We brought peacock chicks home in the spring of 2022 – two Indian Blue, two White and one Purple Pied – we don’t know the sex of the birds and are going to wait and see what they decide to be by showing us their feather development. *Technically all unsexed chicks are called “peachicks” “peafowl” is the general name for this group of birds, and “peahen” and “peacock” are when their sexes are known. It’s easy to just say “Peacock” because when you say “peafowl” it just sounds funny. *Pied means carrying two or more colors. The pied pattern can occur in almost all varieties of peafowl, in Indian Blue Peafowl the extra color is white.
es, it is possible for a white peahen (a leucistic Indian blue) to have an Indian blue chick. White peacocks are simply a color mutation of the Indian blue peafowl, characterized by leucism a condition where they can produce pigment but not deposit it in their feathers, resulting in their white plumage. When a white peacock is bred with an Indian blue peahen, the offspring can be either white or Indian blue, depending on the genes they inherit.
If both parents are white (leucistic), they will have white chicks. However, if one parent is white and the other is Indian blue, the chicks will have a 50/50 chance of being white or Indian blue.
Peacocks are native to India and Sri Lanka
Peacocks, specifically the Indian peacock, are native to India and Sri Lanka. They are also found in Southeast Asia, with the green peacock native to regions from Myanmar to Java. Additionally, the Congo peacock is native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first peacocks were brought to the US in 1879, when it was becoming popular for the rich to have exotic pets. Now, peafowl in backyard flocks are pretty common. If peafowl choose to leave the farm and go into the woods, they often join up with wild turkey flocks.
Peacock Feathers
The long feathers of a peacock are called the train. A mature peacock will shed his feathers each fall, after mating season. This is called molting and all birds experience some form of molting regularly. This molting allows the peacock to regrow its feathers, particularly the long, vibrant tail feathers, in time for the next breeding season. The energy-intensive process of growing new feathers is why peacocks need to rest and replenish their reserves after the mating season. The little feathers on the head of a peacock or peahen are the crest. the crest feathers are a sensory organ that help a female detect the rattling of a peacocks tail during mating displays. The fanned tips are tuned to vibrate at the same frequency as the rattling tail, acting as a sensor.
The peacock’s vibrant train is not just colored with pigments; it relies on structural coloration and iridescence. Specifically, microscopic structures within the feathers called photonic crystals scatter light in a way that amplifies certain wavelengths, creating the dazzling iridescent colors. These photonic crystals interfere with light, causing it to reflect and refract, producing the unique shimmering effect.
A peahen has dull color feathers to camouflauge with the environment during egg incubation.
We had the peachicks inside in a brooder until they were large enough to move outside to a heated brooder. We used a large enclosure with a heat lamp set up with a standard 100 watt light bulb. Once they were big enough to go outside, we did create a heated roost with outdoor carpet/fabric over a heated plumbing tape in our enclosed run. *Since there is a ton of information out there about raising peafowl, and some conflicting, Sandi decided to choose one information source and follow it, the advice in the book Peacocks Only, and we suggest everyone who wants to raise peafowl follow this advice, it’s worked for us!
Finally we decided to let them out to free range our farm, and they and we are much happier! In inclement weather, they go into the school bus coop. Otherwise, at night they roost in our really tall pine trees overlooking our farm. They’re all yearlings now (2023) and this spring has brought out some of their calling sounds. They also soar across the yard and can fly from the ground to the top of the house or pole barn with no trouble at all. They are majestic to watch in flight, and pretty when they are strutting around – feathers up or down!
