Ok,
so I happened on this thread because I would love to get peacocks, but my hearing is incredibly sensitive because of a "profession" I had when I was in the military. I'm not going to get into what that was, but lets just say that things that I did for very long periods of time, made the wiring between my ears and my brain way too sensitive. So anyway, my 8 year old loves peacocks, but their ahh-ahh x3 goes through my ear drums like x100000. So I am concerned as to how humane this procedure is because I do not want to hurt another living thing -especially a pet. What does it involve exactly and how much do you charge? I'm in Wisconsin, but could see a summer road trip with my daughters.
Welcome!
My advise to you would be to visit a small peafowl breeder to see what the noise level is like (and bring ear plugs just incase it is too much for you). I would visit in the summer time when the males are sure to be calling frequently. If you kept only one male with however many peahens, the noise level should be pretty low. Generally you hardly hear them from inside the house especially if they are penned maybe 300 ft. from the house it shouldn't be that bad. If you don't pen them you can't be sure that they won't roost right next to your house or on your house, which could cause noise issues for you. During the spring and summer time is when the peacock makes his loud call. The rest of the year they are pretty much silent. Soo during the spring and summer time you could just limit how much you go back there to see them. If your 8 year old loves the birds enough they will be willing to do the general day to day care without help such as feeding and watering the peafowl. This way you won't have to be very close to the birds.
Everyone has their own opinion, but this doctor has stopped doing this surgery to roosters because of too many complications that have arisen. I personally think it is not worth the cost to have this done and just hope that the bird survives. Peacocks put so much stress on their vocal chords to call that a surgery like this, which by the way he hasn't done before on a peacock, would be very very risky. The peacock's voice is very important to him and taking that away would not be a very kind thing to do in my opinion. Most if not all peafowl owners who have kept peafowl for a while can agree that taking a peacock's voice away isn't a good idea.
You can research into different kinds of ornamental pheasants, such as peacock pheasants (different from peafowl), tragopans, red golden pheasants, crested firebacks, reeves, etc. There are plenty of beautiful ornamental pheasants out there that have nice colors and have their own unique displays as well. Most of them are not nearly as noisy as peafowl. I would especially research their noise level, and heat requirements if they have any (you don't want them to die in the winter if they are a tropical bird).
I suggest you read this article:
http://bamboopeacock.com/Noisy_Peacocks.html
For me personally though, if I couldn't have peafowl due to noise, I would probably go with the grey peacock pheasant. They display similar to a peacock and they have eye feathers but they are smaller and not as noisy. I wanted peafowl for mannny years until I got them in high school. You can remind your 8 year old that they still have a long life ahead of them and that they should work hard so that someday when they are an adult they can live somewhere where they can have as many peafowl as they want.
OH!!! I almost forgot! I keep my peafowl at my Grandma's because she has more land. My Grandma isn't that far from my house, so I just drive over there every day to feed my peafowl. If you happen to have a family member or even a very close friend nearby with enough land that is willing to have your birds in their backyard, that is another option. My Grandma loves them and loves to watch the white peacock display.
