Some Peafowl questions

Looking at Pops' beautiful birds, other than for their feathers, is there a non-decorative use for Peacocks? I know they're edible, but what do they taste like, are they raised for meat purposes? Are they good bug catchers like guineas? Can they be kept with chickens? How is their cold tolerance?

I am curious as well. Can they be housed with chickens? Cold tolerance? Do they need to be penned?

Yus and are they predator prone? I would say my guineas are -less- predator prone because they launch themselves onto rooftops if they are nervous.

I have had peafowl for a few years and they also like to sleep high up, mine sleep on top of the barn in the summer. In the winter they go in the barn with the turkeys, chickens and geese.

Mine are eye candy, i would never eat them

I know many people love them but I can't stand the things.....sorry pea lovers.
One place we were on had a pair. They would go from house to house on the property. They made a mess of our cars, both pooping on and scratching and they terrorised the working dogs!! Our dogs are taught that they chase NOTHING, not cats, chooks, other dogs, nothing. These peafowl would chase the dogs and even cornered a younger pup in its house and were pecking at it. I had to save the poor thing.
So, personally I would never have the rotten things on my place!

coopslave wrote:I know many people love them but I can't stand the things.....sorry pea lovers.
One place we were on had a pair. They would go from house to house on the property. They made a mess of our cars, both pooping on and scratching and they terrorised the working dogs!! Our dogs are taught that they chase NOTHING, not cats, chooks, other dogs, nothing. These peafowl would chase the dogs and even cornered a younger pup in its house and were pecking at it. I had to save the poor thing.
So, personally I would never have the rotten things on my place!

So, it sounds like peacocks and goats have a lot in common...? Lol.

My experience with them,I run them with most birds but watch the turkeys some can be over aggressive towards them I find them to be on the meeker side,also they are very hardy many times I have seen them roosting outside in minus 10° Weather! Have heard though that sometimes they don't realize how cold its gonna get and freeze on the roost if it gets below -15°!!

Indian Peafowl are very winter hardy, -40 and snow storm doesnt bug them as long as their roost is wide and toes are in close contact with their body.
Green Peafowl is a whole nother species and not as winter hardy, rule of thumb is in the winter they should have around 10-15 degrees above freezing thru the winter.
Spauldings(cross between Indian and Green Peas) are a wild card with winter hardiness, depends a lot on % of green blood vs indian.

In india they use to keep peafowl as meatbirds before the modern meaties came along, since peas for a bird their size grow rather quickly.
Peas are not very productive tho, 10-25 eggs a year per hen at most. They can be very hard to hatch too(I only let broodies hatch mine) and the first week they are dumber and harder to teach to eat and drink then a turkey poult.

Juvenile Peas are active bug catchers, the adults are very sedate with foraging, they rather lay down under one of our decorative shrubs and start ripping the leaves off to keep busy.... or circle the house trying to find the window where they can see people and knock on the glass in hopes to get some dry catfood tossed their way.

You can keep them with other fowl, but like any other Gamebird they are much more suceptible to disease then chickens/turkeys. Chickens and turkeys carry a lot of disease that dont affect them at all but is deadly to a gamebird when they come in contact with them(Coryza would be one I can think of off the top of my head- nasty one that and gamebirds drop like flies). Peas also are more prone to internal parasites and should be dewormed at least twice a year.

During breeding season I always pen mine since I dont want the hens to go off making a nest way out in the bush and get herself eaten a by a coyote, havent had a hen come back yet from doing that. Also the male doesnt get to work out the urge to wander off in search of more hens.
By August I can usually turn them loose again until the first snow fall when they get moved into another barn.

If the peas didnt grow up on your place I also would not turn them loose, at least not the first 6 months or so, then just turn loose the male so he has incentive to stick around due to the hen/s still being penned.

I love my peas, they are inquisitive and once they figure you are no danger they are very calm around you. When ours are free ranging we always have to keep out doors closed otherwise they come looking for us to get treats(and peacock poop on the couch is sooooo not funny)

That is very useful information Booth Creek - thank you! I was really taken with those photos of the white peacocks too. Just can't consider another breed of anything.... no, really....

The one other thing I'd say, having stayed with people who have lots of peafowl - be sure you know and like the sound they make. It can be irritating/scary for those who aren't used to it!

The noise is something to get use to yes, altho when peas are comfertable with their surroundings they are largely quiet. My male hasnt started being too vocal this year so far, once breeding season advances a bit more I will probably here him 2-3 times a day.

Most noises they make are contact calls and they have amazing hearing! So if a neighbour 5 km away has Peas, they will hear each other and communicate. And if you have mulitple breeding pens of peas they will talk to one another at lenght(kind of like when 1 rooster cross every one else has to voice their opinion too).

When free range, only time I hear them is when my pair gets seperated and dont know where their other half went, then they stalk around making a honking noise until they get back together.

When unsure about something, like when something spooks them or at night if something unusual moves around outside they will also make a call, kind of between the location honk and their usual cat-call. Kind of a : Who is there? I see you! Do I know you?. They are better watch dogs at night then the guineas.

Decorative yes, eat NO, yes they do roost high if they want, all of mine, close to 200 run with the chickens and the turkeys and guineas on 80, noise does not bother me and they are not as noisy as guineas, we have about 60 of them and they make much more noise than any peacock. The peafowl are an ornamental bird, last year over 1000 tail feathers that sold very well. YES I have to many, I am downsizing this year and selling off about 80 peacocks will keep all my hens since for all the years I have been breeding them most are very unusual colors, I will continue to raise chicks for people and the first person on my list this year is Lou and even if I have to take them to her she will be getting them this year, they are all very winter hardy except the Javas but they do well with all the others. Most of mine are very friendly I can walk up to any of them and touch the tails when they are showing off, my friendliest or calmest are the 3 older Java hens, when they were nesting last year in the bush by the house I could reach under them with out them moving candle eggs and replace them with other eggs. I guess all I am saying is they make the yard interesting and fun and exiting. I will ad this over 300 a day are killed in India for the tail feathers and food, no I have not tried to eat them I am also told that guinea fowl is the best tasting meat bird but I have not tried them either but am thinking about it.

coopslave wrote:I know many people love them but I can't stand the things.....sorry pea lovers.
One place we were on had a pair. They would go from house to house on the property. They made a mess of our cars, both pooping on and scratching and they terrorised the working dogs!! Our dogs are taught that they chase NOTHING, not cats, chooks, other dogs, nothing. These peafowl would chase the dogs and even cornered a younger pup in its house and were pecking at it. I had to save the poor thing.
So, personally I would never have the rotten things on my place!

My dogs lay with them, one of our cats sleeps in a nest box in the building with them, mine also have never gotten on any vehicle except mine, My GP watch them like hawks, when they go to the far end of out property one of the dogs goes with them the others stay behind. All my birds after selective breeding run free on 80 and in the last 5 years have not lost a bird to a ground predator, lost a guinea to a hawk a couple years ago, now the dogs watch the sky to. I will also say that except for one dog, the peafowl even eat out of the same dish with the dogs, they love dog food.