Should I let my peacocks roam free?

[msmolly]

ID Bands for Peafowl. Free Ranging your birds with a little peace of mind. This is an older post and applies to the small flock or pet Peafowl owner. Too expensive for large quantities .
So I post it again for this thread.

• msmolly
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• Location: Gates Mills, OH
• Joined: 5/2013
• Posts: 222
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Peafowl tend to roam from time to time. I have had great luck in always getting mine home, but there are some amazing stories, sheer miracles and alot of sweat and tears involved.
I always felt there should be a way of banding them that was possible for the small backyard breeder. I looked and looked and tried all sorts of contraptions. Maybe there is something out there and some one can clue me in, but this is what I have come up with- and it works. Tack shops sell the brass name plates for saddles and bridles. the longer one works for the peacocks leg, and the shorter wider one works for the peahen's leg. I had them engraved with JUST my tel# -in as big a font as possible-(in case someone is using binoculars to read it).
I used a file-to soften the corners and sharp edges- important. Bending the band around a round object- using hammer and pliers, I get it into a nice ring. The metal isn't as strong as a true poultry band and the ends don't meet perfectly, but that's okay with me. My hen has walked into the yard trailing a vine caught in her band, and then a week later come home with no band at all. So I figure its strong enough... but not too strong that it doesn't offer a break-away feature for safety.
Getting the band on is quite a show- do not let any one video tape you, unless you enjoy being on Utube.
My Peafowl roost in the hen house during the winter, and bad summer storms- so that's when I strike. I wait till dark, and with flashlight clenched in my teethe- approach roosting birds. Keeping the lights out, helps...till you drop the band in the straw, which by the way, is the same color as the brass band. Also, peacocks tend to kick when you squeeze something around their leg. Hopefully you cleaned the bedding and bought extra bands. I've been putting these bands on my birds for a couple years now and it works for me. Its a huge relief when they do wander, but of course, now they hardly ever leave. Murphy's law. I do have to replace them now and then, but not often.
The bands I have pictured are not my favorites. I mail ordered these replacements and received a slightly different size and width than before. Anyway, they still work, and you get the idea.
If there is some thing better out there, please let me know.Peacock ID Bands.

 

[khawks]

Peafowl can take time. It probably would help if you got a second peachick. I have hatched out and hand raised one peachick before and that worked out well because he was imprinted to me. I could see one that was not imprinted to you being scared and that is when another one probably could help. Peafowl are curious, but also they are not as tame as chickens. To me it seems the only way to have a peafowl that will sit in your lap and let you pet it a lot is if you have hatched it out and hand raised it yourself spending lots of time with it, and it also depends on the bird's personality. New peafowl are always skittish and will often try and get as far away from you as you can. It takes time for you to earn their trust but treats are a wonderful way to earn their trust. You can sit on something in the pen at one end so that the peachick can get as far away from you as it wants. If it has a treat that it really likes as msmolly said, you can use that to get the peachick to get close to you. Give some to the peachick on the ground, and then the only way for it to get more is to take the treats from your hand. If you do get a second peachick, try and find one from a person who has spent time with it to make it used to people. If you can find a peachick that is calm around people, the peachick you currently have will see this and will learn from the other chick that you are nothing to be afraid of. I don't know if taking the house away is a good idea. It could scare the peachick even more because they like having places to hide if they are afraid. When I got my very first pair of peafowl the peahen would fly up into a dog box and hide in there when I was in the pen. They will come out from hiding in their own time to get treats. It gets much easier once you have at least one peafowl that will eat out of your hand.
Often I like to sit down in the pen and the peafowl walk up to me and sometimes lay down and nap next to me. The peacock closest to me in the photo is Peep, the peacock I hand raised and the other peacock is Alto, a peacock I got as a yearling peacock who gets very close to me and sometimes pecks me (in the photo he was pecking my feet) and he eats out of my hand all the time. Once he even let me and my boyfriend pet him but that was a one time thing as now he acts like he doesn't allow petting and walks off if you reach out to touch him.

I'm not sure that the goal is necessary to have it eat out of my hand, but I definitely don't want it to run away from me. I offer mealworms to all of my birds and when I throw some in the pen, the peackick runs and hides. It's the motion of my arm that scares it I guess. Even after I set in the pen for a little while, it's still very weary of me. And you are right about the time. I've noticed that a lot depends on where the birds came from. The ones that were taken from their mothers take much longer to adapt to humans as do incubated birds.

