Last May an adult India Blue peahen adopted us. She has free ranged around our home on the Georgia coast ever since with us supplementing her diet with wild bird seed and dog food treats. She roosted every night in one of our live oaks reaching over the salt marsh and became a family member, Marsha. Attempts at finding her owners were unsuccessful.
My wife and I decided she needed a boyfriend and after building a spacious peafowl pen (40'x20'), we purchased 2 three year old peacocks. One is an India Blue and the other is an Emerald Green Spalding.
We also got 2 nine month old peahens, an India Blue Pied and an Emerald Green Spalding.
After a couple days of adjusting to their new home and doing fine, we introduced Marsha to the group by placing her in the pen. The first day was uneventful, but on the second day, the Emerald Green peacock started asserting his dominance over the India Blue cock. Starting late in the day about 11/2 hours before sundown he would start to 'herd' the other India Blue, first slowly, then starting to chase him around the pen and begin spurring him. We separated them to allow the Blue to rest, but when we stepped out of the way, the pattern would resume and did so until sundown and all the birds roosted.
The next day, all was fine until late afternoon when the dominating Green (now called Mean Joe) began the process all over and continued it until the birds roosted. During the day he would actually be friendly with the Blue (now called Oakley) until late afternoon arrived.
Guess what? we now have a separate 10'x12' pen within the main pen when this occurs so we don't have to be physically present to protect Oakley from Mean Joe. It's the time out room.
Looking for feedback/suggestions: Options as I see them.
1. should we remove Marsha from the pen and return here to free ranging? Every day before dusk she gets anxious and paces the edge of the pen as though she wants to be in her wild oak tree to roost. I'm thinking that the presence of Marsha as the only breeding age female has brought out the aggressive behavior in the boys, Mean Joe, at least.
2. should we consider looking for 1 or 2 more adult peahens to give the boys more breeding options and less need to compete for Marsha?
3. permanently separate the males within the larger pen. We would place visual barriers as well.
In many ways, I think what has occurred was predictable. I had anticipated having all the peahens being adults, but it just didn't work out. My naiveté.
Also interested in why the aggressive behavior does not occur until late afternoon an hour or so before sunset. Has anyone seen this or know of an explanation for such? Seems strange to me everything is fine during the early part of the day.
Thanks for your input/suggestions in advance. I look forward to learning from your experiences!
best regards.
McIntosh1272
My wife and I decided she needed a boyfriend and after building a spacious peafowl pen (40'x20'), we purchased 2 three year old peacocks. One is an India Blue and the other is an Emerald Green Spalding.
We also got 2 nine month old peahens, an India Blue Pied and an Emerald Green Spalding.
After a couple days of adjusting to their new home and doing fine, we introduced Marsha to the group by placing her in the pen. The first day was uneventful, but on the second day, the Emerald Green peacock started asserting his dominance over the India Blue cock. Starting late in the day about 11/2 hours before sundown he would start to 'herd' the other India Blue, first slowly, then starting to chase him around the pen and begin spurring him. We separated them to allow the Blue to rest, but when we stepped out of the way, the pattern would resume and did so until sundown and all the birds roosted.
The next day, all was fine until late afternoon when the dominating Green (now called Mean Joe) began the process all over and continued it until the birds roosted. During the day he would actually be friendly with the Blue (now called Oakley) until late afternoon arrived.
Guess what? we now have a separate 10'x12' pen within the main pen when this occurs so we don't have to be physically present to protect Oakley from Mean Joe. It's the time out room.
Looking for feedback/suggestions: Options as I see them.
1. should we remove Marsha from the pen and return here to free ranging? Every day before dusk she gets anxious and paces the edge of the pen as though she wants to be in her wild oak tree to roost. I'm thinking that the presence of Marsha as the only breeding age female has brought out the aggressive behavior in the boys, Mean Joe, at least.
2. should we consider looking for 1 or 2 more adult peahens to give the boys more breeding options and less need to compete for Marsha?
3. permanently separate the males within the larger pen. We would place visual barriers as well.
In many ways, I think what has occurred was predictable. I had anticipated having all the peahens being adults, but it just didn't work out. My naiveté.
Also interested in why the aggressive behavior does not occur until late afternoon an hour or so before sunset. Has anyone seen this or know of an explanation for such? Seems strange to me everything is fine during the early part of the day.
Thanks for your input/suggestions in advance. I look forward to learning from your experiences!
best regards.
McIntosh1272