peafowl pen

[micayc]

we are building a shed for my peafowl. What type of door to the fence would I build? Do I pit a ledge to perch on when entering?I was told to put it up high,not on ground like chickens. Do I put a door on it and close at night or in winter? please, some advice.

 

[Barrdwing]

Peas like to sleep up high. Ours have a dog run for their "coop" that is 6 feet tall; they insist on sleeping on its roof in all weathers. That's really not a good idea, but our winters are mild enough that they've gotten away with it so far. If I were going to build them a coop, I'd make it at least 8 feet tall and put the perches up at 5 feet, or possibly a little higher, and I'd fix things so that they couldn't get onto the roof of the coop. They need to be protected from rain, snow, and wind, so having a coop that is enclosed on 3 sides and the roof is important; depending on how your winters are, you might want it enclosed on the 4th side as well. They need ventilation just like chickens do, so that's a consideration. Gates . . . ours have a chain-link fence for their yard, with an ordinary chain-link gate. Coming up off the chain link is a wall extension consisting of a 4-foot-tall strip of chicken wire, which is partly supported by 8-foot posts wired to the chain-link posts. We attached Top-Flight netting to the chicken wire to create a roof, and propped it up on more poles. Peas fly incredibly well, so roofing it was essential. The extra height lets them fly a bit, and it keeps the netting off of our heads. We haven't had any problems with peas trying to sneak out the gate when we open it, but it's not a bad idea to make it open inward just in case.

Where the chicken wire wall extension crosses the chain-link gate, we have one of the stupidest designs I've ever created; I call it the Facebreaker. Basically the chicken wire comes down and crosses the gate space at about 5 feet off the ground. At the time I thought it was a clever way to create a "flap" so that the peas couldn't squeeze out between the top of the gate and the bottom of the chicken wire. It wasn't; it was, however, a way to learn what it feels like to have your face pushed into a cheese-grater. So when you design your gate, put a lintel on it and attach your wire to that. Your nose will thank you.

 

[snowshoe]

My peafowl have a shed to get in and out of there run I never close the door unless I am trying to confine one the door which is around 16"x 18". In the winter and I would say 85% of the time they roost outside even in the winter at My central PA home with all the snow, freezing rain seems to make them want to roost inside but not all the time I have seen my birds coated with ice on a couple occassions.
My feeders are in the shed and water is outside for them I have a large door on shed and the run to get in and out of. One thing that I would recommend is to make your perchs or roost so that you can remove them so that if you get a hen that decides to lay from perch you can take it down for a few days to try and get her laying in nest or on ground or do like I do pile lots of hay under roost. My runs ar 7 feet tall and roost are around 4 1/2 to5 feet high inside and out.

 

[C&Rman]

I have an 8x8' shed and I keep one side of the shed open all times. They have a roost in the shed and they have a roost in the run, they mostly sleep on the perch on the run. It is 6-7 feet tall so I can walk under it. They love having a really high perch. My feeder is in the shed and the waterer is in the run. My door is 3' wide and 6' tall so I can get to the birds easily.