My peahen Beep, hatched out 5 keets this spring. She lost one the first night to drowning, but has raised the others all summer loose in the yard. I decided that it was time to send the keets to their new home and managed to coax them in a large wire dog crate. It was designed for a tray in the bottom with large open squares. Since I normally use this as a vacation home for the guinea pig, it is upside down with the big squares on the top.
As soon as I shut them in there Beep had a fit. She kept trying to coax them out so I put the tray on the top,( it is a heavy tray). Later she jumped up on the fence rail while I was working near it and stared right in my face, like she knew it was my fault that the babies were enclosed. A little later than that, she and Toot (the male) were standing with their heads together as if they were whispering behind my back. Honest to God, I NEVER see these two birds close together. The last time they were was when they mated. The stayed that way for a bit making clicking and beeping sounds and then started following me around the yard. I went in the house and then worked elsewhere.
When I came back out the keets were still in the cage and the peacocks were up in the tree nearby. About dusk, I went in the house for about 20 minutes. came back out and the tray had been moved aside and the keets were sitting on the fence under Beep's wings. Toot stood watch from the post. They stayed there all night. I tried approaching them and they HISSED at me.
Now, both adults stay with the babies and won't let me get near them. Every time I am in the yard, they glare at me.
It's almost as if they communicate and are plotting. I always thought that peacocks were all pretty feathers and no brains. Am I wrong? Have we been underestimating these birds?
Peacocks are creeping me out
Uh Oh......
Oh dear! LOL I think there's a conspiracy. I think you should not have put the keets in that crate until it was time to load it on your truck and drive off to the new home! Congrats on your new family!!!
Sorry jyl but I was rolling reading your post. Those are large birds so on the serious side, please be careful. I would not trust them. No telling what they may do if they feel threatened. Haystack
I'm sorry for laughing too.. but I could just see it.. like I was right there.. That is just toooo funny!
I can't answer your question though.. I think they have done it for you!
o my.. thats funny. The place i babysit has peacocks.. they'd lay on my car looking in my sunroof & hiss at me if I tried to get near my car. At night they'd roost on the house near my car & yell at me when i went to get in it scaring me to death. They really liked my shiny lil sports car. They are very smart birds. Sounds like you have a new family. Hope you enjoy them.. I'm just a tad bit scared of them.
Peacocks are very intelligent and family oriented. They are very good at defending their offspring, as you have now discovered. You've been labeled a child abuser in Beep's and Toot's minds. You'll need to be creative to get near their children again. They also have long memories when it comes to people.
For several years I lived on a property with feral peacocks. We had mulitiple generations in the flock. Sometimes their emotions overruled their intellect though. The whole family would try to sit together on the same branch of a pine tree. The branch would bend lower and lower as each additional bird would fly up to roost. Eventually the branch would bend to near vertical and they would slide off. LOL!
The pea family rapidly befriended my Golden Retriever and would sit in a circle around him when he napped in the shade. The pea-chicks and pea-teens would play pranks on him and he would occassionally grab one in his mouth, carry it over to a pea-hen and spit the chick out to send them back to mom.
The moms had no issue with my dog, or with me, but they hated the next door neighbour (the feeling was mutual) and when into some very intimidating posturing when the neighbour got anywhere near them. The peacocks also hated the guinea fowl that roamed around. One guinea would hop onto the tail of the peacock to slow him down and another guinea would put its head down and ram the peacock in the chest with its horn. Those skirmishes were quite something to see.
garden_mermaid, I love your description of the peacock's behaviour. Some of the growers out here in the Central Valley have them and I have always envied those that could.
Maybe when I move to Missouri?
Stop teasing Catscan!
yippie Catscan is coming too!!! just wait I"ll have all of you out here!
Any news on Beep and Toot and the kids? Are they still giving you the evil eye?
They still are just watching me where ever I go and last night they all sat on my car and pooped. Evil, Evil birds.
Did u try spoiling them with treats? :)
I tried to locate some nasty background on peacocks--but they always seem to symbolize goodness, eternal life, openess.....so they obiviously have a very deceptive nature.
I think it is whistle-blowing time!
I always thought they were very beautiful birds but very evil.. but then the ones down the street would chase us when we rode by on our bicycles. The one that lived behind us would chase us kids.. then hop up on the barn we'd run into, keeping us pinned till it grew bored. I was scared to death of them till the kids got 8 babies last year & I got to watch them close up for a few months.
