Im getting peafowl. problem: ive never had them and know nothing about them. please help.

[dheltzel]

I don't want to "steal" this thread, but the heated roosts post really disturbed me as its one of the easier ways to help peas out during really cold weather. Can you tell us more about how the peas were injured by it. I hadn't heard of this problem before.

I'm not the one that mentioned this, and I've never tried heated roosts, but experience with electrical work makes me think that heated roosts could end badly if you are not very careful making them. I assume you would use heat tape, like for wrapping pipes. They are not made to be picked at by peafowl, so you must cover them with carpet or something to prevent access. Carpet insulates and holding the heat in both reduces the effectiveness (so you might need more tape per linear foot) and increases the danger of fire. If you don't cover them you might also get hot spots and that could burn their feet very easily. Birds have poor pain reception in their feet, we have a turkey hen that let a rat gnaw her leg off one night while trying to incubate eggs, I could easily see a pea getting a severe burn and not realizing it, so it's up to you to make sure that can't happen, they have no experience sleeping on branches that are hot enough to burn them.

I'm not saying you would build one badly and burn your coop/shed/barn down, but I would recommend caution. There is no UL rating for heated roosts, nor are they covered by any electrical codes, so you are on your own as far as design and building.

 

[MeepBeep]

As many have said you have a lot to learn before you commit to a pea.. Also I have to ask how old are you and are you ready to commit to caring for an animal that will live 20+ years?

So hear is a stab at your questions, although I fully suggest you do MUCH more research as most of these questions are basic 101 stuff that would be answered with maybe an hour or two of research on your own...

so first off, our coop is un insulated, but we will put in heat lamps and heated roosts. plus were in greater vancouver so we seldom get temperatures below -7 celcius. its about 10 by 15. is that big enough?

First off I'm not going to get into a debate about coop heating in this thread, but peas are much more prone to frost bite on their feet and toes then other poultry, this needs to be addressed... As for coop size a single male with a train will take over most of that that sized coop in a few years...

also are glass windows okay? ive heard horror stories about peas flying into them

It's glass, it can break you have to decide if it's right for you... If you do keep the glass, it's not that hard or that costly to cover the windows with some wire fence or hardware mesh to help prevent breakage...

so one thing ive never been able to find is male to femalae ratios. id idealy like to have two males. but i dont know how many hens i would need to keep them from fighting with each other, and if these hens would be too many to fit in the coop?

As said above males will fight, really doesn't matter how many females you have, best to isolate or spread out the males during mating unless you get lucky and they get along without killing each other, sometimes they will, but I wouldn't gamble on it unless you have a lot of room to keep their distances....

also, we dont have a run with a roof on top. is that okay? we do have a large yard with a approx. 4 foot fence. if their wings were clipped would that be enough to keep them in?

Without a roof on the run they will get out, and even with clipped wings a 4 foot fence is trivial for them to hop over, even a week or two old chick without fully developed wings could clear a 4 foot fence...

(on the subject of wing clipping we would have to put them in the coop at night. would that be a huge task?) so we also plan on free ranging them. we have 1.5 acres of clear land for them to roam. would that be enough? also we dont have a gate, would that be a problem? our driveway is approx. 200 feet if that makes a difference. another thing

Clipping their wings makes them very domestic and mostly defenseless, they roost in tall trees at night to avoid most predators, clipping their wings removes that ability... 1.5 acres is no where near enough, you best make friends with all your neighbors within say 2 miles as it's not unheard of for them to roam great distances and ravage a neighbors flower garden or roost on neighbors cars leaving a bunch of scratches on the roof...

we have a 100 pound goldendoodle dog, who i can safely predict will try to make friends with them. he is very enthusiastic about it as well. we do have a fenced yard to keep him in though. will this be a problem?

Flip a coin, every dog and bird is different...

the road we are on is a slight concern, as though its not super busy, it is not a farm road. speed limit 70. i would hate to lose a bird. are we going to need a gate?

A gate isn't going to stop them from going in the road, not sure what you 70 is measured in but 70mph, 70kph (43mph) poses a huge risk in itself, and just a hunch but I'm guessing many don't obey said speed limit or will be looking for a pea sitting in the road, so the risk is huge...

one last thing is, i have heard if we raise them from a young age, they will be more friendly, and less likely to go exploring down the street.

Flip the coin again every bird is different, and even hand raised peas are not exactly friendly, they still have a stand off attitude and love to wander especially during mating season...

we would like to raise them from youngsters, but we also want to be sure about their genders, what age should we get them at?

