Peacock as Guard Animal

[casportpony]

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not allowed. They said yes to guinea fowl so I'll try that. We have mountain lions, bears, coyotes, foxes, wolves, skunk, cats, dogs, lynx, hawks, owls, weasels, some rats, etc. You are lucky to be dealing with possums and raccoons and not foxes and coyotes

Coyotes ate my guineas, and one of my peacocks, and a fox tried to eat one of my peacocks, but the *dog* ran it off before it could kill the peacock.

 

[Argus]

They don't do much fanning when they are afraid or being chased.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I have seen a peacock who had gotten into the emu pen chasing the emus around in a zoo, the emus being much larger than the peacock and could kill it easily, but they were intimidated by the tail fan and ran away instead. So I thought the tail fan could also be used to intimidate predators since such large birds were terrified of it.

But like any deterrent that is used to scare predators away...the predators quickly become used to it.

 

[casportpony]

They don't do much fanning when they are afraid or being chased.

Exactly!

 

[Welshies]

Coyotes ate my guineas, and one of my peacocks, and a fox tried to eat one of my peacocks, but the *dog* ran it off before it could kill the peacock.

As I said, I cannot get a dog. My parents have said no to a llama or alpaca or donkey, too. Guinea fowl is my only option, basically.

 

[MageofMist]

As I said, I cannot get a dog. My parents have said no to a llama or alpaca or donkey, too. Guinea fowl is my only option, basically.

Maybe ask to get some wolf pee from ebay or amazon? I heard it keeps predators such as coyotes and foxes away, like how lion pee keeps other cats away, even if the cat has never encountered a lion before.

 

[Welshies]

Maybe ask to get some wolf pee from ebay or amazon? I heard it keeps predators such as coyotes and foxes away, like how lion pee keeps other cats away, even if the cat has never encountered a lion before.

That is a really good idea... Thank you so much. I would definitely try that in a heartbeat (just grab some from a hunting store, most likely) but my only concern is how my dog would react. She's a lab.

 

[MageofMist]

That is a really good idea... Thank you so much. I would definitely try that in a heartbeat (just grab some from a hunting store, most likely) but my only concern is how my dog would react. She's a lab.

Maybe let your lab smell it first before putting it down? To see how she reacts first. You don't want your dog feeling like it is in another, stronger canine's territory.

 

[Welshies]

Maybe let your lab smell it first before putting it down? To see how she reacts first. You don't want your dog feeling like it is in another, stronger canine's territory.

She is always super tolerable so she might not even have a problem

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not allowed. They said yes to guinea fowl so I'll try that. We have mountain lions, bears, coyotes, foxes, wolves, skunk, cats, dogs, lynx, hawks, owls, weasels, some rats, etc. You are lucky to be dealing with possums and raccoons and not foxes and coyotes

I'm right across from you in Manitoba. We have all the same predators with the exception of bears. We only see them once in a while. We've had coyotes in our yard in the past that have taken down deer. We're surrounded by tree covered grain land and pastures full of wildlife. I free range and have rarely gotten hit. I trap everything now that comes in the yard.

Peaveymart (if you're close) have their set of two traps go on sale for $30. I just bought 3 sets of traps. That takes care of everything smaller than the coyotes. The small traps will take care of those pesky rats.

I use mirror balls hung out in the yard for aerial predators and for those darn cliff swallows that try to build nests on the house. The independent flashes seem to keep everything at bay. We just had a bald eagle, an owl and two hawks around in the last couple of weeks and they're were zero hits on chickens and guineas in the open.

Do you have any trappers in the area? We have one who traps coyotes in the winter.

Electric poultry fencing will work for the ground predators. It's cost effective and covers a lot of ground if you have been free ranging. It's our backup. I'd say that electric fencing is the holy grail as far as the predators you mentioned. One length on sale is not much more than peacocks cost.

Coyotes ate my guineas, and one of my peacocks, and a fox tried to eat one of my peacocks, but the *dog* ran it off before it could kill the peacock.

Guineas will bring the noise but that's about it. I've got 12 which will be 20 as soon as the keets grow up. They travel in pairs and spread out over the yard. They're great at alerting if something shows up but that's it. They can also be taken/killed...and they're not cheap unless you know someone with them.