Best day ever quickly became the worse!!!

[cgjsmith]

Finially I had waited so long for peacocks then a wonderful lady offered to trade me geese for a paire of peacock!!! I was so excited. We got them home the beautiful things and the hen had beat the skin off her head trying to :escape" the cage she was in. so i put thm in the hoop house and let them settle this evening while feeding i went down to feed them and to bluekote her head (didn't want anything happening to my beauties. The male freaked out in a major way manage to hit the door of the house with so much force the not compleat latch flew open and both of them flew out and into the woods behind our house!! i spent the next hour and a half crying and begging them to please come down. all for naught. The hen I can see in one of the trees but the male has dissappeared. I'm so sad and dissappointed. I really just want to crawl up into a ball and weep. Anyone know of any tricks to rounding them up or are they gone for good. Crystal

 

[GAchick]

Bless your heart sweetie, I don't know of any tricks. But I will be sending powerful good thoughts and prayers your way, that you get them back. Maybe the fact that you have other birds will keep them close...

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I hope they will hang around but chances are they won't. It takes them awhile to call a place "home". The major thing with peafowl is move slow and easy, if there is anyway you can catch the hen after dark. Have your neighbors keep an eye out for them - get a large fish landing net to catch them, and round up some calm helpers. they can run fast and fly well.
I wish you the best and let us know how it works.

Steve in NC

 

[DANNY]

They won't come off the roost until morning. If you are not out there when they come off the roost you may never see them again. If it were me i would be out there at daylight and see where they go when they come off the roost. If you could come up with some help you might herd them toward the pen and get them to go in. You have to take it very slow and try not to upset them. Put any dogs or anything that might scare them up. You do not want them to fly just slowly walk them in the right direction. If you see them getting antsy backoff and be patient. You might even get lucky and corner them in a fence or something. If they are right up against a fence they tend not to fly over it they just follow it.
Good Luck

 

[Kev]

If you know how to do peacock contact calls, do that. Or get a tape of peafowl noises and play it continously on a radio outside. Peafowl are very social birds and are highly attracted to hearing other peafowl, especially when "lost" like this.

Ditto on if you have kids or dogs, keep them locked or tied up, even if "they would never hurt a fly".. the peafowl don't know that.. and all it takes for one to be too curious about the peafowl or run by them to spook them off..... I always tell people this advise for the first few times they let their acclimated peafowl out..

I agree- this is normal behavior for spooked new peafowl- flying far & high and clutching onto the first thing they land on and refusing to move at all for the day..

 

[cgjsmith]

Well it looks like they are gone. I'm putting up missing posters but don't have much hope. I guess I am destined to not have peacocks. My heart is so broken right now. Crystal

 

[BreadNButterFarm]

Awww ~ I'm so sorry that happened.

 

[melissa508]

Try to remain calm..the day i got my 1st java pair ..somehow my nephew let them out , they flew right into the sky..i thought they were gone.
The next morinng the female came back, i saw her eating in the bird yard & later that nite the male came back.

I had several issues over the years with an occasional escape ..and somehow , someway..they always came back. These werent my tame ones either. Sometimes it would take a few days, but they always found their way home.

So cross your fingers, get some peafowl noises off the net & play them all day..that may have been what helped me out.

 

[freerangefreaks]

Have you found your peas yet? I have lost my peacock a couple of times. He is all alone and when he escapes he takes off. Right now he is at a neighbours house 15 miles away. They have wild turkeys laying and he was attracted to them. Look pretty far away from your house, they can travel great distances in a very short time. I'm sure they will head to a house somewhere that have turkeys or maybe even guineas. Don't worry they will turn up. It's not every day that the neighbours have a peacock wander in the yard. Someone is sure to spot them.

It is extremely hard to catch them. I use a musky net late at night when they are roosting. I wonder if you could even use one of those hooks that go around the leg.

 

[Tootsie]

Sure hope you find them. Call your animal control to alert them in case someone has them and called to report they showed up there.