Peafowl Housing Question

[Haunted55]

After reading everything I could find this morning on housing for peafowl I am so confused! Most of the articles say you need 100sq' per bird. Now is this their housing and pen together? I think I have info overload and do not know how to use what I learned today. Would someone be able to help me with this one?

I have 3 standard bronze and 2 bourbon red turkeys. The house I was originally building [8 x 12] was for them. This is no where big enough for what I need to do. To keep the peace at home, I would like to be able to increase the size of this building to house my peafowl as well, so I only have to build once. I have a breeding pair and 3 babies, one of the babies is possibly a male as well. How big a building will I have to build to comfortably house both kinds of birds in the same building, with a divider between?

Their run will be as long as the building and can come forward 25' to 30' and they will also be allowed to range as soon as I know they will stay here.

 

[zazouse]

I say build it as big as you can afford, my rule of thumb is 10 by 10 per bird if i pen them because they are such large birds, i use wide by 6 high chain link kennel panels , that way i can change the pen up or move it all together if needed, it is an expense 269 dollars for a 100 square foot pen but i purchase 1 kennel every time i got a 10 percent off coupon from TSC till i got enough to do what i needed and still have a couple left over for emergencies.

Mine are totally free ranged except when it is worming time i lock all 12 of them in a 10 by 40 pen for 3 days and treat them for mites and lice as i let them out .

If you are going to free range them totally i would not be overly concerned with pen size if it is temporary, males are loosing their train SDI they will not take up that 6 foot square area when they fan.

Pleaser post photos of you gang i love photos

 

[Lil Zoo]

I'm sure the larger the space the better for the bird, but I've seen a few different set ups. Also if you dig through the threads you can see a lot of pens, houses people have done. I read a trio should have a 10 x 30 pen. Depending on where you live which in Maine you would probably need a shelter for them to get into with heated perches. I have heard a heat tape on a wide enough board for them to cover their whole feet with their bodies is good. In Missouri I seen pens made for each bird which only had enough room for the bird to make a full display. They free ranged in the day and penned at night. the only shelter was the back portion was tarped. I have seen pretty small shelters with pretty large flight pens. I have seen smaller separated flight pens. During the summer the birds don't need a shelter but should have some kind of shade. I do know you want plenty of room for your males to be able to display with out touching their feathers and perches high enough they don't drag their tails. Also the more room supplied the less cleaning. I have almost a 25 x 50 flight pen cause that was the size of netting I bought and it hangs over the sides just a bit. It is divided into 4 pens. I have 5 birds each in 2 pens. I have 2 pens open with the remainder of 9 birds. They seem to have plenty of room, some may not agree, but most places I visited were smaller. I am using an old trailer house for their shelter this winter. Craig Hopkins advised me not to use heat lamps with birds as many a facility have burn't down with them. Remember peafowl fly more than chickens and roost high. I am in Iowa my trailer is insulated and I will supply tape heated perches. I think the birds body heat should keep it warm enough. In the mating season it is my understanding some keep males in same pen and get along. I think most separate the males as they can fight to death at times. Myself I plan to keep my males separated as I don't want to chance it. During the winter I think most allow the birds to be all together. Some with more experience will have to jump in here this is my first experience with peafowl. I have a separate trailer for the babies as it is recommended to keep them off dirt for I think a year. Some don't and seem to get along ok. I will put a picture of mine on here. Go back through the treads FBC shows the progress of his building his Pea Palace on one thread, quite helpful. Mmmaddie13 has some pictures of her construction in progress I know. One person is using a flight pen and horse trailer for shelter. I also think a lot will have to do with your future plans for them and your weather. I originally only planned to have 3 peacocks. We will probably add on to ours probably, but for right now I think it is working


In progress too. Click pictures to make larger.
.

 

[Yoda]

I keep my birds inside a 10x14 shed. I have a lot of peas.34 to be exact LOL. Mine go inside the shed to sleep and spend most time outside. During the warmer days they do not go inside the shed they stay out on the perches all night. Only the ducks and chickens go in at night. Even the young ones stay outside in the warms months but everyone is in during cold months and the peas sleep way up top. The good thing about them all sleeping in the shed is the warmth. It is not huge so the birds body heat keeps the inside from freezing LOL. All my birds have a 65x 60 foot pen and then I have breeding pens going around the large pen. Once breeding season is over I just leave the door open to those pens and everyone gets to walk in all of them. The size of your shed seems ok to me as they only go in to sleep. It's hard for us in the winter because of the snow and ice. It sticks to the netting big time and weighs it down, sometimes breaking the fencing.

