Peacocks and winter

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How well do peacocks tolerate winter, and how much protection should I provide? I know they're pretty tolerant of the cold (heck, they crossed the Alps with Hannibal). My kids won the argument and now we have 3 peacocks. I'm in Southern Ontario near lake Erie. Winter's are comparitively mild with temps generally going down to -10 Celsius but sometimes can plunge much lower (-20 to -22). Another factor is wind chill. We can get some pretty severe winds. (We lost a pheasant last year in the cold because of the wind I suspect).

Russ

-- (rwhitworth@sprint.ca), December 18, 2001

Answers

Hi Russ, my friend has peafowl, and they survive fine here in Nova Scotia. She doesn't let them out in very cold times Their house has several large south facing windows, which seems to warm things up, also hay bales around perimeter of building to keep drafts from coming up(housing is built off the ground) on especially cold weather she puts a light out for them I believe. She has been having problems with what we suspect is blackhead coming in from wild birds getting into the runs and trying to steal food, so all food is now kept inside the housing and not even a crust of bread tossed into the yards. Good Luck.

-- Terri in NS (terri@tallships.ca), December 18, 2001.

Hi Russ, we've had peafowl for years here in Northern Iowa. As long as they have shelter they'll do fine. The building we have ours in is in really bad shape with openings throughout but we put up roosts and they never have a problem with our bitter cold nights. We usually get 7-10 days of -20 degree weather. Even then we open up the building each morning and let them decide if they want to go out or not and usually they don't if there's much snow on the ground. We do always have hay or straw on the floor of the building for them and even throw hay around on the snow sometimes so they can lay in the sun during the day. They're tough as far as the cold weather is concerned as long as they can get inside. Enjoy them :)

-- Anna in Iowa (countryanna54@hotmail.com), December 19, 2001.

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