Peacocks Adventures
An update to our “free range” experiment. The peafowl were great, until they turned one year old. Then they all decided to go off on adventures. They left for a day and came back. Then they left again, and neighbors began reporting sightings. They came back several days later, hung out, had snacks, and left again in the morning. From this point they started wandering miles away, and a sightings were posted on neighborhood groups on Facebook. We started going to “collect” our babies with large fishing nets. The key, we’ve found, to catching them is to get them when they are on the ground very quickly. Once you have them netted, or are able to grab them get a leg, ideally both legs. They will still whap you with their wings (which are incredibly strong!) But once you have a good hold of both legs and don’t let go you’ve got them. If you miss and they take flight they’ll be on the roof of the house in two seconds and then you’re out of options until they choose to come down again. Since our trains weren’t too long at a year old we were able to transport on dog kennels. Word of caution though, you have to cover a wire kennel if it has no top because if they can see sky they will try to escape through the top. There will be a lot of jumping/flapping and risk of injury in this case.
The peacocks got a lot of attention, and even a news article about them. The writer reached out on the group and we were connected for some thoughts and advice on peafowl.
Yes, the Peacocks made the local news
BRIGHTON — It was Tuesday, June 6, and the last thing Hacker Road resident Donald Starrs expected to see was a muster of five peacocks on his roof.
While locking up his chickens for the night, Starrs at first saw what he thought were his neighbor’s chickens.
“I said, ‘What are those? To read the rest of the article on Livingston Daily click here.
Be in the know…
Did you know a group of peafowl is called an “Ostentation”?
Peacocks Only Facebook Group
A group of peacocks can be referred to as a muster, pride, or ostentation. The term “muster” is often used, while “pride” and “ostentation” are more poetic and showy. Additionally, a general term like “flock” can also be used, especially if the context is broader.
The New Peacock Aviary
Since our birds had their wander, we had a decision to make. If we wanted to keep peafowl on our farm, we would have to make them a safe space where they could remain locked in, and still enjoy life as peacocks and peahens. We made the decision to create a huge aviary by wrapping fencing around some of our tall pine trees in the middle of our “farm yard”. The resulting pen is incredible! Its tall enough with roost bars built in that the birds can choose where to be. We put a jungle gym over the very top of the pen with a roost bar and roof over the top for night time roosting, and it is where the birds decide to spend their nights now. We’ve collected the eggs the hens have laid, and either shared with other farms or incubated and hatched the peachicks.
Peacocks & Peahens
Peachicks
Our peachicks start in an indoor brooder once they hatch. We use a 100 w light bulb so they have heat available all the time but it’s not too hot. Once they are old enough and the weather is okay, we move them outside, with the light to the outdoor brooder where they stay until they are large enough to be added to the outdoor pen with the adults, which was about 4 months old. We find peachicks to be taller than chicken chicks, and a bit jumpy (turkey poults are much more docile than peachicks and even chickens). Peachicks are noisy and will whistle almost nonstop whether they are warm, cold, happy, hungry or bored.
Our Flock
Our peafowl flock has changed a bit since we started. Our first five turned out to be three males, two indigo blue and a white, and two females, one white and one pied purple. When the males reached 1.5 years old they started posturing each other for top peacock, and because of the size of our pen and flock size decided it would be best to rehome two of the males. Our purple girl got sick and sadly padded away. We got a message one day on our facebook page from a homeowner in Novi, MI who had a peacock hanging out on their property and spending time under their back deck. They asked if we could come get it, and of course we said yes. As it turns out it was a hen, and she was also green/purple, so after a quarantine to make sure she was healthy she joined our group of 3, one indigo peacock, a white peahen and a green peahen. Hens will lay approx. 23- 25 eggs a season. With the dynamics in our flock, our color possibilities are white offspring, and indigo, and combinations of the two. We incubated and hatched some of the eggs in 2024 and ended up keeping two chicks, who turned out to be an indigo peacock and a peahen. Now that they are one, we’re keeping a close eye on the male to make sure his dad doesn’t decide he has to go. If he does, we’ll either consider letting him out to free range or find a new home for him. If his family is still in the pen and he can be near them, he may not feel the need to roam. We’ll make that decision when the time comes. In the meantime, we are collecting eggs that are laid every other day or so, and have sold some to new farms who want to get into peacocks themselves. This past weekend we shared some with a new home who considers peacocks their “unicorn” something they’ve always wanted and are so excited about. We can relate, once upon a time peacocks were our “unicorn” animal as well.