Peafowl with chickens and ducks?

[Ramblin Rooster]

If you don't want them to fly (trees or anywhere else) buy rabbits. Or more sheep. Don't mutilate the peafowl.

Didn't know if they were like birds that would just fly away. Clipping wings would have been a last resort. Not my intention to clip wings I guess whenever we let them out of the netted run I will keep them busy with cracked corn. Hope I didn't offend any of y'all just trying to learn what the common practices are for peafowl they are like a whole new species compared to chickens in terms of care, just trying to learn.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

I think the pen should be pretty comfortable its big and once I move some chickens into the other coop they will be spoiled. Now to fibd somewhere to get a pea under a fortune nearby.

 

[MinxFox]

Okay I would see how I could keep them close I guess. I was not really interested in voice removal but I read somewhere he said there is an alternative and it's a breed called Java green peafowl and those are quieter. Not my intentions to pay $250+ to have some peacock's neck cut up and left voiceless. We like noise just not too much. Hoping to find some that are not too bad or if they are loud just not non-stop noise.

The Javanese greens are one subspecies of green peafowl. People say the green peafowl are quieter. They make a similar call to a regular India Blue peacock or India Blue peacock variety, but it is said their voice just doesn't travel as far. Destinduck started off with green peafowl, but generally I would say that for your first peafowl you should go with an India Blue variety. Green peafowl are endangered in the wild, and if you want pure green peafowl you have to be careful because you can easily buy impure ones. The blue and green peafowl can be bred to create a hybrid called a Spalding, and Spaldings can reproduce and so sometimes people buy a "green peafowl" when it is really just a spalding bird. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. So green peafowl aren't the best starter peafowl since they can be more expensive, flightier, they can't be let out of the pen, etc. Usually the cheapest peafowl variety is the India Blue.

The more peacocks you have, the more noise. If you are just going to be keeping one male or just a few males, I don't think it will get too noisy. When you visit a peafowl breeder during the breeding season, the only time the peacocks get loud is when one peacock calls and the other peacocks decide to start calling with him. That is when it can get noisy.

I hope you don't think we are trying to pick on you. Sometimes people show up in the peafowl section explaining how they have a peacock but they don't think the neighbors will like the noise so they are seriously considering getting the bird's voice removed. Other times people show up having just bought some peafowl and they have no clue how to care for them and for some reason they didn't research their basic requirements before buying them?! So sometimes we can be defensive, or I can be at least, because sometimes we get too used to dealing with people like that.

Anyways, we have seen some crazy things so we are quick to say "Ahhh don't do that!" haha.

 

[Garden Peas]

It is good that you are asking questions, but it does sound as though peafowl may not be the best choice for you. I would strongly suggest that you go visit a reputable breeder in the spring/summer time frame and get a feel for the noise level, before you buy. As for free-ranging, there are a number of folks here who free-range their peas part time or full time. Your pen plan sounds large enough in the barn.

There are a number of pea breeders on the East coast... not sure how far you are from @DylansMom or @Bluecreekfarms , or even @snowshoe , but you could check with them and get a lot of your questions answered in person. Sometimes seeing and hearing is better than trying to figure it out online.

Two acres is great, but calls will carry, depending on how loud the male happens to be, and it varies somewhat. If you have fussy neighbors, you may get complaints. Devoicing a pea, as MinxFox and Trefoil explained, is not something that seems to be in a pea's best interest. One of mine got frightened and lost, and his voice saved him, as he was able to call and get the other birds to call back, and that was how he found his way home. It was terrifying for all of us. And I agree, it is likely to be essential for breeding. I cannot think of any reason to ever de-voice a pea. Better to not own them.

Perhaps once you have spent time at a breeder's place, you will decide the noise is not a problem. But it would be worth a trip just to explore and see what life with peas is like, before you commit to ownership. And MinxFox is right -- keeping greens is not something that novice pea owners should generally consider, as the temperament is quite different. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[DylansMom]

Okay I would see how I could keep them close I guess. I was not really interested in voice removal but I read somewhere he said there is an alternative and it's a breed called Java green peafowl and those are quieter. Not my intentions to pay $250+ to have some peacock's neck cut up and left voiceless. We like noise just not too much. Hoping to find some that are not too bad or if they are loud just not non-stop noise.

The Javanese greens are one subspecies of green peafowl. People say the green peafowl are quieter. They make a similar call to a regular India Blue peacock or India Blue peacock variety, but it is said their voice just doesn't travel as far. Destinduck started off with green peafowl, but generally I would say that for your first peafowl you should go with an India Blue variety. Green peafowl are endangered in the wild, and if you want pure green peafowl you have to be careful because you can easily buy impure ones. The blue and green peafowl can be bred to create a hybrid called a Spalding, and Spaldings can reproduce and so sometimes people buy a "green peafowl" when it is really just a spalding bird. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. So green peafowl aren't the best starter peafowl since they can be more expensive, flightier, they can't be let out of the pen, etc. Usually the cheapest peafowl variety is the India Blue.