Regular blues can be sexed pretty early... But, you have many more considerations before that...

one definitely last thing is, i have heard they need to be wormed. no idea what that means

Yep, just like most pets they need worming to be healthy...

May I suggest you spend the next 8 months or so researching and reading about peas, come next summer you can make a much more educated decision on whether you are ready or not to commit to them...

 

[Garden Peas]

I'm not the one that mentioned this, and I've never tried heated roosts, but experience with electrical work makes me think that heated roosts could end badly if you are not very careful making them. I assume you would use heat tape, like for wrapping pipes. They are not made to be picked at by peafowl, so you must cover them with carpet or something to prevent access. Carpet insulates and holding the heat in both reduces the effectiveness (so you might need more tape per linear foot) and increases the danger of fire. If you don't cover them you might also get hot spots and that could burn their feet very easily. Birds have poor pain reception in their feet, we have a turkey hen that let a rat gnaw her leg off one night while trying to incubate eggs, I could easily see a pea getting a severe burn and not realizing it,

Exactly -- the Peas accidentally burned their feet, then the toes and/or feet fell off... I wish I could just post the entire threat from UPA forum here, it was horrible for the poor birds & owners that it happened to...

Permanently crippled birds OMG

 

[nathanmouse]

Sounded like a bit of a lecture, of course I am going to do all of my research first. thanks for the help

 

[Garden Peas]

Sounded like a bit of a lecture, of course I am going to do all of my research first. thanks for the help

Sigh. Troll.

 

[nathanmouse]

I am sorry, I believe I did a poor job making this thread. of course im going to have to do all my research first. this was more a thread for deciiding whether or not to get peas. I am fully aware of the commitment. I would not even consider getting any kind of animal untill ive done everthing i can o make sure im ready. I myself typing this am 16, but I am just scribing for my technology impaired mother. our roads speed limit is 50 kph, 70 was the typical speed of a car down it. thanks for your help

 

[new 2 pfowl]

 

[Garden Peas]

I am sorry, I believe I did a poor job making this thread. of course im going to have to do all my research first. this was more a thread for deciiding whether or not to get peas. I am fully aware of the commitment. I would not even consider getting any kind of animal untill ive done everthing i can o make sure im ready. I myself typing this am 16, but I am just scribing for my technology impaired mother. our roads speed limit is 50 kph, 70 was the typical speed of a car down it. thanks for your help

Nathan, thank you for the clarification. Good luck with your decision.

 

[dheltzel]

Exactly -- the Peas accidentally burned their feet, then the toes and/or feet fell off... I wish I could just post the entire threat from UPA forum here, it was horrible for the poor birds & owners that it happened to...

Permanently crippled birds OMG

I'm also very sad for our turkey hen, but she seems to actually get along ok. I couldn't bear to kill her, even if it would have been considered merciful by many. I don't think she ever suffered much pain, more the extra work to get around and not being able to easily get away from from a threat has made her life a bit more stressful. She is in a safe place with our peas and they all seem to get along great for now. I hope the male peas won't harass her in the spring, but it they do, we have other pens with chickens she can hang out in and have a huge size advantage she doesn't have with the peas. We want her to have a long and easy life.

We have a responsibility to our birds, and when a mistake causes them to be crippled, we not only need to care for them, but inform other owners so hopefully the same doesn't happen again.

I sense a market opportunity for someone to make a really good heated perch. I suppose it's a pretty small market, but making is safe and effective is certainly possible. And it's clear that people who keep peas are rather easily separated from their money -- this is not a cheap hobby!

 

[Garden Peas]

Here's a photo of foot damage that was apparently the result of heat tape on a roost, the tape was covered with carpet (the same way I had INTENDED to install some at my place, before I saw the photos) -- Can you see the shriveled toes on the left foot?



Here's a link to the thread on the UPA forum that had the photos and discussion:

http://upaforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1955&highlight=heated+roost

I totally freaked when I saw the photo, and freaked worse when someone else wrote in about having to wrap her hen's "peg leg" weekly after the hen's foot fell off from getting damaged on a heated roost.

Scared the willies out of me.

When I look carefully at this photo (and the others you can see in the link to the UPA thread), it seems to me that you can just barely see where the heat tape runs under the carpet -- it's a slightly darker green stripe, just barely visible. The striking part is that it runs right underneath the all the shriveled toes. And the owners said the temperature had only dipped below freezing a few times over the winter, and then just barely, so frostbite wasn't really likely in their case. The other owners worked with their vet to figure out the cause. Apparently the birds can get 3rd degree burns from the heat tape.