Peacocks: Post 11 - Year 2, Spring 2026.

Christmas 2025.

I had wondered whether the cold weather would once again bring respiratory infections back for the hen that had struggled during Dec 2024 and Jan 2025. This year however there was no signs of any problems at all which was heartening.

January and February had been very wet. As a result the peafowl had spent more time than usual up on roost keeping dry.

The birds roost every night on the perches in the aviary. The often retire to the perches in the middle of the day to digest their food they've foraged during the morning.

11 Feb 2026: A typical enquiring look from the perch.

Improving the drainage.

The idea was to create a sump for the water that ponds in this part of the run to collect in. The sump would extend to the proximity of the roots of the bamboo hedge that would act to suck up the water.

20 May 2026: Two gravel 'drains' or depressions connect laterally to a longitudinal gravel 'drain'.

The yellow arrows mark the lateral depressions that I dug out about one and a half spade depths and filled with gravel and then an inch of leaf-litter and soil etc over the top. The yellow dashed line at the far side of the enclosure is the same thing. However there are lots of roots from the bamboo hedge that reach this trench/sump. Together they form a reverse "F" shape sump. It seemed to work pretty much straight away. Time will tell whether it clogs up quickly and becomes ineffective but so far so good.

Protecting the shrubs.

The Spring was dry and pleasant. The peafowl had nearly destroyed the blueberry bushes and the acer and hazel trees. I made a wire cage to put around the bushes to give them a chance to recover and that seemed to be quite successful.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7zPM6PukC10?feature=share

May 2026: Protecting the shrubs from pecking.

Camellia petals.

Cousin Jenny told me that I could make ‘tea’ from the Camellia Japonica in my back yard.

It’s pretty mild and by no means identical, but, definitely hints at regular black tea.

Camellia Japonica: Home made tea from my backyard camellia bush. Drying in the sun.

I had been making home-made tea from the tips of the camellia bush in my back garden. It occurred to me that perhaps the peafowl would like the petals. And they did. The bush produced such an abundance of flowers that they fed on them for a month.

20 May 2026: The peafowl seemed quite fond of Camellia petals.

Sexual maturity.

You can see in the above photo that Mr.Tumnus is beginning to get some green feathers in his tail. The peafowl will be two years old this Summer (2026). I'd also seen Mr.Tumnus getting jiggy with the hens quite a bit during May.

In the next post I'll write about the result of that.