we had friends in South Texas when I was a teenager in the 70's whose son hatched peacock eggs in an incubator and raised them. They are very cool, but man they can scare you at night with that ghostly haunting call!

Hi Lou,

don't think I desire to have any of those birds, but would love to have some guineas. Afraid they would disturb the neighbors by flying into their property.

hey, I actually drove through Floral City a couple of years ago, but probably blinked and missed it as we drove from Bushnell to Inverness. LOL

bernie

Lou,

I love the color on those birds and if they work for you even better! lol

Silvia

Lou
no need to worry about pretty gardens as peafowl will quickly fix that lol Besides bugs they also eat seeds and
almost every species of plant known to man,particularly if you WANT it to grow. Can't imagine keeping in a pen but are always on other peoples land not to mention the early morning screams lol. When in display mode the cocks can become downright vicious . many years ago I raised several types of pheasants and probably the BEST all around one for "ornamental " value are Lady Amhearst , Golden or Monals. Much easier to deal wih lol. Though nothing as fabulous as a pure white peacock in 5th year plumage display . Guineas make fabulous atchdogs" not to mention good eating lol. They do make an incredible anount of noise and will roost at the tops of trees.
If you had the room and patience Vulturine guninea fowl would be worth the effort though not quiet for sure but would be worth the effort due to the rarity and the Cocks display is mind boggling as they are around 3 feet tall!! I'm sure you'd have a tough time finding stock though. gary

Lou, those birds are lovely to look at. Thanks for posting the pictures. Years ago I went to another gardeners house that bordered on the woods and wild peacocks came out of the woods to feed on bugs and plants on their land. To me it was amazing to see. I don't think they were happy with the noise though. :o)

Beautiful peafowl. Hey your yard looks like mine:)
I am going to try to hatch some peachicks from eggs. I think I would like to get some Midnight Shouldered, Emerald Spaldings, and India Blues. My great uncle used to raise them on his farm in IA and they do make some freaky noises but they can't be any worse than my guineas and teenagers right? haha!

I have seen photos of the Vulturine Guineas and they are sure GORGEOUS!! Quite expensive, I bet too!
~SJN

Oh I think the peacocks are the prettiest flower that ANY of us have.Wish I could have one or two. I guess Ill settle for my pretty lil ducks
tanya

Lou,

Do they taste like chicken?

Bamboo,

The peahens are more gamey tasting than chicken, I don't send the peacocks to freezer camp.
Have you been getting day after day of rain too? Every time I try to do something outdoors it starts up again.

Tanya,

The peacocks are very pretty when they are in bloom on a sunny day. lol

SJN,

Right now I have a soggy peahen sitting on a clutch in the rain, last I looked she had half doz eggs under her. They often go broody outdoors in the tall weeds. I'm lucky she's just outside my screen-greenhouse wall where I can watch over her.

Gary

The lady across from me raises geese & chickens. Most people around here have chickens and some other type birds, so we all are used to the barnyard additional noises of horses, cows, mules, goats, pigs etc. The sounds carry a long distance during the nighttime.

Lou

Lou
If you have the space you could do a great service for pheasants by raising some of the tropical species. Over the last 20 years they have almost disappeared from aviculture. There's also quail, partridge and of course heirloom chickens .Pure jungle fowl are almost impossible to find. if just starting with gamebirds would recommend either Golden or Lady Amhearst pheasants. Small incredible colorful ,very hardy,reasonable in price but be sure to locate pure bred strains as they have almost been ruined by hybridizing. Think I'd keep them in an appropriate pen at least until well established .
Finding good stock is going to be tough though there are a couple of exotic bird suppliers in florida, gary

Your peahen is a dedicated mommy sitting in the rain like that. I hope the weather dries up for her.
I have 4 baby blue copper marans (French chickens that lay a DARK chocolate egg) that started hatching last night..
I set the eggs in my incubator so they would hatch today (4th of July)lol. They had other plans. I still have several solid blue marans and a few black copper marans eggs that should hatch today, hopefully. I can't believe my blue coppers are hatching because they are my chickens's first pullet eggs and are really small. Those 4 were also in the refrigerator for 3 days before I set them LOL!

