Peacock chasing peahen

[zazouse]

Frenchy do you think a hen will still mate with a male that constantly chases her? I mean even using such a ring wouldn't he still chase her?
I am not familiar with such things going on but i do know that the breeder i got some of my birds from told me their male had killed 2 hens in the pen with him.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Zaz,no I do not. If your remember last summer in my new Taupe pen I also added my two best bssp hens? I posted here about it somewhere. I came home about a week after they had all been penned together and found one of those bssp hens with her neck stuck thru a small crack between two of the metal sheets used as sight barriers. The back of her neck had a spot about 1/2" wide and 2" long just beneath her head that you could see bone.The new taupe male evidently didn't like her and pecked her so much she found refuge in the only place she could.But he got along great with the taupe hen. I know some pairings just don't work.And I knew this girl probably wouldn't have made it another day if I hadn't removed her. Now the other bssp hen and that Taupe male got along,she produced fertile eggs but she is the alpha hen in my pen of 6 bssp birds.She is about 6 years old.I have hens that will crouch in front of me,when I feed and water them but these are the docile hens that seem very tame. If a hen were exhausted from being chased and did crouch down to be bred I still think a peacock with this much hatred would not breed her,he would only use this as an opportunity to spur or peck at her more.There are cures for this behavior.
Edit: My bssp peacock Roadtrip is not mean to the hens,rather showing his dominance and putting the pied girls in their place. He does not vengefully attack them,peck or spur or keep chasing them all day.But my Taupe male did it because I think he was claiming the new pen and was asserting his dominance with force because he didn't like this one hen in particular and may have been protecting his interest in the taupe hen and other bssp hen. The bssp hen he did accept was put in with both the taupes when I got them home and the second bssp hen was added when I moved them all outside into their breeding pens. This was my mistake.

 

[AugeredIn]

When you switch up breeding groups you need to change the pen they are all in. Don't move a new boy into the pen a group of hens have been in for a while and definitely do not put a hen or hens into a pen where a male and female have been for a while. The pen needs to be new to all of them.

 

[Kev]

partly don't agree. Doing that would not matter one bit if a peacock does not like peahens of certain colors.

Straight up, some peacocks either don't accept or don't recognize peahens of certain colors as being females/suitable mates at least. Often those rejects are white, BS or pied, it seems those with a lot of white on faces and upper necks are particular problems for some cocks. Yet pure IB peahens are almost universally accepted with much gusto by any color cocks. Makes me think it's mainly the color.

It often does not make sense- such as an IB male raised with pair of BS hens, readily accepts blues, spaldings yet he could not tolerate whites even though these hens were in next door pen with full view and they were extremely receptive towards him- in fact he was flat out extremely aggressive towards them, had to move out whites for their safety.

 

[DylansMom]

When you switch up breeding groups you need to change the pen they are all in. Don't move a new boy into the pen a group of hens have been in for a while and definitely do not put a hen or hens into a pen where a male and female have been for a while. The pen needs to be new to all of them.

I have to agree here. I learned over the course of many years that this really helps when switching birds around. Every time we move them around we try to make sure they all go in a new pen, while it isn't 100% effective(and what is?) it really seems to help make things go more smoothly.

 

[zazouse]

When you switch up breeding groups you need to change the pen they are all in. Don't move a new boy into the pen a group of hens have been in for a while and definitely do not put a hen or hens into a pen where a male and female have been for a while. The pen needs to be new to all of them.

I know this works for most animals.

 

[Nik74]

Hi everyone, I’m from the UKand I desperately need help, although I’m not sure if I’m on the right site, as I need advice regarding a peacock, but noticed someone else has previously sought advice so I thought I’d give it a go....
I live on four acres of land and about four months ago a peacock just turned up, we started feeding it and it stuck around and seemed to be very friendly. Eventually I decided to get him a Peahen, so I built her an enclosure to acclimatize her to site for a while, but just before I brought her here, he attacked my wife. After the Peahen turned up he attacked her a couple of times within minutes of each other and a week ago after circling me constantly, he attacked me twice. The next day we went for a week holiday, I left food for both of them (his outside of the enclosure) and we came back today. As soon as I laid eyes on him he looked and acted like he was 100% going to attack me again so I kept him away with a broom and hoze pipe. I can’t work out what’s going on, it’s like he’s gone from being chilled out and friendly to territorial and aggressive. Is it the peahen, but he did first attack before she turned up? What can I do, I felt very threatened today he followed me constantly, which he used to do, but now it’s menacing, his demeanor has changed and I’m sure he wants to attack. I don’t want to lose him but if something doesn’t change then it feels like I’ve got no choice but to look at ways to get rid of him, which I really didn’t want to do.... please help

 

[KsKingBee]

Some imprinted peacocks will turn territorial during the breeding season. He will be fine after it is over if you can survive it. I suggest that you pen him for the duration or carry a stick with you at all times. I had one that now adorns someone's mantle, there was no other choice for him.