MinxFox
Member
I have been raising peafowl for a few years, and this year I have had very good times and bad times with raising them. First off I got my first peachicks this year! Three are whites that we got for free from another breeder, one I hatched out and he is the oldest, his name is Peep he follows me around and I can pet him. Then the other three peachicks I have were hatched out by one of my peahens. That was the good news for this year. The bad news was one day I walked into the pen to find the bird that I had always dreamed of owning, and I had only had him for about a year and a half (he is the pied peacock in my avatar, his name was Dragon) I found him dead in the corner of the pen, he had no neck or head left just the knawed on body. That was the first peafowl death I have had. I cried. Then we worked on making the pen really secure and patched up the huge whole the predators made to get in. Then days later my smallest peahen, Pip, was killed. We had trail cameras up the night she was killed and we saw two huge boar raccoons in the photos. We had traps all around the pen to catch them but the camera showed that one entered a trap and didn't set it off and then left! Since the raccoon attacks we figured that they were pulling the birds off the roosts, so we greased all the roost poles so that raccoons can't climp up the roost, but the part the birds roost on is not greased.
The other day I found the netting just ripped on one side of the pen, so there was a huge hole for my birds to fly out of. I am fed up with netting, maybe I just got a bad kind of netting but it just rubs on the perches and everything and breaks. Then when we try and break it with our hands it doesn't break so it must be rubbing on things.
I wanted to know if anyone on here knows of some good top for an aviary. A top that raccoons can't easily break but one that if the birds fly up to the top they won't kill themselves. I would use chicken wire but it rusts really quickly. The aviary is about 40x50ft. not counting the tin building and the small black pen conected to it and around 15ft. tall.
Here are some pictures of the aviary:
It is kind of hard to see but this is the netting, and one of the things that helps hold it up is this birdhouse:
Here is one side of the aviary, the peacock in the picture is Dragon, the first bird to be killed. I have 10 peafowl currently.
That is Dragon (RIP) in the background. This picture shows a good amount of the pen. Although I am tired of the netting, there is one thing I will never hate about it: It isn't very noticable so it doesn't feel like you are in a cage, it feels a little more natural. That cross post is a roost and holds up the netting.
Well I hope I can find out some alternatives. We need to make a new pen for my peachicks that are getting big and I want them to be really safe and in a sturdy pen that I will not have to worry about getting holes in it all the time!
Oh, and we have only had the netting for maybe two years so I don't think it should be causing this much trouble just yet.
The other day I found the netting just ripped on one side of the pen, so there was a huge hole for my birds to fly out of. I am fed up with netting, maybe I just got a bad kind of netting but it just rubs on the perches and everything and breaks. Then when we try and break it with our hands it doesn't break so it must be rubbing on things.
I wanted to know if anyone on here knows of some good top for an aviary. A top that raccoons can't easily break but one that if the birds fly up to the top they won't kill themselves. I would use chicken wire but it rusts really quickly. The aviary is about 40x50ft. not counting the tin building and the small black pen conected to it and around 15ft. tall.
Here are some pictures of the aviary:
It is kind of hard to see but this is the netting, and one of the things that helps hold it up is this birdhouse:
Here is one side of the aviary, the peacock in the picture is Dragon, the first bird to be killed. I have 10 peafowl currently.
That is Dragon (RIP) in the background. This picture shows a good amount of the pen. Although I am tired of the netting, there is one thing I will never hate about it: It isn't very noticable so it doesn't feel like you are in a cage, it feels a little more natural. That cross post is a roost and holds up the netting.
Well I hope I can find out some alternatives. We need to make a new pen for my peachicks that are getting big and I want them to be really safe and in a sturdy pen that I will not have to worry about getting holes in it all the time!
Oh, and we have only had the netting for maybe two years so I don't think it should be causing this much trouble just yet.