Welcome to a page dedicated to those beautiful and
crazy peacocks! These are the birds you love most of the time;
they only make obnoxious mating calls
during the mating and breeding seasopn, from March through August
in our part
of the world, and keep us awake all night maybe one night a year,
during the full moonin May. We have seventeen
of them at this time,
but have had as many as 24 one year, counting the babies.
A male becomes fully feathered at 3 years old, but can mate earlier.
He shuffles his feathers as he fans out
so they are arranged nicely. Then he shakes them like an aspen
tree at the nearest female,
who usually ignores him, unless she's ready to mate. Sometimes
he seems to spend time pointing his backside at the females, fluffy
angora rump feathers swaying, maybe playing hard to get for the
females?
With all this display, it's ironic that we hardly ever see them
mate.
Pea Hen
The hens usually lay 2-6 eggs in their 2nd - 3rd year, hiding
the true nest in the woods in leaves or just plain dirt, but first
laying eggs right in the open. She may lay several eggs, decoys,
which just sit around, until she gets serious about it and lays
a clutch or group and sits on them. She sits on the nest for 28 days, producing pea
chicks which look like turkey poults (babies), yellow and
brown. She leaves the nest once a day to eat and take care of
personal needs, flying from the nest with loud cawing noises to
distract predators from the hidden nest.
Peafowl, the name for more than one peacock, live
average about 15 years, though some have lived 25 years.
Peacocks need 30 - 32 percent protein-
dried cat food does them quite well! They love
white foods: bread, cheese, rice, and even styrofoam pellets
(very bad for the digestion). They also enjoy greens and fruits.
When they eat your flowers, they are
really looking for insects.
They do eat alot of bugs!
My peacocks always fly up into trees at night, if they
can-
if they're healthy or not in cages. Even if it's stormy outside,
there they are, clinging to branches, swaying in the wind, sopping
wet
in the morning. If it has snowed or frozen up outside at night,
the males hold their heavy frozen trains (tales) in a curve; if
has rained,
their tails are orange and green, a whole different
range of rainbow colors!
Eye feather-tail......... Wing
feather... Sword feather
Peacocks molt and lose their beautiful plumage usually in August.
We have to practically run after the birds as they drop the feathers,
before they get ruined by the rain.
A male can drop all his long feathers in one day!
If you are interested in having peacocks,
make sure you have the right enviornment
for them: an area free from wandering dogs and
fast-moving cars. (Peacocks are funny about cars- they like to
stand on top of the nice shiny ones, or in front,
all fanned out,
of any car which wants to drive down your driveway!)
Even if you want to let your peafowl run free, it's probably
best to have a cage to keep them for at least 4 weeks at first,
until they know who is feeding them and where they are.
If you must cage them, a tall cage is best- 10 to 15 feet high,
with a perch high up for them to go at night, and some of the
sides of the cage covered, for privacy. Predators such as dogs
and raccoons play a part in the decision to cage peafowl. I have
lost many birds to my neighbor's dogs, and even had a raccoon
maul a peahen roosting 30 feet up in a fir, bringing them both
to the ground. The poor hen was so torn up, she didn't last.
PEAFOWL
can be found through word of mouth, your local
feed store, paper, or area agricultural paper. Countryside Magazine and OrganicGardening Magazine have good information
on exotic bird hatcheries and articles on raising birds.
Also, your Yellow Pages or 800 Directory could be helpful in
locating hatcheries or poultry farms. Our area has a radio
station which announces postcard ads- that's one of the ways
I have found and sold peafowl.
Another way is to post "Peafowl/Peacock Wanted" posters
at the feed store and bulletin boards.
The Peacock
Princess Pages
See
the Kimbaleh Wind Chime Necklace!