Peafowl with chickens and ducks?

[Ramblin Rooster]

Hi Folks!

I have about 50 chickens and two ducks. Most of them live in a big coop (our barn has different stalls set aside as coops) which is a 12x12' horse stall connected to a run that's 25 x 25' and about 6' or 7' tall with aviary netting. I was hoping to add a peacock or two as pets and maybe to sell their hatching eggs. We occasionally supervised free range everyone (plus two sheep and a soon a pig) in our yard that's 2 acres. If we keep an eye on them and all will the peafowl stay nearby? Should we keep them penned instead?

An alternative would be to keep them with the sheep in an area a little smaller (they free range mostly) and clip their wings so they don't hop the fence if that would work.

Your advice is appreciated.

 

[MinxFox]

The reason why Garden Peas says no wing clipping is due to the fact that even with their wings clipped, peafowl are really good jumpers. They can jump over the fence then once out of the fenced in area they could get hurt. Flight is such a great way to escape predators that taking that away could be bad, but if you will only be letting them outside with supervision then it could be okay, but still not really needed. Most of us on here don't like the idea of wing clipping because peafowl love to roost up high, so no flight means low roosts, etc. The higher their roosts, the better. If you start with young peafowl you can easily work with them to be easily herded back into a pen. I have peafowl that I hand raised, that I bought as adults, etc and sometimes I let them out of their pen for a bit. It is very easy to herd them back into the pen. You just have to take it slow so as not to startle any of the birds or else they could take off and fly. It is very easy to get them back in the pen though and I have never wing clipped mine. With you watching them you shouldn't have issues. It is when you have them out and go to off to work, out to eat, etc that they can get into trouble when you aren't there to herd them back into the yard. In the case where one of my peafowl gets loose and flies off, the next day I will find them pacing the pen fence frantically to get back inside.

I noticed on the "Quiet Peafowl, Anybody Interested???" topic, you recently posted asking Dr. James for any news. The call of the peacock is so entwined with what makes a peacock a peacock as far as breeding, socializing, alarm calling, etc that I am hoping you are not considering voice removal. It is most of our personal opinion on here that if you have to remove a peacock's voice in order to be able to keep him or you don't like the noise they make, then you are better off getting some other kind of bird. There are many colorful pheasants that also have unique displays that you can raise. Here is more information on peacock noise: http://bamboopeacock.com/Noisy_Peacocks.html

 

[Trefoil]

I haven't really got an opinion on clipping wings. No matter what you do, they must be kept in a pen for at least 3 months before letting them out, and then I personally would just let one out at a time for the first few times until you are confident that they will be easily repenned. Clipping wings won't keep a pea in a pen without a top. The peas' call are part and parcel of their breeding routine< I'm not sure that altering them wouldn't affect their breeding. Aside from that I agree that pheasants sound like a better fit for you, and there are some gorgeous ones out there. You might want to talk with Birdman about that. He has several different kinds of pheasants as well as peas.

 

[DylansMom]

Okay I would see how I could keep them close I guess. I was not really interested in voice removal but I read somewhere he said there is an alternative and it's a breed called Java green peafowl and those are quieter. Not my intentions to pay $250+ to have some peacock's neck cut up and left voiceless. We like noise just not too much. Hoping to find some that are not too bad or if they are loud just not non-stop noise.

The Javanese greens are one subspecies of green peafowl. People say the green peafowl are quieter. They make a similar call to a regular India Blue peacock or India Blue peacock variety, but it is said their voice just doesn't travel as far. Destinduck started off with green peafowl, but generally I would say that for your first peafowl you should go with an India Blue variety. Green peafowl are endangered in the wild, and if you want pure green peafowl you have to be careful because you can easily buy impure ones. The blue and green peafowl can be bred to create a hybrid called a Spalding, and Spaldings can reproduce and so sometimes people buy a "green peafowl" when it is really just a spalding bird. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. So green peafowl aren't the best starter peafowl since they can be more expensive, flightier, they can't be let out of the pen, etc. Usually the cheapest peafowl variety is the India Blue.

The more peacocks you have, the more noise. If you are just going to be keeping one male or just a few males, I don't think it will get too noisy. When you visit a peafowl breeder during the breeding season, the only time the peacocks get loud is when one peacock calls and the other peacocks decide to start calling with him. That is when it can get noisy.

I hope you don't think we are trying to pick on you. Sometimes people show up in the peafowl section explaining how they have a peacock but they don't think the neighbors will like the noise so they are seriously considering getting the bird's voice removed. Other times people show up having just bought some peafowl and they have no clue how to care for them and for some reason they didn't research their basic requirements before buying them?! So sometimes we can be defensive, or I can be at least, because sometimes we get too used to dealing with people like that.

Anyways, we have seen some crazy things so we are quick to say "Ahhh don't do that!" haha.

I believe the Spaldings are also a lot quieter than the India Blue varieties, they are winter hardy and if you don't go too high on the green % they won't need any supplemental heating like a Java would, they are also much more reasonably priced. Yoda hasn't been on here in a while but that would probably be the closest person I can think of. And just to reiterate clipping wings would be a bad idea in my opinion as well.

 

[MinxFox]

Okay I would see how I could keep them close I guess. I was not really interested in voice removal but I read somewhere he said there is an alternative and it's a breed called Java green peafowl and those are quieter. Not my intentions to pay $250+ to have some peacock's neck cut up and left voiceless. We like noise just not too much. Hoping to find some that are not too bad or if they are loud just not non-stop noise.

The Javanese greens are one subspecies of green peafowl. People say the green peafowl are quieter. They make a similar call to a regular India Blue peacock or India Blue peacock variety, but it is said their voice just doesn't travel as far. Destinduck started off with green peafowl, but generally I would say that for your first peafowl you should go with an India Blue variety. Green peafowl are endangered in the wild, and if you want pure green peafowl you have to be careful because you can easily buy impure ones. The blue and green peafowl can be bred to create a hybrid called a Spalding, and Spaldings can reproduce and so sometimes people buy a "green peafowl" when it is really just a spalding bird. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. So green peafowl aren't the best starter peafowl since they can be more expensive, flightier, they can't be let out of the pen, etc. Usually the cheapest peafowl variety is the India Blue.

The more peacocks you have, the more noise. If you are just going to be keeping one male or just a few males, I don't think it will get too noisy. When you visit a peafowl breeder during the breeding season, the only time the peacocks get loud is when one peacock calls and the other peacocks decide to start calling with him. That is when it can get noisy.

I hope you don't think we are trying to pick on you. Sometimes people show up in the peafowl section explaining how they have a peacock but they don't think the neighbors will like the noise so they are seriously considering getting the bird's voice removed. Other times people show up having just bought some peafowl and they have no clue how to care for them and for some reason they didn't research their basic requirements before buying them?! So sometimes we can be defensive, or I can be at least, because sometimes we get too used to dealing with people like that.

Anyways, we have seen some crazy things so we are quick to say "Ahhh don't do that!" haha.

 

[cajunfowl0]

We bought this 5 acre hobby farm, with a 1 acre fenced paddock.  It had a hen house, which I cleaned and remodeled with at 15x22 pen attached and a barn.  We decided we needed some 'pasture' pets.  First we got 2 Pekin ducks.  

After a lot of research I wanted an India Blue so I put a screen over the top of the pen.  I found a 2 yr old male in our area for $75.  The breeder told me that some of their peahens were better brooders than others, so they now routinely pull half the eggs and put them under Silkie brooder hens.  The result is that 'Buddy' was hatched and raised by chickens and thinks he is a chicken.
I admit I clipped his primary wing feathers only.  Being a parrot owner for years I knew he could still fly but not get much lift.  He ignored the ducks and tried 3 times to fly out, gave up, and continued to look for a hole in the fencing.  

The next day we got a 3 chickens.  As soon as he heard their clucking he immediately stopped pacing the fence.  The hens were inspecting the hen house and were up on the perches.  Buddy stuck his head in small chicken door and walked into the house.  The hens went nuts.  No doubt the biggest rooster they had ever seen and thought they were to be mated with Andre the Giant.  I attached a high perch in the corner for Buddy.  He jumped up on it and they all settled down in their own space.  He even slept in the hen house.

I kept all the  new critters penned up for at least 2 weeks maybe longer.  They free range the paddock all day and go in at night. For a week or so we had to herd them in, now they go in on their own at dusk. 

We have since gotten an 2 yr old IB hen from a different breeder so their DNA is different, for $150.  Used the same routine with her.   I thought the expense was necessary to give Buddy a reason to hang around and so far it has worked.  We also have two Pygmy goat kids.  They all get along fine.  

After a few weeks, Buddy started flying up on the pen  roof.  I shooed him down a few times and gave up.   He sleeps in the large Cedar tree next to pen.  The next morning he is in the paddock with the others.

I guess the moral of this long story is that A.  You must have a ceiling of some kind over the pen.  B.  You must pen them up until they know where home and food is.

I think Peafowl are the Asian version of our wild Turkey.   They are browsers and most always foraging and fly up high at night.  They even walk and display alike.

Very interesting about how he likes the chickens lol. But one thing I can't help but correct is that two weeks is not a long enough time period before letting a peacock out to freerange. I had a pair last year penned up for 4 months for the first couple weeks they hung around my other peacocks then one day out of nowhere they left and I never saw them again. 300$ down the drain. I believe some people will actually keep there's penned for a whole year and other that free range put the birds in pens periodically. I'm not saying it wont work for you I'm just saying that the odds of them actually staying are not good and other newbies just need to know that

 

[showmestatebill]

Re trees.....Mine seem to like Cedar trees. I think because of year round cover. As far a herding them. I usually carry a 4 foot stick with orange trail marking tape on the end. I only use it when they try to do an end run. It extends your blocking reach. I agree the slow walk is best.

 

[Garden Peas]

Don't clip wings! It makes them vulnerable to bring killed. Otherwise great plan

 

[KsKingBee]

You will need to keep the peas contained for about three months so when you do let them out they will not wander off. Provide them with about 100 sf of living space per bird.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

Don't clip wings! It makes them vulnerable to bring killed. Otherwise great plan

Don't want them flying into trees. Will be supervising so they will be safe