The lady I originally got my blue and blue copper marans from has her chickens photographed in a recent issue of Backyard Poultry Magazine. (Scroll to the bottom of the article on the right). One of my hens looks just like that too LOL! Here's the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marans Article

SJN,

I have 1 Blue Grey Maran hen that should start laying eggs soon.

Gary,

I only have ten acres here and my time is limited with my veggie garden, expanding my orchard and building a hoop type greenhouse.

Lou

Lou,

We had 3 inches Friday...just a 1/4 inch yesterday and so far about 2 inches today and it is pouring right now.

You need to add rabbits to your mix. Btw do you know any local sources for Kiowa blackberries?

Bamboo,

I had rabbits when I lived up north, but right now I'm so dang busy just setting up everything on the farm that I don't have the time for more animals at the moment.

No clue for local sources on the Kiowa blackberry. A google search of nurserys shows them all sold out.

Lou

Hi Lou, I can see you very busy keeping up with your farm, more land= more work,lol

Hi Bamboo, I had order bare root plants from this source and everything has been fine. It is not time for bare root but they have kiowa blackberry.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: kiowa blackberries

Those are such beautiful birds, but their bird call leaves something to be desired. :-)

How nice to have a farm here in Florida. They have all but disappeared in our area.

FlowerLady

Awe...Those photos bring back memories. I used to keep peafowl when I lived in northeast Ohio. Didn't have a farm, but my solution was to build them their own outbuilding, which was warmed by a good sized lightbulb in the coldest part of winter. I still remember Perdy Birdy, with his gorgeous display. He always dropped his entire tail within about 3 days, right around the 4th of July. My favorite white was named Penelope, but boy, they can be the dumbest mothers! She used to drop an egg from up on her roost shelf, where she liked to bed down at night under the warm light. The egg would break, and she would just look at it and walk away. Dumb, dumb, dumb. My peafowl source had a friend who had a very bonded pair. One day his mother-in-law backed her car right over him, as he had been admiring himself in the hubcap, and ran behind the car when the engine started. Dumb, dumb, dumb. So, he had to get another 'boy' to keep the wifey and mate happy. Sheesh.

Thank you for the link Silvia. That is a very good price. I generally like to get potted stock as they take off faster but sometimes that is not possible. Were the bare root Kiowa of good size?

We have peacock running loose in Miami, most likely escaped pets. Talk about an eerie sound.

girlsalorz9: Poor old peacock that got run over...
I have read that guineas love to look at thier reflections, usually in people's windows. I have heard of people even putting mirrors in thier runs lol.
I wonder if peacocks like to look at themselves as well?

Just had to post this. Chickens/Fowl made the Thursday's edition of The Wall Street Journal :P

Here is a link that might be useful: Fowl Fans

Sultry_Jasmine_Night, yep, I had a mirror in my peacock run, and they do love to look at their reflection. I decoupaged the frame, matching it to the inside of the doors on their outbuilding, which I had painted the interiors of them peacock blue. There was chicken wire on the windows, and when secured in the open position, the inside of the windows, which swung open, was painted peacock blue also. I had put a grapevine wreath on the door, which I would periodically put various greens in, that they would pluck out and munch. It was kinda fun to sit on the back deck, up on the hill in the woods, and watch them in their run. Kinda miss them.

As an aside, large fowl make excellent guard-birds. I never wanted an outdoors dog in that climate (well, not in any climate, really), and the fowl soon learn the property boundaries, even from their pen. When a car would pull into the driveway, a long winding one about half a mile long, the peafowl would begin calling to alert the world that someone was coming. Gave me a sense of security, knowing nobody could sneak up on the house, lol.

I envy you guys having yard birds. I grew up on a farm in Western NC. We raised chickens, turkeys, and guineas. Miss it.

Tropicalfreak

Actually its not so much looking at themselves, during mating season they see the reflection of another male and go so far as attacting the reflection. We had one here at the zoo that was causing so much damage to cars in the parking lot he had to be caged. I've seen them chase cars or golf carts and when they get the vehicle to move away they crow with victory.

Katie