Peafowl
We just got into the peafowl business last year. We currently have India Blue peafowl but are hoping to bring in some other colors over the next year. They say that peacock eggs are hard to incubate, but I'm going to give it a try next year, wish me luck. If that doesn't work I have quite a few Silkie chickens who I am sure will volunteer to go broody.
People often ask me about free ranging my peafowl. My answer is that it works alright for me but that isn't the case for everyone. I have been lucky in that I have raised all my peafowl with chickens from the day they were born. This allows my peafowl to build a bond with my chickens that helps keep my peafowl from straying too far from their chicken friends. I am always amazed at how my peafowl can tell their favorite friend chickens from a flock of 100 chickens. I am not saying that my peafowl don't occasionally fly into the very understanding neighbors tree, but that's my fault for not having big enough trees yet. Overall however, I have been very successful in keeping my peafowl close to home. |
HealthOur flock is very healthy. We have never had a health scare. We do run our peafowl with our chickens but have never had any adverse diseases passed on to our peacocks from doing this.
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Happy Peafowl, Happy HeartAll our peafowl are free range. They have a peafowl barn to call their own and night but during the day they have free range of our pasture. The spend their mornings eating all the bugs they can find and spend their afternoons being lazy in the shade of our fruit trees.
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FeedAll the peafowl have access to free range pasture during the day. They eat a variety of bugs and natural vegetation. As a treat they enjoy when I toss them things from the garden or fruit trees. They also quite enjoy cat food when they need some extra protein. They also have access to crumble food.
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