 

[Lil Zoo]

I keep my birds inside a 10x14 shed. I have a lot of peas.34 to be exact LOL. Mine go inside the shed to sleep and spend most time outside. During the warmer days they do not go inside the shed they stay out on the perches all night. Only the ducks and chickens go in at night. Even the young ones stay outside in the warms months but everyone is in during cold months and the peas sleep way up top. The good thing about them all sleeping in the shed is the warmth. It is not huge so the birds body heat keeps the inside from freezing LOL. All my birds have a 65x 60 foot pen and then I have breeding pens going around the large pen. Once breeding season is over I just leave the door open to those pens and everyone gets to walk in all of them. The size of your shed seems ok to me as they only go in to sleep. It's hard for us in the winter because of the snow and ice. It sticks to the netting big time and weighs it down, sometimes breaking the fencing.

I've worried about the snow also Yoda. I have wondered if we will need to add some extra supports across the pens or if that would be worse on holding the snow up on the netting. I sure don't want to find out with it on the ground. Hubby assures me he used 2x6's it will be fine, but sure worries me. I was going to use the 3 bedrooms in the trailer but if you only use 10x14 and get along maybe for warmth I should stay smaller for the shelter. Do you keep your peas under a year together with the others?

 

[Lil Zoo]

I also wrote the manufacture of the incubator fan. The answer was rather curt but they advised me they knew there was a problem and was sourcing another distributor with a fan guard. I told them that I had posted pictures of this on BYC and found other members had the same experience. I also told them that I would post reviews when ever possible to make the public aware. Not to mention the poor chick no body should have to see a chick scalped.

 

[zazouse]

Lil zoo you could just put some 2X4 welded wire up there and not worry about it.

 

[Lil Zoo]

Lil zoo you could just put some 2X4 welded wire up there and not worry about it.

That is a good idea. If I recall that is what FBC used to support his entire netting.

 

[Mmmatt13]

That is a good idea. If I recall that is what FBC used to support his entire netting.

FBC used wire cable, not welded wire fencing. I think I'm going to use cable as well for mine.

 

[Haunted55]

Okay, if I am getting this right, and please, if I'm not, DO NOT be afraid to snap me out of my delusions, the housing isn't the biggest concern here. It needs to be comfortable for them and all that but the pen/run is the biggest worry. I think I will change the size of the building to 12'x16' and make a movable divider to place between the turkys and the peafowl. I know there will be times this winter when they will not go out into their pens so I want to make sure that they still have enough room to get out of each other's way.

Yoda and Lil Zoo, I hear you about the cold and need for warmth. This building is going to be insulated and have heat when it's needed. I haven't found out yet how much cold peafowl should have to take. I know the last owners let them range all winter with little or no shelter. Obviously it didn't kill them but it's not what I want to do. I have all of the parts for a heater for my chicken house that doesn't require a heat lamp. Two terra cotta flower pots, one smaller than the other so that the space between them, when placed one inside the other, can be filled with sand. The bottom holes will have to have a piece of pipe put in to allow the opening without the sand coming out and rocks put in for spacers to bring the inner pot's rim up to the level of the outer one. After it's filled with the sand, cover the sand at the pots' lip end with refactory cement to seal it in. Build a base from scrap 4x4's and mount an electrical box with a ceramic light fixture on top of that. I have a thermostat to hook to it as well. I am going to try it with a 75 watt bulb. Not only will you get the heat through the hole at the top of the upturned pots but you will also be heating the terra cotta and sand, which will give it off for a while after the light shuts off. I got the biggest pots I could find at Wally World. We'll see if it works. My hen house is 12'x18' so I know I'll need two of them in there. I'm thinking this may work as well for the turkys and peafowl. I am going to be using sand instead of shavings so there will be less chance of fire. Looks good on paper anyways.