Advice on Free Range Peafowl

[JoeCole]

Does Ice have leg spurs like my big girl has? None of the other hens have long spurs like she does, just nubs. Your girl Ice lost her crown, what a shame.

 

[JoeCole]

Forgot to mention their names; the peacock is Cordon Blue, and the hen is "The Queen Mother". They rule with majesty and with just a wee bit of intimidation, if needed.

 

[MinxFox]

My dominant peahen, Ice, grew her crown back though. They will re-grow it. Ice just has the little nubs like you said your others have, but she is good at using her beak to peck on others and sometimes pull a few feathers to say "Get outa my way!"

This is Ice she is a black shoulder. She herself used to free-range in 2009 but no longer does after she ran away.

 

[JoeCole]

She's a beautiful peahen; you say she's a black shoulder, she looks buff/ white. Am I looking at the right picture?

Mine ventured off the reservation once, all six ended up at the neighbors house 1500 feet away, but by the end of they day they all returned home safe and sound. If they do decide to leave, the nice lady down the road will take them in, she was so excited with their last visit. As long as they are happy and stay in the neighborhood, and came by to visit me I could live with them finding better pastures.

I don't think Cordon Blue will ever leave, he is a home boy for sure.

 

[MinxFox]

She looks like other black shoulder peahens to me, but I did get her from the zoo where she was a free-ranger so who knows what else is in her genes.
Here are more photos of her: http://www.bamboopeacock.com/Black_shoulder.html

I just got too worried free-ranging the first pair I had. Ice and the first peacock I had, Fire, were so good at hiding in the azalea bushes and I don't live where I keep my peafowl so every time I came to feed them I would have to search for them. Normally they had their own certain areas where you could normally find them, but some days they would be somewhere new. Then one day Fire left and Ice soon followed. We never could catch up with Fire but many people spotted him we just never got there in time. Ice on the other hand was found in the backyard of a really nice house. She was back there sunning herself and we caught her with a fish landing net. We almost didn't get her she flew up into a tree but the branch was low enough that we got her to fly down by poking at her with the net.

 

[JoeCole]

What a nice web site, very professionally done. Enjoyed the videos, and the art work is 1st class. Like the aviary, the peas have plenty of room to roam around.

Do you think Cordon Blue, who I purchased at the age of 2, would ever let me rub his neck like yours, that was so cool.

I do sneak up behind him when he fans out and rub his underside, which he lets me do without freaking out. But if he sees me through the curtain of feathers, he will scoot away from me.

They will eat from my hand, not all of them though; the 2 young peacocks are the friendliest and initiate feeding from the hand, then the more careful peas will cautiously approach seeing that the others have no fear and begin to feed from my hand as well. However, those cautious ones are never the first to approach me.

Thanks again for sharing your web site.....JC.....

 

[MinxFox]

Thank you! The aviary is currently falling apart unfortunately due to using the wrong wood and my netting isn't a very good quality. I also need more aviaries to separate the peacocks and so I can breed for specific things like pieds.

The one I pet is Peep. I had two eggs in the incubator around 3 years ago and only one developed. That was Peep's egg and so when it came time to hatch, he started hatching but was hatching the wrong way and got stuck. I had to help him out and when he finally was free of the shell I had to fix his feet also because they were curled up from being in the egg longer than he should have been probably. Since there were no other peachicks, he imprinted to me and would follow me around, cry for me if I left the room, etc. When he was very small I would carry him around in a padded lunchbox and he would sleep in there. As he got older I would take him outside just about every day for him to eat bugs and plants and also to take dust baths. He eventually learned what it means to be a peacock too, but he still really loves people. He paces the fence when I drive up and also when I leave, which is sad. If I could take him everywhere like a dog I would. Anyone can pet him. He likes getting scratched under his chin and the top of his head the most.

He lets me do all of this because I am his mommy and he is used to it. Other peachicks I have raised would not let me touch them like that. They will get close and eat out of my hand but no petting allowed. There was one strange occasion where Alto, my adult peacock that I got as a yearling, was up on a perch and let my boyfriend pet him. I stared in awe and tried to do the same thing and Alto let me pet him as well. Unfortunately so far that seems to have been a one time thing as the next day he acted like he never allowed that and he still doesn't. Go figure!

I guess if you tried petting them all the time maybe they would let you, but I don't like to pester my birds. If they don't want me to pet them I don't really try it. Peep on the other hand wants to be pet every day. He walks up to me and pecks my fingers until I pet him. He can never get enough petting and probably wishes I would stay out there all day petting his face.

Imprinting a peacock can have consequences though. When they become an adult they may see you as a rival and might attack you during breeding season. Peep has scratched me on the leg recently, but I am pretty sure that was an accident. Peep doesn't want to attack me, but rather mate with my feet. He displays for me and shakes and then chases after me making the mating call.

 

[JoeCole]

Cordon Blue will attempt to mate with anything that walks in front of him. Just my observations, doe's a turtle, squirrel, or bunny look anything like a peahen? Well to Cordon Blue, they are fare game; what a goofy bird. When he ran up on that turtle, I just had to laugh; what was he thinking?

Well it's late, time to turn in. Thanks so much for your time and for sharing all that valuable information. Good night...JC...

 

[LittleRedShed]

Update: Oscar has been free ranging for almost a month now. The routine helps! He has not wondered off of our property. Although, he is getting more curious about our house and the inside of our barns. He follows the chickens around when I call them. He is definitely a friendly bird! I went to pet him while he was feeding the other day and it spooked him. Lol! He flew over all the chickens! Guess we are going to have to warm up a little longer lol. Anyway - tmw is trader days so we are going to death for a peahen! Hopefully we find one for a decent price!!!

Any suggestions on the age we should look for since Oscar is 1?

 

[MinxFox]

I would go for a peahen around his age. You could get an older peahen but normally older peahens pick on young males so if you can I would try and find a peahen a year old or about a year old.