Last weekend, our family earned the distinction of being chosen by a beautiful young male peacock. He spent about 3 hours pacing along the fenceline before hopping atop the adjacent goat barn, and to my knowledge he's not left the yard since. Despite nighttime temps in the 20s F, his favorite roost is ~20ft up in an exposed elm tree. He's happily munching our chickenfeed (mostly stray stuff next to our run), table scraps and catfood.
Our area's semi-rural and everyone's got fowl of some sort: I imagine this guy was ejected by a more dominant male, hit the road and somehow ended up here. My neighbors actually enjoy hearing rooster crows, but I have yet to announce the peacock...figured he'd do that on his own...
We've already got about 20 hens, a pair of goats, a barn cat and a big rhodesian ridgeback (friendly to chickens and goats, even helps me herd!), but not a whole lot of room to spare. EVERYTHING I've built to date has been carefully planned in anticipation of the next phase...which NEVER included peafowl, freerange or otherwise!
I do have an unoccupied 12' x 50' run, but I'd intended to seed it for the chickens before Spring. Additionally, it's got several fruit trees which might impede a cock from displaying his full regalia. I have enough spare fencing to increase the fence height, but the volume is far too expansive to cover the fruit trees with netting.
What exactly are we getting ourselves into?
1. Will freerange peafowl destroy my veggie garden?
2. Our next 'big' step was to be guinea fowl. Potential conflicts?
3. In your experience with errant peafowl, how likely is he to leave on his own accord? He's got food, water, and relative safety, but not many roosting options until I construct something...
4. When he leaps atop the barn, he occasionally alights on my small solar panel array (powers the timer-light in my chicken coop). Should I be concerned about damage, and perhaps rig an anti-pigeon sort of impediment? Any suggestions for cheap/fast solutions?
5. The easiest way to 'cage' him would be to float some netting over my smaller run (~15x20') and enclose him with my chickens. Dumb notion, or practical?
6. Might I clip a few wingfeathers to keep him closer to the ground?
7. I might build him a roost somewhere, but how do I get him to notice/use it, as he's apparently fine weathering the nights in treetops?
8. At what point should I be shopping around for a peahen or two?
9. I live in central NM: high summer Ts, low nightly Ts, little precip, lots of wind. I might build a basic, covered, open-side windblocked roost...can I get away with this? Maybe cover the opening with a blanket during cold snaps, or supplement with a heatlamp?
My current 'plan' is to continue providing feed/water and monitor the yard for disturbance, while going about my original plans. I might mount some pigeon spikestrips (?) on the solar panels anyway (I don't really need pigeon crapping on the hardware). If he's still hanging out by March and no red flags, I'll need to decide about building a dedicated aviary/shelter. I'd LOVE to get away with freerange, so PLEASE give me reasons to change my mind, before planting my garden. At this point, the garden is my biggest concern...
Our area's semi-rural and everyone's got fowl of some sort: I imagine this guy was ejected by a more dominant male, hit the road and somehow ended up here. My neighbors actually enjoy hearing rooster crows, but I have yet to announce the peacock...figured he'd do that on his own...
We've already got about 20 hens, a pair of goats, a barn cat and a big rhodesian ridgeback (friendly to chickens and goats, even helps me herd!), but not a whole lot of room to spare. EVERYTHING I've built to date has been carefully planned in anticipation of the next phase...which NEVER included peafowl, freerange or otherwise!
I do have an unoccupied 12' x 50' run, but I'd intended to seed it for the chickens before Spring. Additionally, it's got several fruit trees which might impede a cock from displaying his full regalia. I have enough spare fencing to increase the fence height, but the volume is far too expansive to cover the fruit trees with netting.
What exactly are we getting ourselves into?
1. Will freerange peafowl destroy my veggie garden?
2. Our next 'big' step was to be guinea fowl. Potential conflicts?
3. In your experience with errant peafowl, how likely is he to leave on his own accord? He's got food, water, and relative safety, but not many roosting options until I construct something...
4. When he leaps atop the barn, he occasionally alights on my small solar panel array (powers the timer-light in my chicken coop). Should I be concerned about damage, and perhaps rig an anti-pigeon sort of impediment? Any suggestions for cheap/fast solutions?
5. The easiest way to 'cage' him would be to float some netting over my smaller run (~15x20') and enclose him with my chickens. Dumb notion, or practical?
6. Might I clip a few wingfeathers to keep him closer to the ground?
7. I might build him a roost somewhere, but how do I get him to notice/use it, as he's apparently fine weathering the nights in treetops?
8. At what point should I be shopping around for a peahen or two?
9. I live in central NM: high summer Ts, low nightly Ts, little precip, lots of wind. I might build a basic, covered, open-side windblocked roost...can I get away with this? Maybe cover the opening with a blanket during cold snaps, or supplement with a heatlamp?
My current 'plan' is to continue providing feed/water and monitor the yard for disturbance, while going about my original plans. I might mount some pigeon spikestrips (?) on the solar panels anyway (I don't really need pigeon crapping on the hardware). If he's still hanging out by March and no red flags, I'll need to decide about building a dedicated aviary/shelter. I'd LOVE to get away with freerange, so PLEASE give me reasons to change my mind, before planting my garden. At this point, the garden is my biggest concern...
Last edited: