The Flock Multiplies
Pete and Polly kept me satisfied for quite a long time, but when summer rolled around I started having some free time again and began to rekindle my peacock obsession. I started searching the web and that's when I discovered that there are many varieties of peafowl. I had known about the blues of course, and heard about the green. I also knew that there were white peacocks, but I thought that was it. I had no clue just how many different kinds there were!
Well once I knew this there was no stopping me. It was peacock site after peacock site, until I convinced myself I just had to have more peacocks. I kept coming up to my parents with useless peafowl facts that I'm sure they didn't really care to know, but finally I got the nerve to just ask them if I could have another pair. I actually got a positive response, the only problem was, it was up to me to find them for a reasonable price and then they'd see. Well, that was easier said than done.
I first decided I wanted a pair of whites. That soon changed after I saw some pictures of cameos. I now wanted them instead. I kind of flipflopped through different variations until I saw a picture of the kind I really wanted, silver pieds. I wanted those birds! But silver pieds are not a very common variation nor an inexpensive one. Plus, because of the time of year and the rarity of the type, all chicks were sold out on every place I looked.
So I sort of gave up on them, and just tried to find another pair of a different type. I was really looking for an adult pair because I've very impatient and didn't want to have to wait for tailfeathers and chicks. However, I searched and searched all through the summer with no luck. In the meantime, I decided to create this website to showcase Pete and Polly and help spread information about peafowl to others. But the search continued rather unsuccessfully. No one in my area had any type of special peafowl, any breeders we could find at all only had blue. And online most place only had chicks for sale, and shipping was quite expensive due to the fact that a large and secure crate had to be used and either purchased or returned. School had started and still there was no luck.
In early September I had printed out the breeders directory of the UPA website, hoping that maybe someone there would have what I was looking for. There was no luck with the first few my father called, but then he found something! There were two different breeders in PA only 2 hours away from here that had the kinds I wanted. They were only chicks, but one of them had two silver pieds! I was so happy, I was going to get silver pieds. But then I was completely surprised when my dad told me we were getting 4 pairs.
Eight new peacocks! I totally was not expecting that! But there I was one Saturday afternoon, heading up with my father to pick up my newest additions to my peacock family. We went to pick up the silver pieds and a pair of cameos first. Their owner happened to be Dennis Erdman, the treasurer for the United Peafowl Association. We had a nice talk and I got to see all his facilities and many types of peafowl I had never seen before, not even in pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, although we did discover that the other farm was too far away, and I had to rush home for a Halloween parade I was in with only half of my new pets.
My dad had a chance to get to the other farm about a week later, and picked up a pair of purples for me as well as two whites. My new additions were now safely home, changing my peafowl total from 2 to 10 in a two week period.
