peacock pacing

rossluck2 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:25 pm

Is it normal for a penned peacock to constantly pace backwards and forwards? He has only been penned for about two weeks now. He has also been separated from his brother - they had been together constantly since hatching - about 16months. He seems really stressed. What am I doing wrong?

snowbald · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:42 am

Hi Rossluck,
During the non breeding months I often let my peacocks roam free,then catch them up and pair them off and place them in the breeding pens. At this time I often see a lot of fence pacing which one would think is because they want out again or are missing the bird they had been spending time with outside. After a while they seattle again,some time if I think it's another bird they are missing I put up a barrier so they can't see one another.

As long as the bird is eating and drinking OK I would not worry to much,and once you give him a mate things will be OK.

Hope this helps,best regards,
Snowball :-D

rossluck2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:20 pm

Thanks for your reply Snowball. We have only had this peacock for a few weeks now. We were told to let them out after a week or so... If only we'd read the PA articles first!! We were lucky enough to get this fellow back - he wandered into a neighbours chook pen! We have not been able to find his brother in the neighbourhood. We are assuming that we may need to keep him penned until after the next breeding season as 6 months from now they'll be right in the middle of it won't they? We are hoping to get two hens for him - PA are very busy moving at the moment and they will contact me about that later when they are more settled. I am assuming two hens are better than one as they will tend to hang around with their harem rather than take leave with their one partner? I read that you should pen a lone male when his train is around 0.7m and leave him penned until they fall out again after the breeding season. But you say to pen him with the hen/s for the season anyway. Cheers, Helen

rossluck2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:31 pm

I didn't really word that very well - we do intend to let him roam free with two hens after they have been penned for a sufficient length of time that he will want to stay. I guess that penning them all during the breeding season will keep the hens safe from foxes? Your experience and help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Helen

Mrpeewee · **Posted:** Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:28 pm

Hi Helen,
I agree with penning the birds during the breeding season as foxes and other predators will kill the hens. Any new birds should be penned for a minimum of six weeks before being allowed to free range and it is better to try and train them to go back into the pen at night time every night to be shut away safe from foxes etc. I free range my birds all year round until around late August when I leave them shut in until February. This way I know the hens are safe from foxes and I can hatch as many eggs as possible. The rest of the year the birds free range all day and go into the pen to sleep every night.
Any more questions ask away and hopefully someone can help.
Matt

rossluck2 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 22, 2006 6:50 pm

Thanks Mr Peabody! We have yet another "complication". His brother has turned up. This has certainly stopped the pacing but now we have two males (around 18months old). These birds have free roamed since they hatched. They ran away when we let them out after only a few days or so (yes! we know better now!). I guess we are lucky to have found them again. Because they are older birds (we initially wanted 6 month old chicks) I am not sure how much luck we'll have trying to train them back into their pen each night when we finally do release them.
When we were left with the one male we decided to get him 2 hens - now we don't know what to do. Our neighbour would be interested in having one of the males but I'm not sure they should be split again unless they have 1 or 2 hens each. Will this work?? We live on acreage and our neighbours are at least 200 m away - close for peacocks!! I guess we're trying to find the best combination to keep them happy and to ensure we can let them roam free - we hate seeing such beautiful birds penned - but we want them to stay around our property. Are we asking too much?

snowbald · **Posted:** Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:26 pm

Hi Rossluck,
Many years ago when I first went into Peacocks I was like you I wanted free roaming birds on the property ie make the garden look nice --- so I obtain a 6 month old trio who much against our feelings we penned for a further six months (as we were advised to do)in housing that I now know was really to small.

The great day came and we let them out --- they were very weary of this big outside world at first but after a short while we had them wondering around on the lawn and they were still coming into the pen in the morning for food.However one day I went out to feed them but alas no peacocks and I did not see them again for about 10 days but when they came home there were 7 of them :!:

I eventually found out that my neighbour who lives approx 2 km away also had peacocks and mine had gone down there for a while and eventually brought them all back home where they stayed as I feed them and the neighbour did not. I'm not sure how ours persuaded their's to come to our place as their's were all mature birds :?:

However to cut a long story short all off them commuted between us and the neighbour's for years, but as I say they spent more time with us because we feed them.

Hope this will give you some idea of what to expect.

Regards,

Snowball :-D

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