Does anyone out there have an opinion on letting Peacock and his hen out??

[RoboDuck]

That sucks. I hate to hear that.

 

[Frenchman Creek]

I would be surprised that a coyote got one of the birds without some sign of that happening near their pen. You should try to get out and listen at night as they will be vocal when separated. If you are lucky and find where they are you should not try to lead them but actually get behind them and herd them slowly back to your place. I have found that five or six foot light weight aluminum poles work the best holding one in each hand and creating a "V" behind the bird and moving slowly. When I did not know how to keep my males home when they were free ranging, I became a reluctant expert at herding peacocks. Good luck to you. Hopefully someone will see them and call you.

 

[barkerg]

Well, a little sad update to this last post, Saturday was like every day thus far in letting them out and checking on them every 2hrs or so.
I headed out to eat at 6pm and then 45min later came home to find one most of the way down our 600ft driveway and the other no where in sight.
I drove up to the house and didn't see anything out of sorts, then walked down the driveway to see if I could heard this one back. He had walked another 300ft up the street and into the trees, I got near him and herded him a little back our way, but he seamed very agitated for some reason and wouldn't walk with me, he headed off into the woods again into an area where I couldn't follow. I figured he would head back to the house soon enough anyway. I went out again about dusk and walked all over and never could find either one, it rained a little that night and I left their cage door open. So now it's been 2 days and I've not seen or heard anything from them. I'm thinking either a hawk, or a coyote came up to the house, that we never see, and got one and spooked the other really bad and he just took off.
I guess maybe we've learned now that we can't free range in our area with any hope of keeping them safe.
gary

Gary,
I hate to hear that, if you have neighbors that have yard fowl check their places out as it will likely gravitate to bird sounds. If its daytime and you found one in a tree I would be on the look out for a neighbors dog or something on the ground chased them, normally when they see a hawk they will seek cover or if the hawk is on the ground they will run to it and investigate and sometimes attack it and run it off the territory. Now, dark is when they will fly straight up and out. I hope you find it. Keep us posted please and keep your head up brother.

Gerald Barker

 

[new 2 pfowl]

@sasglm ...You would be surprised about how far they can roam, I wouldn't give up on them yet.
If it was me (and I have been in this situation) I would be posting a lost pea notice on my local craigslist, calling the humane society, local vets, and feed stores, putting up flyers everywhere, and asking neighbors to keep an eye out. If you don't see a pile of feathers it's possible they're out there somewhere wondering how to get home...

 

[sasglm]

Well we live in a pretty heavily wooded area with mostly hardwoods and tall pines, so right now the hardwoods haven't leafed out yet so I can see pretty far into the woods. We had nearly 2in of rain Sunday, so getting out to find them didn't happen. I went out yesterday and took my phone and a speaker blasting pea calls up and down our street. Everyone here are on 5+ac and almost all are wooded.
In the 2 weeks we had them out they had never called, just honked a few times, and never flew up to anything, they were a only on the ground. they can walk pretty fast when they want too.

We had one peacock a few back year and he did caught by a coyote, but he was on the night on the ground and we got lucky to find the feathers as it was 200yrds from our house and deep in the woods. I didn't find no one feather near our house, so if something caught them near here they didn't it without a truffle.

We did post a message to all of neighbors so everyone is looking.

thanks

 

[sasglm]

I would be surprised that a coyote got one of the birds without some sign of that happening near their pen. You should try to get out and listen at night as they will be vocal when separated. If you are lucky and find where they are you should not try to lead them but actually get behind them and herd them slowly back to your place. I have found that five or six foot light weight aluminum poles work the best holding one in each hand and creating a "V" behind the bird and moving slowly. When I did not know how to keep my males home when they were free ranging, I became a reluctant expert at herding peacocks. Good luck to you. Hopefully someone will see them and call you.

yea, I've gone out the last 2 nights with my speaker blasting load calls and haven't heard anything in return or seen any sign whatsoever.
I've looked very closely to were they last were, 100' around the house and haven't seen a stray feather or marks that would indicate a attack.
I do usually heard the birds from behind and were always able to slowly heard them back toward their cage and get them in before night fell. one would follow the other in most case so I usually only had to get one going in that direction.
I've also let the recording blast from my back yard during the last 2 days hoping one might hear it, but if they've wondered far then they are out of range.
My hope is starting to fade that we'll see them again with the number of coyotes we've been hearing the last 18months around here.
A friend of mine traps coyotes a county over from us and he trapped over 100 in a season.
thanks
gary

 

[Sahwithchicks]

Hi there. Seems like you have gotten a few answers, but i wanted to weigh in.
I have 7 peafowl. I sadly do not let them free range. The reason is that we have actually had two seperate occasions where a stray peacock has found his way to our farm. The call of india blues travels a far distance, recently I have been the calls from someone elses birds, and i have no close neighbors. Since we have had peacocks show up just from hearing my birds calling, I figure that the curiosity can go both ways... i dont want my birds wandering out into the woods to try to find out where the other fowl is calling from! It is something to keep in mind. When we first bought our fowl, we didnt hear any calling (other than our fowl) until the stray cock showed up.

 

[Garden Peas]

Quote:
So sorry that you are going thru this!

Not finding any feathers is a really good sign (truly!) -- If the coyotes had gotten them, there'd be feathers somewhere. Chances are they are still together, and pretty confused. Since they know how to roost from their own pen, they are probably smart enough to be spending the night in trees, which will definitely help them versus the coyotes. I don't know that they would respond to calls at night -- my birds are pretty not interested in anything except sleeping after dark.

Is anyone in the area feeding lots of birds? Backyard feeders and the like? They may get drawn to a food source, or follow other birds, if they happen to see a lot of birds flying somewhere or other. Likewise, they might be hanging near a water source, or a big open tree that they decided they like.

If you haven't found a big heap of feathers, then I wouldn't totally give up hope. I had a surprisingly large heap of dove feathers in the back yard a few weeks ago -- idk whether a hawk took the dove and sat on the wall to eat it, or a neighborhood cat got it and the dogs took it from the cat, or if the dogs got it themselves. But even something as small as a dove leaves a lot of feathers heaped and blowing around. @Birdrain92 had a bird (birds?) wander back by after a really long time... what was it, Birdrain, a year?

Anyway, know that our hearts are going out to you. Hang in there.

 

[BigWeenMachine]

I've got 3 hens but no cocks. They have free roamed for about a year now since we got them and they always come home and sleep in the same tree. The only problem is that they like to go across the road to visit my neighbors chickens. They go over there and fly into the pasture where the chickens free range and nibble the grass. The owner is a crotchety old woman who hates them and holds some personal grudge against them for trespassing, lol. It seems the more she chases them away and the more I herd them back home, the more they want to go over there and harass the neighbor. They are very stubborn creatures and I almost wonder if they do it just to aggravate everyone, lol.

 

[barkerg]

I've got 3 hens but no cocks.  They have free roamed for about a year now since we got them and they always come home and sleep in the same tree. The only problem is that they like to go across the road to visit my neighbors chickens.  They go over there and fly into the pasture where the chickens free range and nibble the grass.  The owner is a crotchety old woman who hates them and holds some personal grudge against them for trespassing, lol.  It seems the more she chases them away and the more I herd them back home, the more they want to go over there and harass the neighbor.  They are very stubborn creatures and I almost wonder if they do it just to aggravate everyone, lol.

They are probably bullying her chickens and the problem could get worse when you get that rooster your looking for, you may have to pen them up every now and then because as you stated they are stubborn and when they find a honey hole they will repeat visit guaranteed.

Gerald Barker