how much room do you need for peacocks?

[Jadyn Calhoun]

i live in a house with a bit over a quarter acre of land so it’s pretty small. i’ve been looking into getting peacocks, at max 3 and was wondering if it would be possible to free range them in such a small space. will clipping their wings be enough to contain them? or would the walls have to be extremely high?

 

[fawndane]

Peafowl will have a range span of about 5 miles in all directions.

You can let them range.. It’s best if you let them free range with clipped wings instead of keeping them contained. They’re like guineas in a way.. Need to free range, need to wander and eat the bugs.

 

[KsKingBee]

Not. Free ranging peacocks rarely wonder very far. Mine don't go more than 100 yards away and that is to visit the neighbors and their deer feeder. NEVER clip a free-ranging pea, doing so only puts them in danger of being run down by a predator. They need their ability to fly from danger and clipping won't keep them from jumping over a fence.

 

[casportpony]

i live in a house with a bit over a quarter acre of land so it’s pretty small. i’ve been looking into getting peacocks, at max 3 and was wondering if it would be possible to free range them in such a small space. will clipping their wings be enough to contain them? or would the walls have to be extremely high?

Welcome to BYC!

 

[KsKingBee]

No one has really answered your question so I will break the bad news to you. If you have close neighbors you will have problems. I take it that everyone in the neighborhood has about the same amount of space. You can't keep them on just a half acre unless they are penned. Free-ranging them will only have them visiting the neighbors' pet food, and climbing on their cars, and crapping on their porches. To keep them penned you should have 100 to 150 square foot of pen space per bird. Then you still have the noise problem that can not be helped. Most neighbors do not want a yelping bird near their bedroom window.

 

[Jadyn Calhoun]

No one has really answered your question so I will break the bad news to you. If you have close neighbors you will have problems. I take it that everyone in the neighborhood has about the same amount of space. You can't keep them on just a half acre unless they are penned. Free-ranging them will only have them visiting the neighbors' pet food, and climbing on their cars, and crapping on their porches. To keep them penned you should have 100 to 150 square foot of pen space per bird. Then you still have the noise problem that can not be helped. Most neighbors do not want a yelping bird near their bedroom window.

thank you so much! that’s exactly what i was looking for

 

[Jbird17]

Nicely done KsKingbee unfortunately it' true. I have some kind of teal Java peas that never make any noise but can tell you they want to fly and check out the neighbors. We have 10 acres and it's notr big enough. The female just wants to be free. We were told never clip the wings or they cannot escape from predators.

 

[Midnightman14]

Agree with Kskingbee

 

[duncan5]

We live on two plus acres in Maryland. I grew up with peafowl on our farm in Indiana, 40 years ago, so before we moved where we live now I knocked on all our future neighbors doors and informed them of my brilliant idea of keeping peafowl. All our future neighbors I gave notice to thought it was a great idea. I told them that as long as the peafowl had food water and were kept in male and female groupings the wouldn’t stray far, and the noise wasn’t going to be that bad. We found a yearling pair of what I knew as Indian Blue peafowl, put the birds in a large holding pen with perching and a shelter for six weeks after the six weeks the birds were released. The birds started off fine staying around our property and going back into the holding pen in the evening to roost, but after a week they started roosting on top of our house and calling at two o’clock in the morning and they started exploring the neighborhood during the day. After the first call from a neighbor about a strange exotic bird sitting on their back deck, I knew I had to do something before people started to complain. We decided that peafowl weren’t for us at this time.
At the next HOA meeting I announced that the peafowl were going to be placed in a more suitable home. To our surprise no one wanted the peafowl to go anywhere. They liked the noise and they liked seeing them walking around. So we kept the loud peafowl and built a aviary to keep them in for the birds safety. The neighbors are aloud to come and visit the the birds and I’m aloud to add a few other hardy species to the aviary.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

I had an indestructible peacock. He outlived several mates for various reasons. Even during times he was a solo he stayed with the chickens and free ranged close by, used only a portion of my ten acres.

That being said, he had a real thing for turkeys. Unfortunately I didn't have turkeys. The wild turkeys that passed the yard twice a day fascinated him and randomly, whether he had peahens or not, he would just blend himself in and leave with them. While I'd be wringing my hands he was living large in the woods.

Then a neighbor with something reflective in their yard would call. He'd see himself in a basement window or something and have to threaten that peacock he saw, forgetting the turkeys, who moved on.

Catch, feed him up, back to HONK WOOO on my roof at all hours. Until the turkeys came too close. Repeat. HONKWOOOOOOOO.

Darn I miss that pain in the tail. Rehomed when he attacked my dog. And my kid. I guess my point is they are a bit unpredictable in their habits.