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I lived in a gated neighborhood about 5 years ago on Lake Austin that had a colony of peacocks and peahens, and all but one family who had NO patio/deck wanted to get rid of them! They leave huge piles (about triple the size of a chicken's!!) of excrement everywhere! Perhaps they can be trained to "do their business" elsewhere?
I don't know, but that's an interesting and critical question. I'll see what I can find out. Hmm, I wonder about peacock do for compost? I'll talk to Larry's mom about that one.
Well, if you wanted to use the "doo" for compost, it would be difficult, to harvest, as it's the same consistency of a chicken's...you would have to scrape it up...you don't get a nice little "turd" like most animals! :-) That's why we didn't like them...the "doo" was too hard to clean up unless you mopped it up!
Connie, that's interesting to hear since our neighborhood peacocks leave very solid sausage-shaped, "calling cards" on our front porch. I'm always chasing them out of our yard because I don't want to step in their mess. It sounds as if their diet might account for this distinct difference.
There is a flock of at least six peacocks in this neighborhood, and--beautiful though they are--we consider them pests. They've damaged tiles on our roof, and I discovered they're not just partial to white flowers: They love my red pentas. My neighbor shot bb's at them because they ate all his lettuce. That doesn't pierce their skin (he doesn't want really to hurt them), but he thought it might scare them away. However, they're not like Pavlov's dogs; it took three or four encounters before they stayed away.
Maybe I'd be more willing to put up with their mess, their ugly squawking, and their appetite for my plants if they'd at least shed a pretty iridescent feather or two in my yard. But no, I've never found a single one!
Sorry, but I really wish these pieces of living art would move to someone else's neighborhood.
Wow...that's strange! I thought that "our" peacocks' runny doo was normal because they are from the chicken family (tell me if I'm wrong, someone!) and we all know about chickens' doo. :=) Well, we lived at the peacock compound for about 2 years and "ours" (no thanks!) always did the "run" so maybe it does have something to do with their diet.
