A Pad for the Peacocks

We are the proud owners of a bevy of peacocks, eight to be exact.  We did not intend to have any peacocks, much less eight, but isn't that how it always ends up?  

This past spring, my daughters and I began incubating and hatching out some chicks, mainly for the pure joy of watching them peck their way through the shell.  A dear ninety year old friend of mine has pair of peacocks and asked if we would want to hatch out some peacock eggs.  Three separate batches of eggs failed in the incubator, so we decided to call it a day.  Until one day when our friend called and told us to get the brooder ready...eight peachicks would be delivered that week!  

The peacocks are now a couple of months old and have outgrown their small brooder pen we had them in.  So this Labor Day weekend was spent putting together a pen for the peacocks. They are much happier in their 25x25 foot pen and have been happily pecking at the grass. They have even found some dirt for a bath.  Right now, they are using some old dog houses we had lying around for shelter, but we will build a more suitable shed for them before they get too much larger.  We attached netting to the top of the pen so that the hawks can't get in and the peacocks can't get out.  So far, it is working very nicely.

I have scrutinized every inch of these peacocks, but thus far, I still can't determine if they are a peacock or a peahen.  Everything I have read has said it is very difficult to tell what their sex is until they are much older, so I guess I will have to wait it out.  As soon as we are able to identify their gender, we will separate them into pairs and find homes for most of them.  In case you didn't know, peacocks can be VERY loud and eight of them would cause my already irritated neighbors to be not very happy.  But neighbors, take heart.  Peacocks tend to only be very noisy during mating season,  And mating season only lasts about five months!