Well of all the things to find when you go to feed your peafowl, finding over half of your birds out of their pen has to be in the top for worst things to find....
The pen door was open (I always close it so I don't know what happened) and of my 12 peafowl, only 3 of them were still in the pen. The three good peafowl were Alto, my only adult peacock, Damsel my pied peahen, and Damsel's yearling son. I was amazed that they stayed in the pen especially because I let Damsel's son out a lot because he likes getting out of the pen and pecking at the grass. Peep of course was out of the pen but I wasn't worried about him being out since he is used to being let out. All I have to do is tap my foot to get him to come to me. All the other peafowl were in the small square I have between my pens just wanting to get back inside. It made it easy for me of course for them to be such good birds and all stay in that area so all I had to do is open a nearby door and my boyfriend and I herded them into the pen one at a time. Just one tip for anyone...It is easier to have a small pen to close off from the other pen when you have to get birds back into the pen. Once you open the pen door, birds inside the pen like to just stand there at the edge of the pen blocking the way of the loose birds, and of course due to pecking orders they are too afraid to squeeze by the bird standing in the doorway, which always seems to be a domanant bird...
Soo you have to make sure the birds in the pen don't get in the way. A lot of them know where the doors are so they easily recognize the open door as the way in and walk in, but some take a bit more herding to get inside. Anyways as we were herding the birds into the pen, I looked around and realized that one was missing so I turned to my boyfriend and said, "Aaron...I think one of the whites is missing!" Sure enough one of my white peahens was missing...And of all the peahens it had to be Goldilocks, the peahen I am selling to Destinduck. Soo we took a walk around back looking for her and I checked all the places in the pen, but we didn't see her. I told Aaron that hopefully she would turn up the next day (today). It started to rain so we took cover in the barn and we were talking when we heard a peafowl honk and Aaron said, "Didn't that sound like it was behind us!?" and I said, "Yeah, it did!!" So we circled around the barn and didn't see Goldilocks. We looked at the roof of the barn too but she wasn't there. Then I told Aaron that she was probably in a tree above the barn so we stood there looking. I know that it is better to be missing a white because they are easier to spot, but when the sky is all white and the bird is in a tree, it is a bit harder to find them. Aaron pointed her out. She was on the end of a big dead branch several feet over the barn. Aaron asked what we were going to do and I said we would just leave her. She would be safe for the night in a tree and at least we knew where she was. I wasn't sure if she would fly down behind the barn, which would be harder for her to get back to the pen but when I went to the pen today there she was in the little section between the pens waiting to be let in.
Other than that, everything has been pretty good.
The pen door was open (I always close it so I don't know what happened) and of my 12 peafowl, only 3 of them were still in the pen. The three good peafowl were Alto, my only adult peacock, Damsel my pied peahen, and Damsel's yearling son. I was amazed that they stayed in the pen especially because I let Damsel's son out a lot because he likes getting out of the pen and pecking at the grass. Peep of course was out of the pen but I wasn't worried about him being out since he is used to being let out. All I have to do is tap my foot to get him to come to me. All the other peafowl were in the small square I have between my pens just wanting to get back inside. It made it easy for me of course for them to be such good birds and all stay in that area so all I had to do is open a nearby door and my boyfriend and I herded them into the pen one at a time. Just one tip for anyone...It is easier to have a small pen to close off from the other pen when you have to get birds back into the pen. Once you open the pen door, birds inside the pen like to just stand there at the edge of the pen blocking the way of the loose birds, and of course due to pecking orders they are too afraid to squeeze by the bird standing in the doorway, which always seems to be a domanant bird...
Other than that, everything has been pretty good.