Thanks for your helpful feed back- what beautiful birds.

 

[khawks]

Hi Khawks- I'm not sure why your little guy is scared. I once had 2 female peachicks I worked with a lot as babies- came from 2 different sources. One was always timid and one was always friendly. Don't know why. Could be the nature of the beast, could be age or could be enviroment. At his age he needs to feel secure in his safety and surroundings. Your little guy may be timid and flighty if he feels unsafe. Can you make any of your chickens his personal nanny? Seperate them together so he's never alone, and never odd man out with the chickens? You can find a friend or two for him through the UPA website (or here on BYC) UPA is United Peafowl Assoc. The website will list breeders by state. Find some one in your vicinity and contact them for help or info. Good luck

hmm? I have him in there with 6 bantams, all about 2 months old. And he is definitely way bigger than they are. The next pen over has 5 month old bantams. the next coop has geese, ducks, and laying hens. None of them have babies at the moment, so I'm not sure how to get a chicken to adopt? I have a pair of silkies and the roo is very very protective and obsessed with his girlfriend. I can try the pea in there??? but I don't want to move it around and make it more freaked out.

And what is your experience with UPA breeders? I do not buy anything from hatcheries as far as chickens go, but never had experience with anything like UPA.

 

[msmolly]

Hi Khawks, Sounds like your little guy is in a good play group. I was wrongly assuming he was in with adult chickens, and not feeling like one of the flock. Maybe just time.
As for UPA, many of the people on these BYC peafowl threads are UPA breeders. After my last male Peacock got killed, and my peahens had never really liked him anyway - I spoke to a UPA breeder from the list, and he advised me what age I needed to get for my hens, so they would be nice to him. I got a 2 year old male from the him- and now Blue is the love of my life. He fit in, just like the man said, my girls fell in love with him and I was able to free range him after an adjustment period. He's extremely friendly and easy going- even though he was bred and raised in captivity.
So, there you have my experience with UPA breeders. Can't speak for the breeders in your area, but you seem like an experienced bird person- so use your instincts when you speak with them. With the UPA breeders, your more apt to get healthy birds that have been bred in a controlled environment, wormed and medicated profilacticaly(sp?) and with a knowledge of their background.
Plus, I imagine there will be a better chance of finding chicks the same age as yours. You can post a request on the board for some one in your area- or go right to the UPA web site and see what the closest breeders are to you. Good luck

 

[msmolly]

Hi Khawks, You know I just had a thought, some thing you said about getting birds from breeders. Well, I mentioned in an earlier note how I had raised two peachicks together that came from different sources. Even though I worked with them alot from young chicks, one was/ is always timid, while the other was always friendly. Here is what occurred to me. The timid one came from a friend where the peahen hatched and raised the chick till I took it away at 2-3 weeks. The friendly one came from an incubator, and never was taught by its mother. Consequently, my peahen raises her chicks till I find new homes for them after 2-3 months, and even though I feed them from hand from the start, and am very close with them all along- I dont think they are really trusting and friendly-friendly the way incubator babies are. I just had to of my peahen babies come back to me after a year- as the woman I sold them to- had the neighbors call the police on her- because her hens were full time free-ranging in their yard......oops. And, do you know....these peahens that spent their formative months here -are so rude to me?! They don't come when they are called any more, they don't let me feed them any more and their own mother doesn't even like them! What I'm saying is, I'm really dissapointed because dispite my loving attention when they were young they still act like wild raised birds, very skittish, and unmanageable. I can't help but think there is a link between birds hatched by their mother being less apt to trust humans.
On the other hand, my incubator peahen was a clueless mother. Poor thing had no idea what to do with her chicks! We had to constantly jump in and help. My peahen who was raised by a mother, even though it was only for a couple weeks, is a great mother- has all her instincts intact. So just thinkin... was your little guy hatched in an incubator or by a momma bird?

 

[vsanders]

Hi all, am new to this forum as a user, although I have been lurking for a while. I have been a chicken owner for a long time,but really wanted peafowl instead, I was just afraid of the investment. Anyway, I have about half an acre fenced in with goat fencing and two large aviaries.I hate the idea of keeping them penned in the aviaries all the time and wonder would they fly out of the goat fence? I have another 6 -7 acres that I was planning on fencing in with it to include my house and would like to have the peafowl share my yard space as garden ornaments. So..has anybody tried this? Would they fly out if it's flat ground with nothing near the fence to roost in? Will they return to the aviaries like chickens to a coop at night? Any help would be appreciated, I've wanted peafowl for a long time and don't want to start out with a disaster.

