Clipping wings and living with the chickens?

[RedBrush Farm]

I have 6 - 6 month old peafowl. 2 females and 4 males. They have been raised with my flock of chickens and will go in the barn and roost with them at night. I have let them free range for the last couple months but they do not go more than 50 yards from the barn. Problem - although I have never seen them, the neighbor said they "poo" on her concrete drive. We are 27 miles out in the country, 4 miles of gravel and only 2 neighbors within a mile. She called the police (she just moved here from the city and is not the friendly neighbor type) and they told us we must keep our peas at home. The only solution we can think of is to clip their wings and put them in the chicken pen. The pen is securely surrounded by 4ft. fence. It is approx. 100ft x 50ft. (we wanted them to have lots of room) and I have 22 hens and 2 roosters. They always have access to fresh water and food. QUESTION? Can I clip the peas and have them with the chickens? Will they be able to jump over the fence anyway? The only other option is to re-home them. I have had them since they were 4 days old. If they do go to her home, they will apparently be picked up by animal control? Didn't even know they came this far out? PLEASE ADVISE... I am really unsure what to do...

 

[MinxFox]

Some people don't advise the keeping of peafowl in pens with chickens because peafowl can get things from chickens like blackhead that can kill the peafowl. That isn't always the case but there is always a risk. Peafowl can jump really high. I am not sure if 4ft. fencing would keep them in with clipped wings. That really is lame about your new neighbor. People moving from the city to the country need to understand what they are getting into and that in the country it is common for pets to run lose.

If you can, I would build a pen for your peafowl. A nice pen with a wire or mesh top. That way you won't have to wing clip them. Is there anything you could keep them in temporarily like a barn or something with a top on it?

It is too bad she can't be a little more understanding...I am sorry about your situation I think it is every animal keeper's nightmare to have a complaining neighbor that doesn't like the noise, visits from animals, etc. We got lucky that when we free-ranged a pair the neighbors liked the peafowl visiting them.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

4 ft fence is nothing for a pea with a clipped wing, they can get on a 6 -7 ft fence no problem either when clipped.

A proper aviary with wire top would be your safest bet, both in keeping your peas from visiting the neighbours and from predators checking out your peas too closely. (I know my free rangers never lasted more then 6 months before something ate them....)

As for keeping them with chickens, if they have been in contact with your chickens for a while now if there is anything to be passed inbetween them it would have happened by now. Seems to me if a chicken flock carries something like coryza(doesn't affect chickens, almost always deadly for any type of gamebird) gamebirds seem to pick that up quicker then you can comprehend.

 

[6littlechickies]

Is there any possibility of talking with the neighbor and getting them to enjoy the beautiful bird? Are you sure it was the peafowl and not another bird or geese? The fence won't work, but I'd like to see you be able to keep your peas. Try to work something out with the neighbor, say over a batch of cookies or something. State the misunderstanding and how you can appreciate that they may not like the driveway soiled. Tell them to give you a call and you will stop by and clean it up. Once you make the agreement, chances are they won't call so much anyways.

If that doesn't work, build a bunch of pens, fill em with peas and let them honk like crazy for 4 months during breeding. A bunch of peas can be heard for a mile or two and will call all night and day whenever they see or hear anything strange. Nothing they can do bout that and they'll get a welcome to the country!

 

[MinxFox]

Yes it would be nice to convince them into letting you keep on free-ranging them. Maybe you could even tempt them by saying "Oh and I will give you a free peachick" or some feathers or something they might be interested in. I know that when my peahen Ice was free-ranging and she ran away and ended up in a neighbor's backyard the neighbor told me that she wanted a peachick whenever I got around to selling them. Although there are some people who really don't like peafowl like in places where there are large populations of feral peafowl some people love them and feed them and some people despise them and complain about the noise they make.

 

[PeepsCA]

Is there any possibility of talking with the neighbor and getting them to enjoy the beautiful bird? Are you sure it was the peafowl and not another bird or geese? The fence won't work, but I'd like to see you be able to keep your peas. Try to work something out with the neighbor, say over a batch of cookies or something. State the misunderstanding and how you can appreciate that they may not like the driveway soiled. Tell them to give you a call and you will stop by and clean it up. Once you make the agreement, chances are they won't call so much anyways.

If that doesn't work, build a bunch of pens, fill em with peas and let them honk like crazy for 4 months during breeding. A bunch of peas can be heard for a mile or two and will call all night and day whenever they see or hear anything strange. Nothing they can do bout that and they'll get a welcome to the country!

LMAO!!!!

Evil, but I love it