Can peafowl free range?

[Chicken fan13]

Ok so I live in a rural area so there is not many people. All my birds live on a 10 acres, and I was interested in adding a few peafowl to my flock, I read not to house them with chickens so I am going to build them there own house, So is it better to free range them or have them in a big run? Thanks!

 

[izigg]

They free range just fine and are able to survive Michigan winters in the U.P. even as the story of two such birds is still unfolding as we speak,
One of the two renegades took over my home on a river with large acreage. He free ranges in the summers, sleeps in the pine trees at night or on my chimney, or unless server storms he literally runs into the garage for safety, but come Sept 1st, I bring him in the garage for the winter and give him a light and a perch with straw, heated water bucket and plenty of sport mix high 33% protein dog food he loves it,but I'm not sure if that's too high a protein mix? , corn, sunflower seeds and collard greens daily with some grit and he seems very happy, loves cheetoes and hot dog buns or bread, cantaloupe,apples mainly from my collected pile for deer season I keep in the garage and has even seemed to have been drunk on some fermented ones even, and then also unfortunately for me my strawberries and 6 or 8 broccoli plants last yrs he got before I got my fence up.
The other bird is still running free in the U.P. since it escaped and adopted a flock of turkeys and learned from them where the food is and has now spent its second winter with flock as repeatedly being reported by observers in the area, one woman tried to catch him a couple times but failed, lol, she don't know a little secret I learned about peacocks or she would have caught him easily.

 

[Chicken fan13]

Thanks for reply.

 

[izigg]

The only real concern I'm learning is the birds picking up worms and killing them which seems to be a present and persistent problem for peacocks where as wild turkeys n such have some natural defense I'm guessing.

 

[KsKingBee]

Ok so I live in a rural area so there is not many people. All my birds live on a 10 acres, and I was interested in adding a few peafowl to my flock, I read not to house them with chickens so I am going to build them there own house, So is it better to free range them or have them in a big run? Thanks!

There are good reasons for both free ranging and penning peafowl. If you have a large enough pen they are sure to be safe, but free ranging peas are a joy to see living large and in a normal setting. The problem is when the hens go to nesting they are easy predator bait and subject to being lost. If you can train the birds to roost in the pen at night you get the best of both worlds however it is time-consuming and tedious having to be there every sundown to call them in and lock them up. Big open farm barns are a blessing for those that have them as the birds can come and go as they please. Eventually, the birds will prefer to roost under the open sky so be ready for that.

 

[KsKingBee]

Quote:
Actually the reverse is more likely. Our free range birds come in contact with less disease and pestilence than the penned birds. Birds that live in pens have to walk through their feces and clean their feet with their bills. There are many more problems when penning birds.

 

[Midnightman14]

With disease climate plays a bigger part than penning or not penning in my experience. If you pen the birds but live in a dry climate you won't have quite as many problems since the dryness doesn't lend itself to spreading germs and parasites around. If you're like me however and live in a wet climate with soil that's clay heavy and rich in organics you're going to have a rougher time controlling disease. I have to worm every other month and I cannot let the peahens raise their own chicks for that reason.

 

[Speak2Erin]

Currently our guy free ranges. He sleeps in a tree above our shed at night. Edited to add: we have three acres - its fenced.

 

[David Josiah]

They will be fine with chickens I have raised mine with them and they never get sick

 

[Midnightman14]

The disease problem with chickens is one of those things where everything is fine until it's not. I kept them together for years without issue and then BAM lost 3 birds from blackhead due to the chickens carrying it. It's also a disease that will stay in the soil for several years unless the ground freezes solid and gets well below zero. Definitely not something you want to gamble with.