Are peafowl friendly? Are they easy to take care of?

[chickenalice]

Hi, my family has been toying with the idea of getting peafowl. We live in a suburban neighborhood. We have 5 chickens that are enclosed in a pen. We also have two medium/large dogs, but they are old, and they mostly sleep all day. We have a medium sized back yard.
So, do peafowl sound plausible for my family?
Are they friendly? I've heard they can be kind of mean.
How much care do they take?
Thanks

 

[GracieNut]

I am also interested in Peafowl, so I don't know too much about them yet, but I can tell you this. The male's call is LOUD. If you live in a suburban neighborhood, I would advise you not to get one, your neighbors will hate you, and you may not legally be able to keep them. We live on a little over 5 acres, but we do have a neighbor on the other side of the woods (not too far, not too close) and the only reason I haven't gotten my Peacock yet is because of them. I've heard the call of a Peacock, and I know without a doubt that they will be able to hear the call as well as I will. It carries, far and wide. And from what I understand they tend to do it all hours of the night. I do like the sound, but I don't think my neighbors would. I still contemplate it sometimes though, I really want one, and often think I will just tell the neighbors "Oh, I don't know where that came from!" LOL!!

 

[MinxFox]

Yes, there is the noise, but do consider that the peacock makes this noise only during the breeding season (Spring-Summer). The more peacocks you have, the noisier it will be. I know several people who own lots of peafowl and they have lots of close neighbors. What we did before getting peafowl is visit all the close neighbors and ask them if they would be okay with us getting peafowl. We told them they do make noise but not all year and basically told them all the good stuff about them and let them know about the misconceptions people have about peafowl. We don't keep our peafowl here at home though, we are only on 2 acres and we thought it would be best to keep them at my grandma's 10 acre yard were there is only one close neighbor. That neighbor was delighted to know we were getting peafowl and has only heard them call once when it was late, but they were still awake so it didn't wake them up. Some peafowl will call at night, mainly if they hear other peafowl far off they will then call to them at night. Mine seem pretty quiet. When we used to free-range some the neighbors wished they would come visit their yard more often because one day the peafowl were over in their yard and a friend drove up and saw the peacock in the front yard displaying. It must have been quite a sight to drive up to! A neighbor several streets away wishes they could hear the peafowl at their house. So luckily we have lots of peafowl lovers around.

Peafowl are not mean. Even on YouTube if you look up peacock attack generally the peacock is not really attacking. They are really easy to take care of. They don't eat much. GracieNut I think you should go for getting peafowl, just ask that neighbor and bring pretty peafowl pictures to show them and tell them all the great stuff about them and maybe even tell them if you get a peacock when it sheds it's tail (train) you will give them some of the feathers.

I am an enabler for getting peafowl...All my friends want some now.

 

[Kedreeva]

Peafowl CAN be friendly, but the work that goes into getting a friendly pea is great. You would most likely have to hatch one yourself or get one that is very, very young and spend a LOT of time with it while it is young in the hopes of keeping it friendly toward you. If you purchase an adult, the chances of it being friendly as opposed to flighty are slim. If you purchase an adult, and spend a lot of time earning trust, you may someday get it to not make a mad dash away from you if you approach, and some people have success getting them to eat nearby or from their hands, but this takes a lot of work as well. The India Blues are not typically "mean". Our chicken roosters are much more mean than any of our peas, but that doesn't make some of our peas 'friendly'. On the other side of that coin is Osiris... who is in love with getting petting and cooed over any time anyone come near the pen.

As for their care, they need a fairly large pen as adults- at least 6 feet tall, and you'd want at least a 10'x30' run for them to have the space to move and display etc. You will have to construct tall perches and provide places for sunning and shade and "hidden" areas for nesting- but not nest boxes as these are generally rejected by peas. When roofing a pen, you have to take into account that these birds can jump 5 feet in the air without trying, and when startled they can shoot up and hit the ceiling- thus, netting for a roof is generally best. They do not eat a lot, but they are notorious for flinging food and being messy gobblers, so you'd have to construct a feeder they can't fling food from or be prepared to waste and clean a lot of excess.

