of who-knows-what but are now healthy and integrated.

Thanks a bunch for your thoughts and suggestions. It's time for Ivomec...

 

[Kev]

Oh yeah, try ivermectin. It will work all by itself, even without greasing the legs.. it is also good way to treat all bird in a easy way, plus get mites that either just recently infected or are in low numbers on certain birds, so their legs still look smooth.

Wild birds are a possible cause especially if they are managing to get in the pen. I also use ivermectin on my birds to get rid of mites/lice on the birds however the free range birds get repeat infestations from the sparrows that keep trying to come around and get the feed. Quite annoying..!

 

[Tailfeathers]

Hi John,

I apologize but I don't have a lot of time right now. I have a peacock, three peahens, and a peachick right now. I have no coop for them. I'm on 5 acres.

If you send me an email with your phone #, I'll try to call you tomorrow or I can reply with my phone #.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have or help however I can. Just don't have time right now to go into a lot of detail.

God Bless,