Our Peahens are dying

[Georgina Peacock]

We live on a country estate and our peacocks, penhens and peachicks roam free. In total there are probably around 15. Last year we had 5 chicks born, it was early in the year so they’re all pretty big now. But in the last fortnight 4 of the chicks have died and all of the peahens apart from 1 have also died. We’ve found a new carcass nearly every single day. Like I said they roam free and fend for themselves. We leave seeds and food out for them every day so they always come back and stay around the house quite a bit. But we don’t know what’s killing them. No close neighbors that might be putting down poison etc. And it’s only been the hens and young ones (which we thought were all hens as well) all the peacocks are absolutely fine. We’ve found a few with blood from their mouths and eyes so we thought poison maybe. But we really don’t know. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A little more information please.
Where are you located/climate?
What is the food you are providing?
Are you willing to send a recent carcass to a poultry lab for necropsy so you'll know exactly what is killing them?
It could be virtually anything based on what you've said.

 

[Georgina Peacock]

Yes sorry I didn’t give much information there! We’re in the UK, it’s been relatively mild here throughout winter so far 10 degrees C on average. We’re feeding them a wild bird seed mix which we’ve been giving them for years. We’ve got horses here as well and they go down to they stables a lot and rummage around the hay and straw. We’ve sent the one we found today to the vet for an autopsy but haven’t heard anything back yet. Was just curious if anyone had an ideas really?

 

[Dany12]

Do they sleep indoors or outdoors?
This is not a predator like this?

 

[Georgina Peacock]

They sleep outdoors, but we have barns and sheds that a lot of them go in to. None of them have clipped wings so they roost up in the oak trees as well. Both my husband and father in law go out on a regular basis with their shotguns doing vermin control, as we do get foxes from time to time here but neither of them have seen anything.

 

[Georgina Peacock]

We’ve just found the last peahen, she’s still alive, just. Father in law rushing her to vets. Still haven’t heard anything about the autopsy on yesterdays dead hen. This leaves all the boys still and one very lonely and upset peahen chick.

 

[casportpony]

We’ve just found the last peahen, she’s still alive, just. Father in law rushing her to vets. Still haven’t heard anything about the autopsy on yesterdays dead hen. This leaves all the boys still and one very lonely and upset peahen chick.

Oh no, I sure hope it's something treatable!