~RIP Fiona the Peahen~

[MinxFox]

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2011-2013
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Unfortunately all is not well with my peafowl family today. A sweet young peahen is no longer with us. She will be greatly missed by me, along with her sisters, mother, and mate. She will join Dragon, her beautiful pied father who two years ago met the same unfortunate fate. Maybe they will both wander a wonderful lush garden in the sky full of flowers and tasty bugs and comfy large trees to roost in at night.


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Fiona was a two year old peahen from a very perfect peacock named Dragon who unfortunately passed away before Fiona hatched out. Ice hatched out Fiona along with her two sisters Xena and Snow White although I still think Damsel is the real mother due to their coloring. No mater who was the mother, Fiona grew up being taught well by Ice on how to hunt for bugs and other things. Fiona was tough even when she was a little peachick. When I tried introducing Peep into the pen for the first time, Fiona was half Peep's size but was still able to give him a beating, showing Peep he was not welcome. I was excited this year because Fiona and her sisters were now two, and would be laying eggs. I was especially excited when recently I found Fiona nesting on 5 eggs in the nesting box we built just for the peahens. No other peahen has ever used the nesting box, so we were all happy to see a peahen using it. Every day I would walk up to her on the nest and give her treats. She was such a good peahen staying on those eggs like that when all my other peahens had not even started to set on their eggs. I was excited to see her be a mother, and I know she would have been a wonderful one.
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It all started around 3 PM today. I was at home in the garage making some jewelry when my mom came out to tell me to rush over to my grandma's (where we keep the peafowl, my grandma's is two miles away) because something was wrong with my birds. I got very worried. Was Peep all right? What about Alto? Is one just hurt or is one dead? As I went to pull out of the back yard I accidently ran over a bucket so that delayed me some. I was being caught at every single traffic light on my way there. When I finally pulled in, I drove up to the aviary and stared out there...I didn't see anyone hurt. All the peafowl looked relaxed and happy. My dad was in the aviary putting braces on the perches. I was relived to see Peep getting in my dad's way. I entered the pen and that is when I saw it. The body of one of my birds laying there. It looked like it had a lot of white on it. That is when I got worried. I thought, "No it can't be my only pied bird! Not Damsel!" It was not because I saw Damsel. Who was it? That is when I found out it was Fiona. Poor Fiona who had been attacked on her nest at night. Clumps of her feathers were all over the pen. I looked around. All the other peafowl were fine. Peep was watching my dad work, and the others were lying on a perch or lying in the shade relaxing. I went to go get some grease to grease the perches so that whatever got Fiona would not be able to climb up the perches to get at my other peafowl. When I walked back to the pen my dad had already taken Fiona out of the pen. I looked at her. Whatever killed her ate out her guts and her brain but left the meat. We found a big pile of raccoon poop near the pen and figured a raccoon probably was the culprit so we set up a few traps near the pen with cat food and sardines and hopefully we will have something.
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Little Fiona foraging for food with Ice.

Little Fiona relaxing with Ice.

Fiona all grown up.

 

[keirys]

I am sorry to hear about your loss

 

[zazouse]

Dang i hate to hear this

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Oh no!
So sorry to hear about your sweet girl!

It is really painful to lose a loved pea.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

I am so sorry. This is always the worst possible news...

 

[mclark]

So sorry about your loss... You were both lucky to have had each other.

 

[MinxFox]

Thanks everyone. Hopefully there will be a big raccoon in one of the traps tomorrow.

We are going to put up a hot wire around the pen now for sure. We were not sure if we would do that but now I think we will. Where does everyone put theirs? I know Destinduck said he has his a few feet away from the pen a foot or so off the ground. My dad was wondering about putting it up at the top of the fence around the pen. Any ideas?

I feel pretty good about the poles being newly greased today. Two years ago when we had a raccoon problem they killed Dragon my nice pied peacock then some nights later killed a young India Blue peahen. After that the attacks stopped. I really hope that this time it will end at one attack and not at two.

 

[Yoda]

Minx sorry for your loss

I have both scarecrow sprinklers and electric fencing around my pen and also around the property. I lost 8 chickens, 1 rooster and a male guinea hen Friday night. I couldn't figure out how the dog got through. The fence was off cause it rained Thursday and was not turned back on. I am installing the wire along the top of my pen as well "just in case" the critter gets by the bottom one, he can get it on the top one. All my electric fencing is about 3 inches from the pen fencing and the property fencing.

 

[critters]

Minx and Yoda....I am truly sorry for your losses....

hope you get the menace that killed your loved babies....

 

[casportpony]

Very sorry for your loss.