The peacock is on the right. He has a longer tail, but has yet to develop his full plumage because he is only a year old. They do not get their full set of tail feathers until they are 3 years old.
These were a gift from my middle child who decided we could not have 5 acres without a peacock to go with it. We had to build a shelter for them and were told we should keep them penned up for several months until they were used to the place and knew they could come back here to find food.
They were both rather wild when we got them from the breeder, having been raised in large pens with lots of other peafowl where they were often chased down and captured with large nets when a buyer came to purchase one of them. This wildness caused them to become frantic and fly around the enclosure in a panic when we went in to give them food or water. And, unfortunately, after about a week, the female escaped when she flew against the door while Tom was in there to take care of a spilled food container. She flew over the fence and into the tall Johnson grass on our neighbor's property.
We were both just sick about it and, although Tom went to look for her, it was a hopeless endeavor. There is a creek with some tall trees beyond the grass and there is no telling where she might have gone. We left food outside the pen, hoping she would come back to eat, but that did not happen and we have not seen anything of her since.
There is a silver lining to this story, though. With the female gone, the peacock has settled down considerably. She was definitely the wilder of the two and got agitated at the slightest thing. The male has tamed down so much, in fact, that I can now enter his pen without him getting agitated at all. Isn't he a beautiful boy? He is an India Blue Pied. The regular India Blues do not have the white feathers.
We bounced several names back and forth. We agreed his name should start with a "P". I was all for calling him Pete, after the OSU mascot Pistol Pete. But, Tom felt he should have an Indian name, like Piscine, the name of the boy in the book Life of Pi. In the end, we decided to call him "Petey Pi".
Although you can't see it, the front of the shed is covered with chicken wire. It serves two purposes, one to keep him in, but also to keep predators out. Believe it or not, peafowl, as large as they are, can fall prey to raccoon, coyotes and owls. In Petey Pi's case, he is more susceptible to predators at night because of his white feathers.
As soon as we can, we plan to build an outside enclosure attached to the shed to allow him outside access during the day. Later this year, we hope we will be able to let him out to free-range. The only problem with that is he will undoubtedly stray over to our neighbors, too. So, we'll have to see how that works out before we make it permanent.
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