The more peacocks you have, the more noise. If you are just going to be keeping one male or just a few males, I don't think it will get too noisy. When you visit a peafowl breeder during the breeding season, the only time the peacocks get loud is when one peacock calls and the other peacocks decide to start calling with him. That is when it can get noisy.

I hope you don't think we are trying to pick on you. Sometimes people show up in the peafowl section explaining how they have a peacock but they don't think the neighbors will like the noise so they are seriously considering getting the bird's voice removed. Other times people show up having just bought some peafowl and they have no clue how to care for them and for some reason they didn't research their basic requirements before buying them?! So sometimes we can be defensive, or I can be at least, because sometimes we get too used to dealing with people like that.

Anyways, we have seen some crazy things so we are quick to say "Ahhh don't do that!" haha.

I believe the Spaldings are also a lot quieter than the India Blue varieties, they are winter hardy and if you don't go too high on the green % they won't need any supplemental heating like a Java would, they are also much more reasonably priced. Yoda hasn't been on here in a while but that would probably be the closest person I can think of. And just to reiterate clipping wings would be a bad idea in my opinion as well.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

The Javanese greens are one subspecies of green peafowl. People say the green peafowl are quieter. They make a similar call to a regular India Blue peacock or India Blue peacock variety, but it is said their voice just doesn't travel as far. Destinduck started off with green peafowl, but generally I would say that for your first peafowl you should go with an India Blue variety. Green peafowl are endangered in the wild, and if you want pure green peafowl you have to be careful because you can easily buy impure ones. The blue and green peafowl can be bred to create a hybrid called a Spalding, and Spaldings can reproduce and so sometimes people buy a "green peafowl" when it is really just a spalding bird. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. So green peafowl aren't the best starter peafowl since they can be more expensive, flightier, they can't be let out of the pen, etc. Usually the cheapest peafowl variety is the India Blue.

The more peacocks you have, the more noise. If you are just going to be keeping one male or just a few males, I don't think it will get too noisy. When you visit a peafowl breeder during the breeding season, the only time the peacocks get loud is when one peacock calls and the other peacocks decide to start calling with him. That is when it can get noisy.

I hope you don't think we are trying to pick on you. Sometimes people show up in the peafowl section explaining how they have a peacock but they don't think the neighbors will like the noise so they are seriously considering getting the bird's voice removed. Other times people show up having just bought some peafowl and they have no clue how to care for them and for some reason they didn't research their basic requirements before buying them?! So sometimes we can be defensive, or I can be at least, because sometimes we get too used to dealing with people like that.

Anyways, we have seen some crazy things so we are quick to say "Ahhh don't do that!" haha.

Thanks for all the info that helps a lot. You're right there are a lot of people who get them spur of the moment but that is not us. I have seen peafowl before locally and the noise from to or three is not bad at all. Our ducks are easily much worse. I will continue researching and trying to find people local who can help out. Thank you for being appropriately cautious, I understand completely and often do the same with our various animals. We are very capable pet owners; owners of sheep, chickens, ducks, and many many other animals in the past and we are confident we can be great peafowl owners given enough research prior to getting them, as we have done very thoroughly for all of our animals.

 

[KsKingBee]

Quote:
You might check into the laws governing that first.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

You might check into the laws governing that first.

Oh boy my pain medications for my broken arm must be getting to me!

 

[Rocky64]

Hi, I was wondering if it would be ok to house peafowl with chickens, the chicken's living quarters are fairly big. I've had peafowl before in a separate cage but unfortunately that cage is old and about to get torn down. I miss owning peafowl, one of my old ones would fly on the house and display for everyone to see.

 

[MinxFox]

Some people house peafowl with chickens and some don't. I don't have chickens so I don't have to worry about it.

Chickens are hardier to disease, so they can be carriers of something and you won't know it but once you put the peafowl in the same pen with them, the peafowl could catch it and get sick. It is for this reason that some people never keep peafowl in a pen with chickens, or even in a pen formerly used by chickens.

On the other hand, there are some people that keep them penned together without any issues. I bought a few peafowl from a guy who would put chickens in with his peafowl. I know of a large peafowl breeder that likes to put 1 chicken in some of the peafowl pens to help clean the pen of extra food that the peafowl don't eat.

I think if all of the birds are on a regular worming schedule that should help prevent issues. Like once you get your new peafowl worm them right away.

Like I said I don't have chickens, but from being on this site for a while and visiting other peafowl breeders, I have noted that some NEVER keep the two birds together, while others keep them together without issue and without worry. At the same time I have seen people lose a lot of their peafowl very quickly from things like blackhead which in some of the cases I think it was given to them by the chickens, but I can't be 100% sure on that.