Our Awesome Peafowl

 

I begin by apologizing for not having great photos of our beautiful peafowl. I am sure there were better ones but they have been lost over the years.
Note: Peacock is the name given to male peafowl. The female is a peahen.

One of my father's (Pete Maslek) many hobbies during the 60's was raising exotic birds.  He had built huge pens from chicken wire so they could move around freely.  He had separate areas for each species.

Today I'll just focus on the peafowl.  They of course were my favorites.  That is, except in the mornings. They make very loud shrill noises, especially during mating season.  And it just so happens that they love to be noisy very early in the morning. 

As a young girl, I kind of wanted to sleep in when I wasn't going to school.  Unlikely to happen with these creatures around.

There are blue, green and white peafowl. The blue are the tamest of the three.  

It's very important that they have enough space so the peacocks (males) can display their long tail feathers without injury.  There were shelters and roosts.  My dad landscaped their pens.

Unfortunately we could not let them roam freely since foxes and other predators lived in the area.  

Dad had been communicating with a man who was an expert in raising peafowl and other birds.  My dad would buy eggs/chicks from this man, raise them, and sell them for a profit.  Our peahens also laid eggs and raised their own chicks. 

There was also a market for feathers.  My mom would collect the shedded feathers and sell them.  The neighboring women loved to make beautiful pictures and arrangements with them.

I often think of how privileged I was to be able to say I got to see "Peacocks" every day when I was young.

In my next post I will talk about some other birds we had on our farm.  Please come back!