When I was a little girl I was awestruck about peafowl at the zoo. Ever since then, I loved peafowl. They are not my favorite animal (my favorite animal is the wolf), but they are certainly my favorite bird.When I got older, I found out on the internet that you can own peafowl. Then I found out that there are numerous people in the US that breed and sell peafowl. I visited lots of peafowl websites, deciding that I wanted my first peafowl to be black shoulders. After many years of begging my parents I eventually got a pair of peafowl on October 11, 2009, from the local zoo that closed down. The peacock was an India blue, and the peahen was a black shoulder. I named the male Fire and the female Ice. After penning them for a month or so I let them out and they stayed for a month but the peacock, Fire, ran away and we got calls about people seeing him but we never were able to get there in time to catch him. Ice ran off too, but we were able to catch her. Now Ice, my original peahen, is in a large aviary with my other peafowl.
The thing to keep in mind about my story, is that most people who get into raising peafowl have already been raising some other bird, like chickens, so they already have experiance with birds. Also many people don't get into peafowl until there kids have grown up or they are retired, etc. For me, I had NO experiance with raising or keeping any kind of bird. I had read up a lot on peafowl so I wasn't unprepaired, but peafowl were the first bird I had ever owned and I would say they are a great bird to start off with in my oppinion. I got my first peafowl when I was in high school so I feel lucky to get an earlier start on raising peafowl than others.
I have 9 peafowl currently as of 3-10-16. The most peafowl I have ever had at one time might have been 12. My peafowl always bring me joy and help me relax after a stressful day. They make my life more interesting for sure! I have been through ups and downs raising them. Sometimes you have great accomplishments like hatching out cute peachicks, and sometimes you have sad things happen like a raccoon killing one of your peafowl. Raising peafowl isn't always easy, but it is definately worth it. I have had fun hand rasing a little peachick named Peep that imprinted to me and in 2014 I have wittnessed him finally becoming a big, pretty, adult peacock. I am so proud of Peep and proud of all of my peafowl for being great birds. They all eat out of my hand and many of them will follow me around. I am also big into green peafowl. On June 4th, 2015 I was surprised when a local peafowl breeder called me offering to give me an Imperator peachick so that is what got me started with green peafowl. I am really interested in conserving the green peafowl because it is endangered, and I do get very easily anoyed seeing spalding peafowl being sold as pure greens. If you want green peafowl I will bombard you with information on them and links to learn more about them, because I believe if you want green peafowl, you better know what pure green peafowl look like, know how to care for them propperly, and make sure you get pure birds or else you will only be contributing to the endangerment of green peafowl. They are not to be taken as lightly as India Blue peafowl and their varieties in my oppinion.
Why the Bamboo Peacock?
Around the same time I got interested in owning peafowl, I also got interested in gardening to make the area in and around their pen look pretty. I have a few clumps of bamboo and like how it looks so I decided to add the bamboo part in the name because I like bamboo and hope to maybe sell plants too, or at least have a big tropical garden which can be possible in my planting zone 9a climate. I also grow fatsias, ti plants, gold dust, bananas, and shell ginger just to name some.
I have had articles in the UPA's Peafowl Today magazine. These are the articles:
"How I got Started With Peafowl"
"The Joy of that First Peachick"
"My Peafowl Story"
United Peafowl Association Board Member and Magazine EditorIn 2015 I got a call from the UPA Vice President Danny Potente. He was inviting me to come to the UPA convention but he was also wondering if I had any interest in serving on the UPA board of directors. For a few years I had been considering one day applying to be on the board. After Danny explained that the UPA was in need of more board members and in need of some changes, I decided to go for it. Luckily the 2015 convention was very close to me so it was very easy for me to attend. At the convention I attended my first board meeting. At the meeting they spoke of voting for a new magazine editor for the UPA's magazine, Peafowl Today. I got excited learning for the first time that the UPA was looking for a new Editor. For a long time I had ideas in my mind of how to improve the magazine and in high school I made my own peafowl magazine for a final project in one of my classes. I also made a few magazine pages that were peafowl themed for a magazine project in a college class. Also, I am a graphic designer and have won an award in college for my writing. So being a magazine Editor was certainly right up my alley. One of the board members was very serious about wanting to take over the magazine Editor position, so I didn't bother say anything about my secret desire to be the Editor. I figured that after a few years the UPA would once again be looking for a new editor, and then I would be there waiting to take over. As fate would have it, that time came much sooner than I expected. It was twards the end of 2015 when I was contacted by the board to be the new UPA magazine editor because the lady who wanted to be the editor decided she would not be able to do it. I excitedly agreed and my friends, family, and teachers excitedly supported my new job as a magazine Editor. Now I am the United Peafowl Association's magazine Editor! So feel free to contact me about getting your article in the magazine or getting your photos in the magazine. I will work with you to proof read your article and I will give you full credit for your article and/or photos. Thank you for your support and please join the UPA to get the Peafowl Today magazine!
Want to get even more up to date information on how my peafowl are doing, more photos, or ask me questions? You can find me as MinxFox on Backyard Chickens in the peafowl section or you can email, call, or text, but you won't find me on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or most of the big social network sites. :)