The last thing to consider is the noise. The call of an adult peacock can be heard up to five miles away- my year old cock decided he was going to honk next to my ear once (and mind you the honk is the toned down version of the adult call), and I lost the hearing in that ear to ringing noise for the next hour. And they will make this call a LOT for about 4-5 months out of the year. The adult call has been described as a woman screaming "help me". If you have close neighbors, at the very least they need to be ok with this, especially since your birds may do it after dark or very early in the morning. You should also check your state laws regarding the ownership of fowl, and make sure there are not noise ordinances regarding them. In Michigan, there exists a "right to farm" act, which under certain conditions allows us to keep farm animals pretty much anywhere, but I believe that they could still revoke our birds if they are causing a noise disturbance great enough for angry neighbors to report.

So you really have to weigh the options. They need space, and they're loud, but they are awesome birds. The first thing I would do is talk to your neighbors and find out if it is even feasible for you to have them if they are going to be calling over the summer.

 

[chickenalice]

I had heard that they were pretty noisy, but after this information, I think peafowl are pretty much out of the question. Thank you everyone for the very helpful replies!

 

[doudini2]

Hi,

as a suburban dweller, I have a peafowl. BUT, only a year after I got the peachick, did I find out it is illegal to have anything similar to poultry or game birds, and they have said my peacock is illegal. It was at the moment when I went to get a permit to build him a pen. Please go to the town, and ask first if you can have him. Now, Henri lives inside the house with us. Neighbors don't care, they are very nice. I hope nobody else will go to tell the town. However constricted it sounds, he seems very happy indoors. He sleeps in a laundry room, and during day, he runs around through family room and kitchen. We have blankies all over couches. He is messy, and you cannot train them to poop to a litter box. Thus, we clean for an hour every day. We let him into a sunroom often, but he rather spends time with us. So he seems to be happy wherever we are, not necessarily outdoors. I am in process of getting him at least a large dog pen( I don't need a permit for that, so the town does not need to know), so he can peck the grass and enjoy the birds. We will only leave him there when we are home to watch for his safety. He is loud when he freaks out for no good reason/very often. He calls heart-wrenching sounds, as he flies across the living room. It freaks me out every time.
He loves to beg, and not eat his food, but steal our food instead. Very picky eater. Loves shrimp and curry and sushi.
We may move in a few years, hopefully to a place that allows peas, so he can have a large run and maybe even a hen.
Right now, it is a lot of work. But, from the first week we had him, I have fallen in love, and feel that I would do anything for him. When I am at work I feel a big feathery hole inside my heart. That did not happen to me with any of my previous pets.
Be careful, the will make you fall in love with them, and then steal your food!

 

[Kedreeva]

Doudini, you should consider getting him a chicken diaper.

www.chickendiapers.com

Here's my boy in the house with his while he's injured:

 

[doudini2]

Wow, I thought of it, I saw flghtsuits online with diapers. But maybe he will try to take it off? Also do his bottom feathers get all nasty because he poops like every three minutes?

 

[racuda]

Quote:
That is amazing! I commend your dedication.

 

[Kedreeva]

Quote:
I trimmed off all the fluffy feathers around his bottom, so they don't get very messy. Blu 'grooms' his diaper when he grooms the rest of his feathers, but the way this one's designed, he can't get out of it- but he doesn't seem to mind it at all, except for putting the top strap over his head... but he tolerates that, even if he doesn't like it. The biggest problems it has are that sometimes if I don't put it on right (and that's a ME problem not a diaper problem) he will get his foot stuck in it when he lays down or else it partially misses a poo. But, a little poo now and again is better than constant messes, and I've learned now how to put it on properly the vast majority of the time, so he doesn't get stuck much.

I give him time off when I change it (twice a day) so he can groom the under feathers, and he gets a bath once a week (which he lays down in and spreads himself out in the warm water like ahhhh happy). So far it's worked pretty darn well, and the liners are just 16 oz ziploc bags so they aren't even expensive.