Are peacocks / peafowl easy to keep?
We often get phone calls from people asking are peafowl easy to keep. They are looking for advice as they are thinking of getting their first peafowl. Here are some points to consider:
Territory
Peacocks are territorial and will stay within a territory. Their territory will extend beyond your garden and may extend to your neighbour’s garden and their neighbours garden. Consequently unless peafowl are going to be kept in a large pen or aviary they are unsuitable for urban built up areas.
Peafowl are suitable to live in large gardens, rural properties, farms, hotels, garden centres or large estates. The peafowl need to have room to roam around. Consequently if you have a number of peafowl there needs to be room for several breeding groups.
When you start on your peafowl keeping journey, you will need to keep the peafowl penned for at least six weeks. This is to enable them to acclimatise to the area they are going to live in. Peafowl must be able to see out of the building that they are housed in. An enclosed barn or stable will not be suitable unless you are planning for that building to be a forever home.
If the peafowl are going to be free ranging then they will need protection from the elements and also predators. In the UK the only predators are foxes, which will easily take and eat an adult bird. Peahens sitting on eggs are particularly vulnerable. The peahen will stay on the nest and the fox can walk straight up to them and kill the peahen.
Peafowl need to be looked after, they are not as self sufficient as chickens and ducks. Peafowl certainly will not walk back into their pen each night like chickens do!
However peafowl can be a wonderful addition to any home or garden. Are peafowl easy to keep, I think so!
If you are interested in peacocks for sale UK click here to see our full list of peacocks for sale UK
Back to Keeping Peafowl