Talk to me about peacocks. If I get one, will the wild turkeys that frequent my woods and yard accept it? Or will they attack it?
The barn where I keep my horses used to have a peacock that lived with their turkey flock, so I am wondering if it is possible my turkey gang would accept a peacock in their midst.
I’m curious about this too as DH wants to get peacocks or guineas or something. Will be following!
P.S. If you want to poke around the older threads, I found a few really helpful threads about peafowl when I was researching this before. :yes:
I’ve never had one, but we were at an auction many years ago and considering it when my husband was advised “they make a lot of noise and can fly” and “like to roost on vehicles”, so we decided our neighbors would not appreciate them. . .
Before considering a peacock, listen to this at maximum volume. Several times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTABEOFYoY
If you can arrange for it to play without warning at 5am, even better.
I think peacocks are beautiful, and I enjoy photographing them when I go to the botanical garden that has a large collection of them. The ones that roam the neighborhood? If I could figure out how to make those %$*&^ birds “vanish” I would. 
A neighbor’s peafowl ran away from home and came to live with me. I thought they were the coolest things ever. I like their noise and didn’t find it to be a problem. I have thought often about getting some, but for me that’s a “someday” if I ever have more time.
I don’t know about peafowl, but I have lots of wild turkeys and free range domestic chickens. I wondered if the wild turkeys would get after my chickens but the two species seem oblivious of each other.
I’ve considered peafowl too. Don’t know how I’d feel about the noise. And not sure if they’d survive at my house. I’ve lost four of the twelve hens I started with to wild predators, and I bet peafowl are less able to evade a predator than a hen would be. Or would their size and noise discourage some predators?
I wouldn’t get a peacock. I used to love them, what gorgeous birds! Then I boarded at a barn with several. Yep, they are loud. And during mating season, the males like to walk around making big displays with their feathers, which also involves shaking them, which makes an apparently terrifying sound in my horse’s opinion. I was SO sick of her spooking as those birds would come around the corner of the barn in full display. Because she was spooked by them, even seeing one just casually strolling by would make her nervous. I was just over it.
She was there for three years and she never got over her fear of them.
[QUOTE=gaitedincali;8028020]
Before considering a peacock, listen to this at maximum volume. Several times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTABEOFYoY
If you can arrange for it to play without warning at 5am, even better.
I think peacocks are beautiful, and I enjoy photographing them when I go to the botanical garden that has a large collection of them. The ones that roam the neighborhood? If I could figure out how to make those %$*&^ birds “vanish” I would. [/QUOTE]
This times a billion. They walk into the road and stand there getting hit by cars, get eaten by owls and hawks…AND THEY SCREAM ALL NIGHT LONG FROM APRIL TO OCTOBER!!!
YES. Then add these loud, screeching birds to your driveway and watch them scratch the paint on every vehicle you own. Particularly the newer shiny ones.
The guineas aren’t as destructive, but they are equally loud, and less tame.
My neighbor used to have peacocks along with chickens. He had some kind drapey mesh material that he hung in the trees to enclose them so they never ran around loose. I actually like their voices and I got very good at mimicking them. I would “converse” with them whenever I was walking from house to the barn.
More to OP’s question about the turkeys. We have a huge flock of wild turkeys that live in the woods behind us. Somebody nearby lost a peafowl and I used to see it running around with the turkeys. Don’t know if the owner reclaimed it, but it’s not part of the turkey flock any more.
Good luck!
a previous neighbor had them, and i loved hearing them call thru the forest.
Both my daughter’s Pre-K-12 school and college had them. For a short period of time…they were eventually “relocated.” In both cases, they became very territorial.
[QUOTE=kateitel;8028253]
YES. Then add these loud, screeching birds to your driveway and watch them scratch the paint on every vehicle you own. Particularly the newer shiny ones.
