Male peacocks are hindered by the 'tail' and this leaves them more vulnerable to predation, our neighbor down the block growing up had a feral tom cat go after his peacock and kill it when I was 7. On the pro side that thing ate all kinds of bugs before it died.

I have a large farm (We do not live on it). Back about 1976 I thought that it would be nice to have some pea fowl running around. They can be very destructive. They can and do dent your car hood and roof. They will pull wood roofing shingles off any old barn you might have. They poo indiscriminately.

They have been living wild with the guineas since 1982. To this day they are all over the place. Some of the neighbors 3/4 to 1 mile away say they enjoy seeing them stroll about their lawns and get excited over see the chicks in the spring and summer. Started with 3 different colors a total of 9 birds. Last count they numbered 61. Guineas too numerous to count.

They do scream day or night-the guineas are good watch dogs. If I had to do it all over again I would-They Simply Are Beautiful and worth the trouble.

My 12 year old peacock Floyd will do his "He-onk" yell at night, and it is very loud. My neighbor about a 1/4 of a mile away says he can hear him. He does it up to 20 times a night in the spring and summer tapering down to once a week during the winter. He will also do it if he hears a loud noise like a siren or gunshot. He likes to roam. He will not stay in the one acre yard. With clipped wings he can jump a 4' fence with easy. Without clipping there is not a fence high enough. The female is just as bad but no noise. When they go for a walk-about they will be gone all day. He is a bully. I have always heard "Guineas Rule". Not with a peacock on the yard. You have never seen a sight like two peacocks fighting. They will run together and go straight up in the air, face to face for over 50 feet.
The good thing? I raised him from an egg. When he was a baby I would crawl around in the grass helping him catch grasshoppers. He still follows me around like a puppy. He will sit on my lap. He loves to be petted. He is the most loving yard bird I have ever had.

I should have said peacocks and Guineas because I am considering both. I heard good things about the guineas such as their ability to eradicate your property of ticks, of which I have a BIG problem in the summer. I heard they were good watch birds BUT that is only if you can keep them on the property. And they are loud. So far the peacock opinions are keeping me swayed away, but I appreciate the honesty, I would hate for you to sugar coat it and then I am miserable. The males are prettier ...are the males and females the same? Well no matter why have a peacock without the plume?

did they do anything to help with ticks and wasps? beside the noise were they okay or not? I am only getting 6 but I guess 6 can turn into 36 pretty quick

The Peafowls I have only holler in the spring and some in the fall. It doesnt bother me at all, yet the guineas drive me nuts at times. I enjoy the peas and have had them for years. I do keep mine penned in 12 x 16 indoor pens with outside yards of the same dimensions. I got rid of them once for a couple years and regretted it until i got some more. I think they are gorgeous. I market the feathers from the Peas and the gold & amhersts pheasants which brings in a couple of hundred dollars per year, buys the feed and some left over. I have 3 breeding pairs. I think most people who have negative things to say about any particular animal have management problems??

We have 12 peafowl. The noise doesn't
bother me.
They need more protein in their feed
and worming regularly.
Like all critters the more time spent
with them the better.
They are truly Gods prettier handiwork!

I am not sure about ticks because I have always had guineas and no ticks? They may be the reason for no ticks? I have never seen them eat wasp but I have seen them eat honeybees. They are no doubt debugging machines. They scratch the ground for bugs but not as bad as my chickens.

people always say chickens do your garden good but from the little time I have let them out I see that they will scratch anything right out of the ground. I don't know how you can grow anything with chickens around!!

My mind is made up now.

Peacocks are OUT unless I can get some kind of aviary built. It did not take much to convince me of that. I think the dents and scratches in the car did it for me. No money for an aviary so they are OUT OUT OUT OUT

6-Guineas IN..don't mind the noise. I will have to lock them up for a few months like I did the chickens, that way they won't wander too far...hopefully

2-Easter Eggers IN...gotta love those multi-colored eggs

If you are going to get guineas you want to get them when they are no more than two days old. Handle them as often as you can. Keep them dry. They don't do well if they get wet.
They need to be kept penned for the first six weeks in their house. Give them feed and teach them your call home sound when you feed them so when they get bigger they will come home when you call.
They are lousy mothers. They will eat ticks and small snakes, even kill small rodents. They need a dusting area and they love to look at themselves in a mirror. If you have a reflective door they will find it and park themselves there. Better to give them their own in their pen.
If you do a Goggle search on Guinea hens you will find very good book on raising them.

Hey NY...thanks for the advice. I have a book on them already. Hopefully I cann find a good set of them and keep them on my 1 acre

Good luck! I personally am getting into turkey's because of the 2 1/2 acre fenced in pasture my horse lives in.

I am new to peacock, now I have a family with 4 baby peachicks in that I have 2 white peachicks . I wonder how did that happen cos my peacock is Indian blue.
I love them my husband and children hate it! Yes i admit in the mating season they are annoying the whole city can hear them ,my husband never slept those days.

my husband wants a peacock but after reading all of these comments I am not so sure!

I have a question about getting along with others......... We have a barn where owls live currently. Would a peacock and the owls leave each other alone and get along, or is one a predator to another or both too big to think of taking each other on? Thanks.

I don't understand why a couple people have said Guinea Hens are terrible mothers. Not in my experience at all. My mother had a covey of about 10 birds (males and females). They had a community nest with eggs which the adults all took turns sitting on (yes, males and females!), untill they hatched.

So that night they wanted those babies up in that roost right away! They were free range, and had chosen a regular roosting spot with two tiers, the highest tier about as high as our roof. Guineas like to be well off the ground for the night, and they were not leaving their chicks behind!

We watched them (the whole flock) taking turns flying up, then back down, trying to teach those babies to get up there the first night. It took awhile, but they just kept working on it until every one of those babies had made it up to the nightly roost. It was the damndest thing! I was enchanted!

So, maybe Guinea's are bad mothers, i dont know... But they are a covey bird, and, at least with ours, it did seem to take a villiage, but a villiage they had!! This could be something to consider.

I have never had guineas but my grandmother used to say that they were different from chickens in that after they laid eggs you had to gather them with a long handled spoon or they would not lay there again. Once you reached in and left your scent in the nest they would not return to lay or set on the eggs they had already left. This may be part of the reason some think they are not great mothers.

I see very few comments about peacocks and your neighbors gardens. My neighbor has decided that free ranging his flock is a good idea in our area, sadly it is not. We are in a farming community and properties are used for growing food, raising food/animals et etc. Some enjoy growing flowers and having good sized yards for the kids and dogs to run wild in. Previously around here and other nearby communities, owners of pea fowl have either lost track of their birds or just abandoned them outright..eventually they become a issue with other people and get eradicated simply because they have become a pest. Since my neighbor has owned them before, I am hard pressed to think he didn't know how destructive they are. They have continuously ripped out young plants and shredded landscaping fabric in my garden beds. Free ranging these birds also means that they can holler right in your neighbors open windows during warm months too. Not so nice for people who have a hard time staying asleep and working a regular professional job. Personally, they are pretty to look at and that's about it, I don't consider these birds to be farm material as they are def not vegetation friendly. If you are thinking about having these birds, be considerate of others and do not free range them.