Getting peacock eggs in a week!

[mtgrl]

Somebody is offering me 6-10 peacock eggs for free, and wanted to give me even more. I agreed to take them, but don't know anything about raising peacocks! I am new to raising birds and currently have 11 bobwhite quail. I am glad to accept them, of course, because I was looking for a larger bird to eat snakes and mice and warn of predators, and wanted to get peacocks eventually anyway. What should I know about raising peacocks?
Also-in regards to keeping around bobwhite quail, what should I know about disease between the two? I assume keeping them in separate areas would be wise.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Did you already read through the peafowl stickies?
They are chock full of all kinds of info!

"Sticky" Threads for the "Peafowl" forum:

• Peafowl - "Sticky" topics index

 

[DylansMom]

Somebody is offering me 6-10 peacock eggs for free, and wanted to give me even more. I agreed to take them, but don't know anything about raising peacocks! I am new to raising birds and currently have 11 bobwhite quail. I am glad to accept them, of course, because I was looking for a larger bird to eat snakes and mice and warn of predators, and wanted to get peacocks eventually anyway. What should I know about raising peacocks?
Also-in regards to keeping around bobwhite quail, what should I know about disease between the two? I assume keeping them in separate areas would be wise.

I have never seen any of my Peafowl eat snakes or mice, even baby mice are ignored. They have not proven to be good at warning of predators either, unless that predator makes a really loud noise, then they will yell in response. Many people lose their Peas to predators such as fox, raccoon, owls, coyotes, etc..... As far as diseases, I'm afraid I have no idea what diseases quail may carry or be susceptible to, so I can't answer that. Peafowl are beautiful to look at and fun to watch, but IMO they are not a great choice as "Watch/Guardian Birds". Good luck with your eggs!

 

[new 2 pfowl]

I see in another thread that you have a lot of predators:

"We have lots of predators here, and when my parents raised chickens, it was one of the main reasons they gave it up. They couldn't keep the predators out of the fenced in area. We get raccoons, skunks, weasels, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, foxes, bears, mountain lions, hawks, owls, and eagles frequently, also my neighbors have lots of dogs. I am planning on raising quail in the backyard, and since they are such small birds, I want to make sure they are as secure as possible. Anybody have some good ideas for a design that would predator-proof my backyard? Bears are a big concern because they show up annually at fall to eat apples off our trees, they have caused lots of trouble in the past, and with their strength, there is little that can keep them out.
We also have a big raccoon and two skunks that come every night to eat from my cat's food. Other predators are all very common around here, since we live in the prairie next to the mountains and encounter them often."

With that in mind, you certainly will not be able to free range your peas. Are you planning on building a large pen? It is said that peas need at the very least 100 square feet per bird, so you are looking at quite a large pen for your new gang.

 

[DylansMom]

With all of those predators, I fear you may not have your Peafowl very long. They are truly very susceptible to predators, we do not have nearly the predators you do and we have lost several over the years. Secure pens are a must for us, but even our pens would not keep out hungry Bears or Bobcats.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Also, you might want to take some time to read the threads here about hatching pea eggs.
I've never done it so I don't know anything about it!

But experienced hatchers here seem to find it a challenge!

 

[zazouse]

I have over 40 free range peafowl and i can tell ya they do not eat snakes or mice, they will tattle on them when they are in the area and my dogs will come dispatch the wild critters , they do like to try and run off the wildlife that enter their view but it is the dogs that they alert that takes care of the wild things birds included.
you have been giving some great advice so do some reading and learn with us as we have learned with others

A trespasser





Gracie to the rescue

Another trespasser under there

And this is what happened when it came out.

Another trespasser.

 

[mtgrl]

Thanks for the info everyone, I'll read up.
Yeah, originally my plan was to have the quail, the most vulnerable of the birds, inside a super secure fenced in garden with hardware cloth all around, like a giant cage. Then I have a larger area around the garden that I planned to fence in, too, and raise larger birds like peacocks and pheasants. The idea was that the larger birds on the perimeter could warn of any predators trying to get in so I could dispatch of them before they broke through, and any smaller predators that could fit through the hardware cloth like mice or snakes or gophers could be eaten or at least chased out by them before entering the quail garden. If any large predators like bears or cougars visited and broke through the first barrier, then hopefully they'd stop and take off with only one large peacock meal and spare the others, instead of breaking into the quail garden and slaughtering the entire flock. That way they have two fences to break through and hopefully they would settle with just one.

The problem is that I am flat broke, and can't complete the fenced in garden area as I had hoped. All my money is gone, and I need about a thousand dollars to buy the hardware cloth just for the garden. Building a larger pen for the peacocks would be more expense than I could manage. Currently, my quail are housed inside my room where I can watch them 24/7, and their parents are inside a small cage house outside the window. I am sleeping on the couch so I can hear if something is trying to break in, and every night I have to run outside a couple times to chase away foxes and skunks. So far I've had at least one predator visit every night banging on the metal walls, trying to get in. The quail are always dead silent. I was hoping to get something a little more vocal to wake me up at night to alert me of any predators.

Surprisingly, a couple years ago we did have a couple of free range chickens. They were two old hens that couldn't lay anymore, so we took them in and let them wander around the property for pest control. They didn't stop the entire garden from getting eaten to the ground by grasshoppers, but they did live through the summer. We found their feathers by winter, though.

I am a little concerned about the peacocks. I'm hoping that I will be able to somehow raise enough money to complete the fenced in areas by the time they and the quail are ready to move out, and I'm not sure where I'm going to keep them until then.

100 square feet is a lot compared to the recommended 1 square foot per quail! What about just letting them free range during the day and putting them in a coop at night?

What makes hatching peafowl eggs so hard?

 

[casportpony]

Read this:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/162/ulcerative-enteritis-quail-disease

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

And this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/804570/coping-with-blackhead

-Kathy