Lost 3 Of My 4 Peafowl In The Last Weeks Cold?

[thetajmahalcoop]

I'm so sad, we have had horribley cold temps and alot of snow in upstate NY (Rochester area) the last few weeks and as a result I have lost three peafowl, only have one lonely solitary one left and he looks so sad out there hanging with my chickens, I feel bad having only one kind of animal, it feels mean. I bought all four as "toddlers" ha ha in the early fall at a poultry auction and I wish I knew where there was someplace near me where I could get another.....does anyone have any suggestions? The one I have left is all white, I was planning on selling the white pair in the spring and keeping the other pair to breed, they were green shouldered i believe. We have a Taj Mahal for a coop hence my screen name and use the deep litter method...I added more heat lamps out there...I even tried bringing them inside the really bad nights and still lost three..maybe something else was wrong with them? Thanks for any and all responses you guys are great!

 

[Tony K T]

What are you feeding them?Do you worm them?Peafowl get blackhead,it is treated with dimetridazole in their feed or emtryl in their water.Or turkey feed has emtryl in it.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[thetajmahalcoop]

my husband feeds them turkey feed because we also have turkeys.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

They are usually pretty good in the cold unless you have green birds (javas and hi % spauldings).Fortunatly I dont have to worry about it here in Georgia, but I know many breeders in the north and they all say
Any of the blue mutations should have been fine. I would have think it's some other type of problem. Like Tony said, disease can get them quickly, especially when stressed from extremes of temperatures. Now , you mentioned "green" blackshoulders. If they were hi % spaulding blackshoulders, the cold may have been the culprit, but they probley werent, those tend to be sold by private sellers, not many ever make their way to auctions.
Keeping them with chickens, though many people do it, is not a good route to go as they often carry dieases that can kill peafowl (turkeys too) but never effect the chickens...
Sure hate you lots them, that stinks. Maybe you can get it all figured out and find you some more soon.

 

[thetajmahalcoop]

BOGGY--- my maiden names is Boggs, is your farm named after your last name by any chance??? My one remaining peacock is acting fine, just lonely, We've got below zero temps here in NY again tonight, I just came in from the coop (only the fourth time I've been out today to check on everyone LOL !) I hope I have better luck with peafowl next time, I've been reading the old posts all day and it looks like people up North have problems with them at about 5/6 months which is about how old I think they were. Maybe they were blue shouldered ones? Brown body but green shoulders which made me think green shouldered....now I can't remember, the cold temps are freezing my brain today! Thanks for the reply and I am curious about the name of your farm still.........

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Hey Taj,
No I am a Webb. When we started clearing the mess where we now live, (which is inbetween a creek and a 12 acre swamp) We got all the trees cut and had just finished digging all the thousands of stumps up, well on the final stump, it started sprikling rain, 10 inches later it quit.
Well with all that rain, open monster stump holes and heavy machinery every where we couldnt do a thing on the property for about 6 months . Someone jokingly said you got a boggy bottom chicken farm picking at me, well we went with boggy bottom bantams and it stuck.

As for the peacocks, yea if they were still young like that zero might have had some thing to do with it. Sounds like the ones you had were india blues and whites by your discriptions too. I dont blame you for worring about them, I do with all of my stuff too. If one sneezes, I will worry all night about it til I see that it's fine the next day!!
Hope you get some more and have better luck with them,
Aubrey

 

[thetajmahalcoop]

thanks so much for the reply! we've raised chickens, guineas and turkeys with no problems and everyone told us the guineas and turkeys would be troublesome, so i guess we were due for our share of bad luck! Thanks again!!

 

[Frosty]

Not sure how old mine were when I got them, they were that years hatch and about the size of a small leghorn chicken (brought both home in a cat carrier with lots of room to spare). Within days of bringing them home, temps dropped below zero and one got a swollen sinus. Within a month they went through temps down to -36F with no supplemental heat. Unless it was a very rapid temperature drop, I would suspect that it was something else unless they were spauldings. How were their droppings looking? Any symptoms that something may have been wrong? I am sorry for your loss!

 

[jhm47]

It's been very cold here the past few days and nights. Night before last it got down to -32, and the high for yesterday was -10. Never got above 0 today either. My peafowl have been just fine in unheated coops. Feed them well with extra fat for warmth, and they are tough as nails. I have India Blues and Black Shoulders here in South Dakota. Been raising them for about 20 years.

 

[Benelli]

Taj,
Just lost one of my peahens last week. So sorry. I know how you're feeling. If we lived closer I'd give you my remaining peahen. She's so lonely for her friend. She runs with the chickens, but calls every night looking for the one I lost. Take care.