Finally Free ranging again! So exciting!

[MinxFox]

Recently I don't know I have just been kinda down about peafowl. I really love them but sometimes I feel like I am not giving them enough this and that....I feel like the netting on their pen is always breaking around the roosts now and I am always worried that some of them aren't getting as much food as other ones are so I make sure I put food all around the pen and then I worry about the amount of food the squirrels eat and if the peafowl got enough...Also it seems like some of the peachicks aren't growing fast enough. I don't know I have just been questioning things a lot lately.

Anyways today was a wonderful day. I have been worried about free-ranging again and putting it off over and over again but today I got two of Ice's peachicks from last year (both peahens) closed off into a small pen and opened the door and put lots of food right outside of the pen then did some other stuff in the other pen and after that when I checked on the peahens one was a foot out of the pen eating and the other was at the edge of the pen so I went ahead and got into the pen and closed the door so they couldn't come back in. It really is different free-ranging when you have peafowl penned to anchor the free-rangers, pluss these girls grew up here. They stayed next to the pen the whole time today walking around the pen eating bugs and plants making the ones inside of the pen jealous. When it was roosting time tonight the peahens had some trouble flying up. There is a nice oak tree right next to the pen but the first branch is a bit high. They looked at the tree but didn't fly up to it. They kept walking around the pen looking up at trees and it got really dark and we decided they were not going to fly up and that it would be safer to put them back in the pen and try letting them out again some other day and maybe then they would remember to try and fly up sooner. As I was herding them to the door to the pen, they were almost to the door when they spooked and one took off flying and landed closeby in a peacan tree between two pens. Hopefully when she flies down in the morning she won't land on the netting because she is almost right above the pen. The other peahen flew off too but she flew further away. I didn't get to see where she landed but my boyfriend Aaron was in an opening next to the pen so he had a clear view of her flying across the opening and into a tree. He said he wasn't sure if she was still in that tree because he heard a noise like she flew to another tree or something. She could be in a tree nextdoor. I didn't hear the hens calling to each other from their seperate trees. I guess in the morning they will fly down and call to the other peafowl and hopefully re-unite.

I have food and water out for them. I don't know if I should have multiple buckets of water out for them all over the yard or if I should just keep the one bucket by the pen. The pen is about in the center of the yard. Is it good to try and keep all of their food and water near the pen so that they will always see that as home base? I think it will be a while before they venture out further from the pen. Luckily these two sisters are very close so they should get along free-ranging together. Will I eventually need to have a male free-ranging with them or will they be okay. All of my peacocks are penned but I might be able to free-range my white peacock.

Thanks and sorry for being so inactive...

 

[AugeredIn]

Alright, take a deep breath, let it out & relax! You are way too young to be that tense. Worry less, enjoy more. What has you so stressed?

 

[zazouse]

Alright, take a deep breath, let it out & relax! You are way too young to be that tense. Worry less, enjoy more. What has you so stressed?

I agree, as hard as it is you got to relax, your peas know you well and can read the tension in your body movements which can make them jumpy.

keep your water source by the gate peas do not really drink very much unless it is real hot and even then mine would prefer to stand in the water than drink it. LOL

Your babies will probably stay close to the pen for weeks until they get a bug in their but and go for a walkabout, peas are easy to herd as long as your slow about it, i get behind mine and say go peas and i can herd them anywhere, if i want them to start moving to the right i put my left arm up and walk toward them telling them to go and they turn, i do just the opposite to go the other way.
Just start training them to herd around the pen now and when they are older and ranging farther, you can get them back safely without a panic.

If they fly up in a tree because something scared them don't worry they will come down after they access the situation and feel it is safe.

Oh and my peas to this day play where we gonna sleep tonight ending up in the same place they were last night and it is always right at dark, they are also the last down in the morning, lazy critters

These are just some things i have learned about them and thought i would share.

Great to hear they are out and about, please post some photos when you have time.

 

[MinxFox]

Sorry for the late reply...

Okay so the next day I found one peahen on the netting. Luckily she wasn't tangled in it. She was standing on it. I walked into the pen and put my hands under her feet to help give her something solid to stand on. It took several tries of her flopping around on the netting before she finally flew off of the top. Then from there she paced the pen and I opened the door and she walked right in without me forcing her to. She was ready to be back in the pen. Later that day the other peahen that flew further off was back at the pen and we put her back in the pen too. These past few days the two hens have been sun bathing in the pen relaxing. They seem so happy but I want them to free-range so they can eat all those yummy weeds in the yard and have fun ranging around. For now they are too attached to the pen. I think I will try and let them out again some other day. It is gonna be hard for them to get used to but I am sure they will have fun free-ranging.