The guineas aren’t as destructive, but they are equally loud, and less tame.[/QUOTE]
When I was a kid they seemed to be a thing with the local Arab breeders. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this thread was “buy an old car first”
Thanks for the feedback. We are in a subdivision, so I don’t have to worry about spooking horses. And traffic wouldn’t be a problem - we live at the end of the cul de sac, surrounded on two sides by woods (which is where the wild turkeys hang out). The turkeys sometimes do a walkabout through the cul de sac, and the neighbors are used to watching out for them.
The hawks and owls haven’t managed to thin the turkey population much, so I don’t think they would try to take on a peacock, esp. with the number of smaller birds around here (we occasionally find a pile of feathers near our bird feeders, and once saw a hawk feeding on one of the doves it had ambushed near a feeder).
As for vehicle damage, we always park our cars in the garage, and keep the garage doors closed, so I don’t think we would have to worry about that issue.
The noise probably wouldn’t bother us - we tend to keep all the windows closed all the time, and our bedroom is on the upper level of the house.
As for the neighbors - we have had to put up with their barking dogs for years, so I don’t think I would have much sympathy for them having to listen to a peacock screeching. I might worry about the peacock scratching the paint on their cars, though. But all the neighbors that leave their vehicles outside, also have dogs, which I would think would deter a peacock from hanging out near their houses.
I am thinking that if it would assimilate into the turkey flock, it would act sort of semi-wild, and not hang out all the time in our yard. Or is that pipe dreaming?
Best coyote bait on the planet.
Turkeys are wily enough to not get eaten by coyotes. Peafowl are the dumbest birds and will actually ATTRACT coyotes to your property. Coyotes know that they are sitting ducks.
Not only do you have to watch out for your car, but first-floor windows are not safe either. We had one male who was determined to eradicate the enemy in our boathouse windows, but just managed to break out the windows instead.
We had what we called our peafowl “herd”. They weren’t a flock, they were a herd, especially when all twenty-something of them would come running across the yard at once!
Our blueberry bushes were not safe, our porches were not safe (we were forever hosing off the “pea-caca” off the porches), and eventually we just started letting the foxes carry out natural attrition and gave the survivors to a children’s petting zoo.
[QUOTE=Go Fish;8028656]
Best coyote bait on the planet.
Turkeys are wily enough to not get eaten by coyotes. Peafowl are the dumbest birds and will actually ATTRACT coyotes to your property. Coyotes know that they are sitting ducks.[/QUOTE]
Well, that might have convinced me. 
I am actually amazed that our wild turkey flock has grown in the past years from just 3-4, to 25 (at last count) - especially since I have personally seen a coyote not far from here.
Do peacocks not roost at night? I know the turkeys do - I have photos of several WAY up in the trees (we estimated that a couple of them were maybe 70-75 feet up).
I wouldn’t recommend keeping a peacock in a subdivision, I lock mine up a night in an enclosed building so the yelling doesn’t bother the neighbors at night and I live very rurally. Years ago, I had a horrible neighbor that made my life miserable because she hated my birds. Police had to be involved often and it was bad.
I have not had good results with free roaming peafowl. Twice they have joined the wild turkey herds and left, and twice they were taken by wildlife. They are very good fliers, and do roost but can be picked off by coyotes, fishers, and Bobcats. Particularly if they get comfortable with dogs. Hawks and owls sometimes harass them, but I don’t think can bring down an adult easily.
I love my birds. I have had them for nearly 20 yrs, and one of my males is getting close to 17yrs!!!
If I were in your subdivision and you brought in peacocks, I would be livid. It is absolutely not the same as dogs barking.
I grew up visiting my paternal grandmother’s farm who had a pair of peacocks. They are very beautiful and extraordinarily LOUD birds! They eat snakes (from the middle!!), and the turkeys never bothered them and neither did the geese, chickens, cattle, horses, pigs dogs or cats. They roosted in the pine trees.
Seriously gorgeous birds! AND SO FREAKIN’ LOUD!!!
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