Neighbor to freerange peafowl

[aart]

My kids are loud, too, so I'm totally on-board with loud peafowl noises, I just don't want them shredding up a roof... or frequently defecating on surfaces that I hope to let my freerange baby crawl around on. (In spite of a general freerange policy, my kids are usually confined to my property and certainly aren't allowed to go climbing on other people's houses without express permission.)

Squirt guns would indeed be the easiest/cheapest course of action. I'm envisioning a gentle spray, not waterboarding or turning a hydrant on them... just enough to convince the peahens that other roofs and porches are more enticing. But I'm hoping this is only a secondary backup for a primary defense of neighborly cooperation.

Great Post-haha!

You may need more than a gentle shower(they may like that), but not to the point of waterboarding. Good 'tap' or two with the 'sharp stream/jet' setting on garden nozzle should do the trick.

Good Luck!

 

[newmarch2014]

We moved into a neighborhood with closeby free ranging Peafowl. "Oh aren't they pretty" I said.....until after a few years they were so plentiful they were a road hazard. They were forever wandering the streets. The owners did erect a very large, very tall scaffolding platform in their back yard to entice them to stay home but they preferred the roof of a newly built 2 story house instead. After multiple birds got hit by cars and the rumor that the home owners of the chosen roost complained the peafowls dissapeared entirely. Everything is fun and games till poop is running out of your gutters......

 

[DwayneNLiz]

@wontyoupeamyneighbor love the attitude you are approaching this with and the humor in your posts!!
may need to get some of those bird-be-gone roof strips

Good Luck!!

 

[BYCDebiD]

I must be a horrible person because my first thought was that if the yard is already fenced, why not get a dog? I'd expect that would discourage peafowl trespassing.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

So, out of curiosity.... why keep peafowl? only because you like the display on the males? or is there more to it? Do people still eat them?

 

[wontyoupeamyneighbor]

How do the roof spikes work? Do you just install them on the perimeter of the roof, where the peafowl would land? So far I've seen them only fly onto the porch roofs from the ground, so that would hopefully be a doable amount.

Thanks for the tip about the fine line between providing a fun shower and discouraging them.

Finding out that one appears to have bought Malfoy Manor, complete with resident albino peafowl, is pretty hilarious, so I'm trying to maintain a sense of humor as we negotiate this situation!

Do you recommend things like owl statues and reflective tape as a part of a super-terrifying peafowl haunted house?

 

[DwayneNLiz]

the spike strips go on the edges and peak of the roof to prevent perching

 

[wontyoupeamyneighbor]

Would one want to do the bird spikes around the 2nd floor roof as well as the porch roofs? Or would just the lower roofs be enough?

I'm imagining this would be regarded as an act of outright peafowl war by the neighbor, so I think we'll try this only after other approaches are exhausted, but thanks for the photos -- the roof spikes look much less ugly than expected.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Would one want to do the bird spikes around the 2nd floor roof as well as the porch roofs? Or would just the lower roofs be enough?

I'm imagining this would be regarded as an act of outright peafowl war by the neighbor, so I think we'll try this only after other approaches are exhausted, but thanks for the photos -- the roof spikes look much less ugly than expected.

you would put them anywhere you have seen them perching

 

[Phage]

I had peafowl and loved them. I knew I had to keep them (3) penned so that they would not damage neighbors' (or our) property. In the end I rehomed 2 of them them as IMO I could not provide them all with enough space. That was my choice, and it was determined by not wanting to detrimentally affect the birds or neighbors' property or sanity.

I also had a lot of "abuse" including mail box egging, from a very cranky neighbor who objected to the peacock call during spring. He lives across the canyon from us so it is not even like he is next door. The same neighbor complains about my rooster despite the fact that I am allowed 2 due to the size of the property, I catch him and put him in the garage every evening, and there are about 20 other roosters around. He also complains about children "playing noisily" in their own back gardens. I think he just likes to complain but he has destroyed much of my joy of having birds over the years.

So what I am trying to say is:
People with peafowl do tend to love them A LOT.
Peafowl WILL damage your property.
I don't think hoses will stop that unless you are on hose duty day and night to shoo them away.

I would talk to the potential neighbor before buying the property. See how reasonable they are. If it seems like they are going to be unhelpful I would seriously reconsider buying that house as bad neighbors can make your life just stressful and miserable.