OUR PEAFOWL

Our Peafowl

This class of poultry, technically referred to as Peafowl, is the most ornamental of all breeds in the class. Their origins date back many thousands of years, and they have been raised and kept in captivity for over 2000 years.

“Pavo Cristatus” or common peafowl are native to India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Groups of peafowl are called “parties” and usually one peacock (male) attracts and services a harem of 3-5 peahens (females). Peafowl nest and feed on the ground but are capable of flight over short distances and often roost in trees. Peahens usually lay 3-5 buff to light brown eggs per clutch and they are about the same size as turkey eggs.

We raise “India Blue” Peafowl and have had mixed success with breeding.

For our first attempt we relied upon nature, allowing the peahens to lay and set on their clutch. Unfortunately, none of the eggs hatched. For our second attempt, we removed the eggs once they were laid and allowed one of our best setting chickens to care for the eggs. With this strategy we were able to successfully hatch our first egg. It was a peacock and he imprinted quickly upon us and was quite tame and friendly. Our most recent foray into breeding led us to again change our strategy, this time removing the eggs and placing them in an incubator. Though we successfully hatched many chicken eggs through this method, the peacock eggs failed to hatch.

In 2007 we had a breakthrough year with our peafowl! One of our Udderly EZ Milker customers from Arkansas provided us with some invaluable information about peafowl nutrition that we implemented and our two hens laid over 40 eggs which we placed in our incubator and had our best success at hatching. We’re now considering the possibility of adding more breeding stock of the Indian Blue variety as well as potentially venturing into other varieties.

(Photos coming soon.)