@uzi Hope do you like having peacocks and hens? My fiance wants to get a few. We live on 60 acers of wooded land. I know they fly so i would be worried about them getting out and and hunted by the wildlife. I've also heard they are quite loud. Which is fine with me. I just wouldn't want to get any if i can't house them correctly and keep them safe.
Well, I've only had them for about 6 months so far and since I came about them by chance (the peacock adopted me), I don't really know that much about them. What I've learned so far from the reading I've been able to do and just having them is that they are extremely quiet most of the time. The peacock was probably in my chicken's yard all day before I noticed that he was there. They are seriously stealthy when they want to be and that's why mine got named after characters from the show Strike Back (it was about a special forces unit).
The only time they get loud is during their breeding season and that's when the males start making that wailing woman sound - the one that sounds like someone crying "help me". If I'm remembering correctly, the breeding season lasts from late spring through to the fall. After that, they make a trill sound followed by a clown car honk when they're upset or angry with something. They aren't of breeding age until about 2-3 years old, so I should have at least one more year before my peacock starts up.
I really love having them around. They are great intruder alert system when something/one shows up in their territory that shouldn't be there. The peacock would chase the hawks we had hanging around away from the chickens and rabbits. They do this little dance where they dart around each other and the various things around the yard. They are very fast, they do fly really well, and they're extremely curious and nosy and will go walkabout to check things out. I think unless you raise them from hatchlings, they're never going to be "pets". Mine acknowledge that I feed and shelter them, but handling them is out of the question.
From what I've read, they are at risk of predation just like chickens despite their size and if they're free range they can just take off and never come back. Overall, the only thing that I've found to be the biggest hang up for me is trying to get them a permanent shelter. I wasn't planning of having peafowl, so I'm only set up for chickens right now. This works now because they're not fully grown yet.
I think your property sounds great for peafowl! They love to get as high as they can and a wooded area would provide a lot of stimulation for them. Unlike chickens, keeping males together isn't really an issue until breeding season and then (again, this is just what I've read) they need enough space to call their own to display their train and try to attract a mate (the female can turn him down if she isn't impressed by him). If they're too crowded during that period, the male lowest on their version of a pecking order can go off on walkabout. He may come back at the end of the breeding season or not. I think that might have been what happened with mine - he showed up in our yard in the middle of their breeding season. If they find a place they decide they like (has good feed, shelter), they seem to stick around. Besides trying to find a place to build my peas a shed for their sleeping roosts and nests, I'm also having to decide if I want to let them free range or build a flight pen. They just require a lot of space. And bananas. They LOVE bananas.
Oh, and the birds themselves can be expensive. That's the other thing to consider - they're expensive to start with.