Well, if someone locked your children up in a crate and upset them, wouldn't you poop on their car too? Somethings we must learn the hard way....because.....who knew? I humbly suggest that you apologize to them profusely and ply them with treats.
The feral peacocks in my old neigbourhood were very gentle unless they thought their little ones were threatened. I had never realized that peahens could raise their tails in the same way that the peacocks do until I was living in the midst of them. The pea-teens and pea-chicks were grazing in a corner of my garden when the guniea fowl popped over to try and shoo them off. Mama peahen noticed what was happening, put up her tail to look bigger and ran over to stomp the guineas, who took off running.
Mad peahens are quite fearsome!
At the same time, the whole flock was very compassionate. I remember sitting in the garden sobbing my heart out over something (now long since forgotten) and the flock came over to comfort me. They formed a circle around me to keep intruders away and the peahens lay next to me and rubbed their cheeks against my shoulders or draped their necks over my lap. They make an interesting crooning noise when they are trying to comfort. I'd heard them make this sound with their young ones, and at that moment they were crooning to comfort me. It is easy for me to see why they are associated with goodness and eternal life as well.
The peacock should have let me keep the babies. An owl took one last night and there is no way I can protect them.
I'd give them treats, but have never found anything that they really liked, except the kale, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi and nasturtiums in my garden. Even with that stuff they are strictly "self service", if I offer it they turn up their snooty little beaks.
Perhaps if you explain to them that you were trying to protect their babies from predatory owls they will come around?
I had to keep my garden under chicken wire to grow anything around them. Even that was tricky.......I'm still trying to figure out how they got the plants through the wire without getting their heads stuck! LOL!
Sound's like target practice time to me JYL, let me know if you need something bigger than a 22. OK Haystack POO on my car I don't think so.
The kids peacocks like Friskies cat food in the purple bag, strawberries, watermelon & chicken feed. The also ate those white powdered donuts one time that they stole. ooo & they like Twinkies. Not that they get these often by any means bc donuts & twinkies most likely aren' tgood for them.. but it might save the babies if you find just the right thing to spoil them with. Who knows that yours would eat any of that.. but its always worth a shot if your willing to hunt up a special treat for them.
Mermaid: I've found you just can't reason with a peacock.
Haystack. I think I need a cannon. I am under seige with preditors right now. I had a coyote take out my entire flock of silkies in the back yard, an owl the peacock and a skunk or possom took out a duck in the front yard and now a chicken right outside the back door last night. We have already live trapped 4 young possoms and moved them, but I am done being nice. I want them all dead gone.
It's pretty frusterating to being a wildlife rehabilitator and the animals rising up against me. They must think I'm putting out a buffett!
Greykitten, If I toss the peas anything, they look at it suspiciously and leave it till later. Then the dog eats it before they come back. The only thing the dog won't eat is dry corn. (He'll even eat chicken feed!)
Have recent weather and climate issues reduced the predators' usual food sources?
WOW!!! I don't like sounding cruel, but I can tell you I have the patience of Job when it comes to revenging my flock, I will sit all night for as long as it take to destroy any and all preditors. I rehome them six feet under with no remorse at all. I have a military policy, "don't ask don't tell. even the endangered species are not safe when they become preditors here. Sound's harsh I know, but that's just the way it is. I will never spend a dime on live traps, a 22 is much cheaper and effective. Jyl I seriously wish you the best. Knock their lights out. Hay
I'm with you Haystack... I don't hunt, I just sit and wait.
Have you ever tried one of those high powered pellet rifles? Are they any quieter than the .22? I don't want to freak the neighbors out with the sound of rifle shots if I don't have to. And a regular pellet gun can kill something as large as a cat.
I would have a hard enough time aiming and hitting anything in the daytime, let alone the night! You guys must be good shots!
I took lessons and practiced. I didn't want to wound, I wanted to kill. Taking a life is a serious responsibility in my book, and if you're gonna do it, do it right. Whether it's a chicken, a goat, or a varmint.
My dad was a guide and outfitter in the Rockies, and had nothin' good to say about "yayhoos" who couldn't hit an elk at 50' and if they wounded an animal couldn't be bothered to track it.
I, frankly, share his opinions on that one.
Can't stand the beer he drinks, though, so we are not of one mind...
=0)