New to Peafowl! Want to know everything I can before purchase!

[wickedhens]

Hello everyone I have been an avid bird lover all my life I have had many types and have always had Peafowl on my list. I have been raising chickens for several years now and decided this year I would like to add some peafowl. I always like to do a lot of research before I get any new kind of animal/pet and while there are general things listed on websites I am not really getting any answers it seems. A breeder I recently talked to said that as long as my coop was large enough and the chicks were raised with my chickens they could live with them and stay in the run and free range but to me this doesn't seem pliable. So here are my questions

Do peafowl do well with chickens and other farm poultry
How are the temperments (I figure wild but I don't want to be flogged every time I'm outside)
Free range yes or no?
and any other information you wish you would have known before getting peafowl

Thanks so much! I hope the good outweighs the bad for me

 

[MinxFox]

1. Do peafowl do well with chickens and other farm poultry
2. How are the temperments (I figure wild but I don't want to be flogged every time I'm outside)
3. Free range yes or no?
and any other information you wish you would have known before getting peafowl

1. Zaz and other people can answer this better. The only bird I raise is peafowl, but I know most peafowl breeders will keep a few chickens in with their peafowl and will keep other birds around their peafowl. You just have to worry about chickens giving peafowl blackhead. Often times as long as your chickens are treated for things like that a few times a year I don't think it will be an issue, but some people have horrible experiences with chickens causing all of their peachicks to die from blackhead so just be cautious although like I said many keep peafowl with chickens and other poultry and do very well.

2. Yes you are correct peafowl can be wild but they can be tamed down. Probably not so tamed down that you can hold them and pet them unless if you hand raise them up from a peachick and they are imprinted to you. Some of my peafowl I got as adult or young adult birds and they were wild when I got them, but they tamed down and now they get close to me and eat out of my hand. I have a three year old peacock that I raised and he is imprinted to me. He follows me around. If you imprint a peacock when it is a peachick you have to worry about when it grows up if it will attack you or not. When you imprint one you take away its fear of people and therefore it might attack you as an adult. Peep doesn't attack me, but he does try to mate with my foot. He displays for me then chases me and tries to mate with my shoe so I push him away. If I am not careful he will scratch me a little trying to do this, and he did get a pretty good scratch on my leg a few weeks ago. The ones that are not imprinted to me are fine unless if you are trying to catch them then you should wear long sleeves and long pants.

3. Once again others can answer this better as I only free-ranged for a month. My first peafowl pair I had penned for a month and they stayed for a month and then the male ran away and soon so did the peahen. We caught the peahen but the peacock was always too quick for us. I feel better keeping them in the pen, although I don't totally feel like they are safer. I might free-range again when I live where I keep my peas (I keep them at my Grandmas which is 2 miles from my house) because peafowl like to wander so I think they need a watchful eye on them.

Really there are a lot of things to learn or know and a lot of things you just learn through having them like the different sounds they make and what it means or might mean, but just looking through any thread in this peafowl section will teach you just about everything you need to know. Also you can search for specific questions in the search bar.There have been many people getting into peafowl that have asked questions and so you can also find those topics in here also and you might get more info that we might forget to mention. Also I would check out the peafowl sticky topics here for more info: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/389059/peafowl-sticky-topics-index

In a recent topic about someone wanting peafowl I posted some of my favorite peafowl website links and here they are:

1. http://www.rockingbabranch.us/peafowl/index.php

2. http://www.leggspeafowl.com/

3. http://texaspeafowl.com/

4. http://www.pavo-muticus.com/english/home.html

5. http://www.pfauenfarm.de/Home-English/home-english.html

6. http://connerhills.com/

7. http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/peafowl.htm

8. http://www.unitedpeafowlassociation.org/ & Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UnitedPeafowlAssociation

9. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Read-Mountain-Peafowl/299476123405814 I don't have a facebook but I can see this page and the UPA page.

10. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=peafowl


11. Here is a site being worked on by one of the members here on BYC who owns peafowl:

http://www.peacockkingdom.com/

12. My website: http://www.bamboopeacock.com/

 

[casportpony]

Research blackhead (hisomoniasis). I have all types of poultry together and I also have blackhead. It's is treatable when caught soon enough, but it might take years off your life worrying about it, lol.

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

-Kathy

 

[wickedhens]

Minxfox thank you so much for all the great info! I don't want to handle them I just have a daughter and I know she will want to go outside and see them she loves to watch the chickens so I know if I bring a brightly colored peafowl in the mix she will want to watch them as well. I was definitely overwhelemed by all the threads here so breaking it down for me has made it easier!! =D

 

[ukfrizzle]

Hi. I keep chickens and I added a peacoock and peahen two years ago. My peacock was aggressive to my rooster last spring but nothing too serious. This year ihave had to keep them seperated as the peacock has been seriously aggressive towards all my hens and has tried to kill the rooster if he gets the chance. If you love your hens think seriously. I love my peas but sometimes wish I hadn't got them. I have had to challenge him get him in a corner pick him up by his legs and almost humiliate him as he was starting to look as if he was going to go for me and my husband. This appears to have worked as he has gone back to normal around us but I have to tell my nieces and nefews to not play near them as I don't trust him that much... I also met a lady who had been hospitalised by a rouge peacock that joined her 2 she kept. It clawed her leg which went through a big blood vessel. Go and visit soe that live in the same environment as you want to try and ask questions. Good luck x

 

[nurse1]

Hi, I am expecting my peahen to hatch her first eggs in about 20 days. Can anyone tell me how to sex them ?

 

[new 2 pfowl]

This is a topic often discussed and sometimes hotly debated here.

You might do a search and review some of the opinions about when and how peachicks can be sexed...

 

[casportpony]

This is a topic often discussed and sometimes hotly debated here.

You might do a search and review some of the opinions about when and how peachicks can be sexed...

You and Zaz should post your most excellent pictures on how to sex.

-Kathy

 

[new 2 pfowl]