Stupid question, but uses for peafowl?

[StruckBy]

Ok, I admit I never really thought much about getting peafowl...especially since my grandparents had such a nightmare trying to get rid of a flock of feral ones that came with a property that they bought. But now I live in an area with such a dear over-population that my objections to them (namely that they ate EVERYTHING) are rather pointless. And someone is giving away a trio of them locally. Soooooo....other than looks, what do you do with them? Anything? (yes, I totally have spring fever & am in the mood to expand our poultry assortment).

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Soooooo....other than looks, what do you do with them? Anything?

, the Pea Corner!

It's not quite clear what your question is...
Is your question, for example, "Can you breed them and sell eggs and chicks to make money?"
Some of the peapeople here could give you input on that.

What do you do with your other poultry assortment? That's probably what you can do with peas as well.

 

[StruckBy]

I didn't realise it was a confusing question. Coturnix are raised for meat and/or eggs, ditto chickens, ditto the duck breeds I own. Other breeds of duck, like say East Indies, are raised pretty much for ornamentation & show. Ditto things like Lady Ams. I'm just wondering if peafowl can be managed for something useful like eggs or if they are purely ornamental with some selling of offspring? The latter was my impression but I've been wrong before so thought it was worth asking before I passed up on a free trio.

 

[johnskoi]

Ok, I admit I never really thought much about getting peafowl...especially since my grandparents had such a nightmare trying to get rid of a flock of feral ones that came with a property that they bought. But now I live in an area with such a dear over-population that my objections to them (namely that they ate EVERYTHING) are rather pointless. And someone is giving away a trio of them locally. Soooooo....other than looks, what do you do with them? Anything? (yes, I totally have spring fever & am in the mood to expand our poultry assortment).

i'd say they're strictly ornamental ... but yes, you can eat their eggs and meat...

 

[zazouse]

They are eye candy and food source if you are into high dollar meals, i just sold a couple processed birds last month.
I have sold pea chicks and will be selling eggs this year as i do not want to hatch any this year. I also sell their feathers for both decoration and feather tying.

I enjoy their company and beauty although they can be a pain in the butt when trying to work around here sometimes, they are very nosey

and they do not like it when i get on the tractor and it runs off with me, they will chase the tractor run under it, around it and in front of it all while it is moving.

 

[zazouse]

 

[StruckBy]

Thanks for the responses. Zazouse your birds are beautiful. Sounds like I'd better hold off. Hubby is patient, but we're definitely getting up to the point in critters where I need to be able justify new additions with a purpose beyond "they're cool"

 

[zazouse]

Thank you.

Glad i don't have to justifi having critters i would have just stayed single all my life

 

[areeb]

Tell him that that other than eye candy you can sell the eggs and chicks to cover their expenses and the birds are also good at debugging if you let then free range. They also will alarm you if they see a predator.

 

[StruckBy]

Lol...he's super supportive of my horses (which consume most of our disposable income & my time), the 7 cats (4 of which are currently asleep on him) that have shown up over the years, the chickens, the ducks, the snakes (even though he's scared of snakes in general), the quail I'm about to get again, etc. He even put up with the pygmy goats from hell. And I'm sure if I brought home peafowl he would just sigh then incorporate them into our chores. But he does a ton of work for my animals already & I don't think it's fair to ask him to take more $ out of our budget & do more work for something that looks pretty.