Did a peahen kill my roo?

[shawnm2639]

Came home today and found one of my two roos dead next to the feeder in the coop. I have 9 hens and 2 br roos. Their 10 months old or so. Pretty big fellers and free range during the day when I am at work. Up till now the peafowl and chickens have be living pretty peacefully or at least not aggressive to each other,. I have caught the peahens doing what peafowl do best and mouching the the food in the feeder. And the other one of the roos and a couple of hens were in the coop at the same time..no big deal. Today..dead roo right next to the feeder...humm, I really didn't think a peahen which is almost equel in size to my roo could do that kind of damage. I checked the carcus (sp) but couldn't tell how he died.

 

[TreeHugger]

Sorry for the loss

I have 2 peahens & a peacock in with my chickens & pigeons. I've never had any issues with the peafowl being aggressive towards anyone. I did learn the hard way not to have them in with the hens with newly hatched chicks (they killed a few of the chicks). I wouldn't think a peahen would kill a roo unless he was being aggressive towards her, but I think there would be feathers everywhere (hers & his).

 

[shawnm2639]

Nope..no feathers. Maybe she got a lucky kick in. I don't know. I couldn't tell if his neck was broken and rigamortis had already set in. They just never had that kind of realationship and of course when chicks even older chicks are involved anything goes. Thanks for the input

 

[Hotwings]

you mentioned you had 2 roos, do you think they got in a scuffle and one killed the other? I am not all that experience in pea fowl so I wouldn't know if one would be aggressive.

 

[shawnm2639]

We (my sis) talked about that. They grew up from hatchlings and the pecking order was long established I thought. Never saw them fight although they definately did the squabble thing occasionally when one was after a hen but the little one always backed off. I was thinking of downsizing anyway to one roo but not this way

 

[vicki2x2]

If they had fought, they or at least the dead one would be pretty beat up and bloody. Not sure what killed him, could have been a lot of things. Could he have choked on something?

 

[M To The Maxx]

Is the roo that was killed bigger than the other roo?

 

[eggchel]

If you didn't see any blood or evidence of injury, then it is more likely that your rooster died of natural causes. Sometimes they just drop dead and you wont know the cause unless you have a necropsy done.

Sorry about your bird.