My Silver Pieds, Zeus & Athene
Located in Pen #4 are my juvenile silver pied breeding pair, Zeus and Athene, who are just as aloof and dignified as the Olympian deities they are named after. The male, Zeus, namesake of the greatest of all Greek gods, has a very disinterested, superior attitude towards all humans that attempt to admire his beauty, while Athene (the Greek goddess of wisdom & war) is more sociable, but only slightly so. Both birds are rather bright, and certainly have something over Dusty in that department, for although he is a doll, sometimes it seems he is almost as dumb as the dirt he was named after!
Silver Pieds have long been one of my favorite types of peafowl. Ever since I saw a picture of these birds on a website, I decided I needed to get some. I was (and still am) enthralled by their coloration and how each bird is quite unique, whihc is not really the case with most other variations. I received these two birds as a birthday gift from my parents in October of 2000, from the same breeder in which I got my cameos. These birds were not sexed at the time, and it was not until much later when Zues began developing blue coloration on his neck and billowy early train feathers and Athene did not that we were assured that we had been lucky enough to get a breeding pair.
When all my juveniles were still in one large pen, Zues always used to make me laugh by displaying his puny half-train to all the hens, usually with Dusty by his side doing the same thing. He was always at the top of the pecking order as well, sometimes picking on our smaller and lower ranking white and blackshoulder males.
I am looking forward to having silver pied babies next year, and possibly a few this year. Athene was the first of my juveniles to begin laying up in their new pen, and has given me the most eggs so far. None of them have been fertile as of yet, but I'm hoping this may change by the end of breeding season. We also did lose an egg because Athene was determined to lay it while she was sitting on a roost, but hopefully she will not attempt this again!