 

[DylansMom]

Hi all, am new to this forum as a user, although I have been lurking for a while. I have been a chicken owner for a long time,but really wanted peafowl instead, I was just afraid of the investment. Anyway, I have about half an acre fenced in with goat fencing and two large aviaries.I hate the idea of keeping them penned in the aviaries all the time and wonder would they fly out of the goat fence? I have another 6 -7 acres that I was planning on fencing in with it to include my house and would like to have the peafowl share my yard space as garden ornaments. So..has anybody tried this? Would they fly out if it's flat ground with nothing near the fence to roost in? Will they return to the aviaries like chickens to a coop at night? Any help would be appreciated, I've wanted peafowl for a long time and don't want to start out with a disaster.

Hi there and welcome aboard! How much land do you have total, and how many neighbors, and how close are they? Don't mean to be nosy, but these are factors that will affect your ability to free range Peas. Your fences will have no affect whatsoever, Peafowl will just hop/fly right over them and keep going to wherever it is they want to be. Mine would hop/fly right up onto the house roof like it was nothing at all. They are also very curious and nosy and if you have neighbors they will want to check them out as well. They generally like to roost wherever it is you do not want them to( like the neighbors roof or car ). Upset neighbors with scratched cars have ended the free ranging of many Peas, I used to free range mine, but after retrieving a hen from a neighbors enclosed porch twice I penned them all. Felt it better to head that problem off at the pass. I have several older Peas that I consider trustworthy and I will allow them out during the day sometimes, then lure them back into the barn pens with treats before dark. The most successful free rangers are the people who have a lot of land with no neighbors anywhere close enough for the Peas to hear or see them. If that is the situation then you can pen them for a couple months while they get used to the property being their new home, and then you can turn them loose and let them do their lawn ornament thing. Predators will always be a concern for both penned and free range Peas, but a little more so for the free ones with no fencing to hide behind. Any idea what type you want? Your location can factor into what types you can have as some will need heat if your winters are cold. Again.....

 

[vsanders]

Thanks so much for all the info. I hadn't expected such a quick reply. I am on family land, so my 10 acres borders my uncle's 20 on the north and my cousins 40 on the south and east, and a large unused area of timberland on the west, and is bordered all the way around by the river .There's probably 200+ acres that are unused wilderness. We have a singular unrelated neighbor stuck on my east side who would likely be tolerant as he only stays part of the year. No neighbors can be seen for woods, but they can be heard.With all these woods we tend to have a lot of coyotes though.

I was thinking India Blue, they seem fairly common around here ( Northern GA) and so I thought they probably would be the best for the area?

Again, thanks for the info and the welcome , both are very appreciated.

 

[DylansMom]

Thanks so much for all the info. I hadn't expected such a quick reply. I am on family land, so my 10 acres borders my uncle's 20 on the north and my cousins 40 on the south and east, and a large unused area of timberland on the west, and is bordered all the way around by the river .There's probably 200+ acres that are unused wilderness. We have a singular unrelated neighbor stuck on my east side who would likely be tolerant as he only stays part of the year. No neighbors can be seen for woods, but they can be heard.With all these woods we tend to have a lot of coyotes though.

I was thinking India Blue, they seem fairly common around here ( Northern GA) and so I thought they probably would be the best for the area?

Again, thanks for the info and the welcome , both are very appreciated.

Well your location sounds just about perfect(minus the Coyotes, don't we wish) for free ranging. The most dangerous time for them is the breeding/laying/brooding season, the hens nest on the ground and are thus "sitting ducks" for anything with a good sense of smell as well as the owls. Many folks will pen them just during these months, then turn them loose again once young ones are big enough to fly up into the trees with mom to spend the nights. You will probably want to make sure you have a male and a couple hens for him, bachelor males are known to leave home in search of mates when they reach maturity. India blues are a good choice in many ways, the are the most common in most areas and therefore they are not that pricey and are easier to find. They are cold hardy, and they camouflage well, much better than whites anyway. No need to say thanks for a welcome, we are happy to help and to have you here. Keep us posted and let us know if you get some.

 

[primojosephar]

How far will they wander? I've had a pair for over a week now. No neighbour has claimed them they showed up one day in my chicken run. They eat in the coop and get along well with the chickens. Seem to be a young pair. Unsure of people. Will get within 10 feet for food but otherwise keep their distance. Was planning to build a setup for them if they are still here going into winter.