By: Monique de Vrijer
PROUD AS A PEACOCK
Peacocks... who doesn't recognize
these magnificent birds with their
brilliant colours and tail plumage
folding out to that well known
enormous fan?
Blue Peafowl originally come from
India and were often presented as
prestigious gifts in travels to other
countries throughout the Mediterranean region. During the Roman
times the birds were more often
seen served up on a plate than
enjoyed for their exotic beauty as
they are today. And not to put any
ideas in anyone’s head, I must
report that even though they are
still occasionally featured on a
menu, this is the exception rather than the rule!
Peafowl are not suited for the ‘backyard’ fancier as these birds require more
room than is normally available to the ‘backyard’ avian enthusiast (think of the
size of that enormous tail!) In addition, keeping a peacock without a peahen is
not advisable as they would soon leave and start searching for a mate.
If you do feel you have sufficient space to accommodate these birds then be
forewarned that you also need sufficient space between yourself and your
nearest neighbour as their calls are well known to be of an ear-splitting intensity!
Be aware before you begin with these birds that they also live up to 25 years of
age.
At our children’s farm we do have the room and the absence of neighbours and
in our opinion these exotic creatures fall within the concept of ‘farm animals’, so
we keep a few examples of these magnificent birds. We have two peacocks;
both are named Jeroen (that makes life a
little easier!) and three peahens named
Daphne, Manuela and Loretta which are
duly courted and doted upon by our
‘Jeroen's’ . Our experience with the
peafowl on our farm has been without
incident and they have required very
little attention as compared to many of
the other animals.
They are very
resilient!
As they prefer to roost high up in the
trees or in the hayloft or even on the roof
of the buildings, we have never bothered
to build them any kind of special housing
allowing them their natural choice of
roost here.
Even though the peafowl wander
endlessly the entire day apparently
searching out natural sources of food, we
note their extreme laziness for when they
are truly hungry they just raid the
chicken feed or pop in for a visit to the
duck feeding stations or patiently await
the notice of the many visitors here who
often wander with cans of corn to hand!
There are special feeding formulations for
peafowl, but as we have never had any
problems with the current system
whereby they thrive in good health, we
have not found it necessary to add this.
When they have sufficient access to a
natural varied environment they will
search out grains, fruit, insects, seeds
and weeds.
A sufficient source of
‘greens’ is very important to the freeranging peafowl even when one is using
a complete commercial feed formulation
in the case where their natural
environment is deficient. However, in
many cases the natural environment they
have access to will not provide this
necessary variation and in this case one
should really provide supplementation
with a formulated pellet and extra fresh
feed and greens as the season determines.
Above photo: Peafowl are excellent fliers and prefer to roost in high places such
as on a roof or in a tree.
As the days lengthen, the displaying starts, completed
with the accessory peacock screaming; this being their
less pleasant quality. The gentlemen seem to make a
verbal sport of competing for my attention as I stand
between them (an obvious sign that breeding season is
upon us) and I assure you these verbal attempts to
"woo" me over are felt deep into the bone! Apparently
the peahens are quite impressed by this ear-splitting
cacophony! As soon as Jeroen catches the eye of one of
the hens, he struts and displays his enormous fantail
sweeping it back and forth in magnificent open display
in courtship of the observing hen.
One can only describe the fantail of the peacock (one
can almost compare it to a windbreak!) as magnificent
to behold and the telltale ‘eye’ pattern at the end of the
feathers are quite breathtaking to observe in
shimmering courtship display. Even though we call this
display of feathers a ‘(fan)tail’, the proper term is a
"train". The actual main tail feathers (rectrices) are the 20 short, stiff quills which
are hardly impressive in comparison with their neutral colours however they are
crucial to displaying the train (an extension of the upper tail coverts) as their
positioning and strength is necessary to uphold the fan shaped display. A
complete train is composed of 150 or more magnificent feathers each capable of
reaching a length of one and a half meters!
Photos:
When the peacock displays its
train it extends the main tail
feathers (rectrices) vertically
to push up the train of display
feathers.
The ‘real’ tail consists of 20
dull greyish brown rectrices
which are approximately 50
cm long.
These true tail feathers support more than 150
'eye feathers' which are the magnificently
coloured enlarged and elongated upper tail
coverts.
The peacocks courtship of the hen is not limited to a simple fan display of his
train... he can also make it "shimmer" and in so doing produce a subtle
whispering sound to further entrance his lady. He does this to attract the
attention of any peahen venturing near
enough to notice and once started will sweep
his train over the ground and in between
displays attempt to mate her.
