Hello everyone I am very busy with college these days but I found myself really needing to talk about peafowl so here I am to tell you all about something I tried recently...
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So right now I have nine peafowl:
Males: Alto, Peep, Frosty, Crooked Beak, Unnamed boy.
Females: Damsel, Ice, Shyanne, Snow White.
Last week I decided to rake some of the leaves out of the pen so I had the door open and I was thinking about just leaving the door open. Peep, who now looks very silly with a short tail and a very short train, was the first to step out. I let Peep out sometimes so that was not a big deal, but then Ice, who was the first peahen I ever owned and also the first I ever free-ranged stepped out. I started wondering if I should allow that because when I free-ranged Ice a few years ago she ran away and I had to go catch her in the backyard of a very nice house. I decided that that was so long ago and Ice is a lot tamer now so I allowed her as well as everyone else to leave the pen. Yes I let all 9 of my peafowl walk out the door but I have come to trust them a lot and I found myself not really worried. They all stayed within a few feet of the door just eating grass and weeds. One of the white peahens was jumping on the metal cans I keep their food in. The two yearling males did some displaying and even Peep did a little display. All of the peafowl were having a good time except for Alto, the leader of everyone. Alto would walk out of the pen a few feet then turn around and walk back into the pen and pace the fence looking out at the other birds. I am wondering if he considers the pen his territory and he doesn't want to leave his territory or something. He literally stayed in the pen most of the time. I wanted to see if I shook a can of food while standing in the pen if they would all come inside the pen for food but none of them did. They were too busy enjoying all the yummy plants. Eventually I walked out and got behind Ice and Damsel and they merged with a group of 2 or 3 more birds and all I had to do was walk slowly behind them with my arms out to kind of steer the group and once they got within a few feet of the open pen door they walked in on their own. The yearling boys were being a bit more harder to control as they started walking down the side of the pen, and then I realized Peep was missing so I started calling for him and whistling. I started herding the yearling boys back into the pen and Peep showed up so I got the yearling boys in and by that time it had started raining and Peep flew on top of part of the pen that is covered in a tarp. For some reason my tamest bird is also the hardest to get back into the pen. Go figure! So Peep is on the tarp and I can't get him down. Well he slips on the side of the tarp and he jumps onto a plank of wood sticking out of the small pen so I put my arm out and he puts a foot on my hand and then I get him to sit on my arm so I can carry him back into the pen. He has gotten pretty good at letting me do that and he doesn't flap. I never pick him up I always have him step onto my arm. You avoid getting big scratches if you let him just jump onto your arm. Anyways for some reason he wasn't very well balanced on my arm like he normally is and now that his spurs are sharp they were poking into my arm so I got a tiny cut from that but nothing major. I like being able to have such a large bird on my arm especially without a glove on. I really hope he lets me do that when he has a full train. I will definitely want a photo of that!
Anyways I was very happy that it was not that difficult to let them all out and get them all back in so I think I should do that every now and then for some fun stimulation for them.
---------------
So right now I have nine peafowl:
Males: Alto, Peep, Frosty, Crooked Beak, Unnamed boy.
Females: Damsel, Ice, Shyanne, Snow White.
Last week I decided to rake some of the leaves out of the pen so I had the door open and I was thinking about just leaving the door open. Peep, who now looks very silly with a short tail and a very short train, was the first to step out. I let Peep out sometimes so that was not a big deal, but then Ice, who was the first peahen I ever owned and also the first I ever free-ranged stepped out. I started wondering if I should allow that because when I free-ranged Ice a few years ago she ran away and I had to go catch her in the backyard of a very nice house. I decided that that was so long ago and Ice is a lot tamer now so I allowed her as well as everyone else to leave the pen. Yes I let all 9 of my peafowl walk out the door but I have come to trust them a lot and I found myself not really worried. They all stayed within a few feet of the door just eating grass and weeds. One of the white peahens was jumping on the metal cans I keep their food in. The two yearling males did some displaying and even Peep did a little display. All of the peafowl were having a good time except for Alto, the leader of everyone. Alto would walk out of the pen a few feet then turn around and walk back into the pen and pace the fence looking out at the other birds. I am wondering if he considers the pen his territory and he doesn't want to leave his territory or something. He literally stayed in the pen most of the time. I wanted to see if I shook a can of food while standing in the pen if they would all come inside the pen for food but none of them did. They were too busy enjoying all the yummy plants. Eventually I walked out and got behind Ice and Damsel and they merged with a group of 2 or 3 more birds and all I had to do was walk slowly behind them with my arms out to kind of steer the group and once they got within a few feet of the open pen door they walked in on their own. The yearling boys were being a bit more harder to control as they started walking down the side of the pen, and then I realized Peep was missing so I started calling for him and whistling. I started herding the yearling boys back into the pen and Peep showed up so I got the yearling boys in and by that time it had started raining and Peep flew on top of part of the pen that is covered in a tarp. For some reason my tamest bird is also the hardest to get back into the pen. Go figure! So Peep is on the tarp and I can't get him down. Well he slips on the side of the tarp and he jumps onto a plank of wood sticking out of the small pen so I put my arm out and he puts a foot on my hand and then I get him to sit on my arm so I can carry him back into the pen. He has gotten pretty good at letting me do that and he doesn't flap. I never pick him up I always have him step onto my arm. You avoid getting big scratches if you let him just jump onto your arm. Anyways for some reason he wasn't very well balanced on my arm like he normally is and now that his spurs are sharp they were poking into my arm so I got a tiny cut from that but nothing major. I like being able to have such a large bird on my arm especially without a glove on. I really hope he lets me do that when he has a full train. I will definitely want a photo of that!
Anyways I was very happy that it was not that difficult to let them all out and get them all back in so I think I should do that every now and then for some fun stimulation for them.