The peahen remains very nonchalant to all
outward appearances, and all of this courtship
effort by the peacock does not appear to
change her behaviour to the
casual observer. She continues
doing whatever she is currently
busy with seemingly oblivious to
all the grand efforts of the
courting male, sometimes looking
off in the opposite direction or
yawning returns to searching out
grains, tactically turning away between all the courtship displays. This is all
typical in the courtship ritual which will ultimately result in mating, although
oddly enough the actual mating itself is rarely observed... However, those chicks
must come from somewhere!
My own observations lead me to conclude that peacocks will display for just
about anything within sight (man, chicken,
pig or rabbit) and during the breeding
season their ego swells to such that they
seem addicted to displaying these courting
rituals to one and all ... I know Jeroen
does!
Right: Peahen
Left below: Peacock
It is usually in the middle of summer when the
peahens will nest (the term "nest" being somewhat
farfetched as they will simply lay in any type of
‘hollow’ ... their choice of which remains beyond
my understanding. However, the fact that egg is
there seems to define it). At a certain point we
note the peahen’s disappearance and from past
experience we know where to look, although on
occasion they will choose a place not previously
used and then it can be somewhat problematic
finding them as, in contrast to the males, their
subtle colouring will blend in with the background
making them hard to spot.
The eggs are very large and usually monotone in colour.
chicken’s egg.
The small one is a
Left: Peafowl chicks
When the nesting urge takes
hold of our ladies here it hits
with
a
vengeance...
for
instance with our two peahens:
Daphne will stubbornly ‘sit’
next to Manuela's nest until
she lays her own, which is
usually a week later and will be
next to Manuela’s nest. After a
period of 28 days the arrival of
the ‘mini’ peafowl in the nest
leaves one in wonder that they
are hatched with the feathers
already present on their wings!
Mother
peahen
Manuela
eventually leads her young out of the loft nesting area and herein lies a problem
with Daphne: she considers herself also ‘mother’ to Manuela’s nest and will leave
her own at this time... abandoning her own eggs in the process. We usually
resolve this problem by placing her abandoned eggs under a broody chicken and
in this way have had a Brahma and even a Cochin bantam as foster mothers to
young peafowl! Two years ago Daphne had abandoned five eggs and we gave
each Cochin bantam an egg (one Cochin got two as we had only four broodies
which JUST fit) and all of the eggs hatched out just fine. The problem came as
all the hatchlings were placed under one foster mother and they soon outgrew
her. However a heating lamp resolved that problem and they grew to adulthood
without further incident.
Peafowl hatchlings are fragile and are sensitive to wet conditions and in general
can easily fall victim to many simple dangers ... we found a hatchling drowned in
the waterer in illustration of such and if one simply allows the mother to wander
free-range and it happens to rain a few days then the following nestlings will not
survive those conditions.
For this reason we catch mother peahen and her hatchlings and bring them to a
pen here at the farm for a few weeks where the hatchlings can be assured of a
warm and dry environment, safe under mothers wings.
Above: After a few days the hatchlings no longer fit underneath the foster
mother.
The hatchlings do just fine on normal chicken feed according to age as advised
for the chickens, although it is better to choose one with a higher amount of
(animal)protein such as SIVOSTART (specifically formulated for game fowl). In
addition we also supplement with (finely chopped) greens and when older mixed
grains. When the hatchlings are sufficiently grown and dependent upon the
weather conditions we discharge them from the pen to free-range with their
mother.
Once the hatchlings begin to feather properly it is then possible to distinguish the
hens from the cocks, which can
be
very
difficult
for
the
inexperienced as they appear at
first glance to be identical. If you
look carefully you can see the
hens feathers are monotone in
their feather colour compared to
the cocks which will show some
markings in the brown wing
shield.
However,
one
must
examine and compare to see the
difference!
If you cannot
distinguish this then it is quite a
wait before you will see the male
feathering plumage.
Right: foreground is a hen,
behind is a cock, approximately
3 months old.
The magnificent male plumage is not readily attained for the young peacock and
for many months it remains similar in looks to the
sober colours of the peahens (I see the juvenile
males looking jealously at the adult males
plumage!) and though the older juveniles will make
the courting gestures of the adult peacocks...
gesturing without a magnificent train is rather
pointless! It will take approximately two years
before the juvenile peacock achieves his train and
successfully mates with a hen. Adulthood is
considered to be around the age of three years but
the train will continue to grow until over four years
of age.
Once the train is achieved then the peacock will
insist on courtship displays, happily displaying their
courtship ritualistic behaviour from early in the
spring through to deep in the summer. At the end
of July they will start to moult these display
feathers and the magnificent courtship behaviour
ends till the next season. Soon the process will
repeat and by the beginning of spring they are
ready with an entirely new train to impress any and
all in view... with great pride to display as if their
life depended upon it!
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