Last year I encountered several snakes around the place, both King Browns as well as Red Belly Blacks.

Having been born in Germany, I never knew what it was like to grow up with a whole bunch of small, highly poisonous creatures right on your doorstep, ready to kill you should you accidentally step on them in the tall grass or squish them whilst picking up something of the ground or reaching underneath a chair or barbecue...

I realize it is part of permaculture to accept these things and to attempt to share our space with them in harmony and all that, but honestly, I still do not feel comfortable with the idea that my partner, me, our potential future children or even my lifestock and pets might die a horrible, painful death by snake- or spiderbite.

In early summer last year, Zena, my German Coolie cross died while I was in town doing shopping and other chores. By the time I returned home, she was stiff and plenty dead. She was a healthy, young dog and she was curled up and looked like she was only sleeping. We have some strong suspicions and snakes are right on top of that list since she was a sheep dog and always eager to explore and play with things that move. She was also chained under the water tank where it was cool, as it was a hot summer day and water supposedly attracks some snakes, not to mention the rodents that we are having difficulty controlling in our old, dilapidated farm house.

So, I have been thinking about ways of keeping some of these critters away from the house and other high traffic areas and figured poultry and fowl are really the best way, unless I want to start using chemicals and poison. My chooks were making a good start, eating all spiders they came across as far as I can tell, including Redbacks. Some people say chickens will eat small snakes as well but I have not seen this myself, and I don't know if my chickens have ever even come across a small snake. The ones I saw around here were pretty big actually.

Peacocks soon emerged as suitable snake-eaters or at least deterrents and I have always loved their brilliant colours and even enjoyed listening to their calls when visiting the zoo Hellabrunn in Munich, my home town.
Of course I never thoguth that I might ever have the space to be able to keep these beautiful birds but seeing as I am now in a position to keep them if I like, I have been doing some research and finally went and picked up my first pair yesterday.

They will need to be penned for a long time to settle in before being allowed to free range as these are adult birds who would otherwise attempt to return to their old home. Even though peacocks are fairly large birds, they can fly and will cover a fair bit of distance in a short amount of time, making it nearly impossible to catch them once they decide to leave, especially if they are basically unhandled like these two.

In about 6 months, I plan on clipping one wing on each bird so that they cannot get too far into the air and allowing them out during the day. I will still pen them over night if possible. Hopefully, they will breed whilst still penned, so their offspring will grow up here and know no other home. Those young birds will then be allowed out before their parents, to try and create a social reason for the two older birds to stay.
I will probably attempt to get another couple of hens as well, as this pair came from an unchecked breeding population and might be related so a couple of new hens should add some fresh genes to the pool. 

Figuring out what to feed them was not that easy either, as my local feed stores do not have a specific food for peacocks. As a matter of fact, I have no idea if there is such a thing. In any case, the almighty internet says that they should get a diet with about 28% protein. That is a lot of protein, our dog kibble only has about 24%!

Peafowl will apparently eat small animals such as baby chicks and even mice if they can catch them. They also eat lizards and, of course, snakes. Bugs also add some protein to their diet I imagine.
My birds will be able to forage for animal protein once they are allowed to free range, but until then, I will be feeding them a diet of chicken scratch mix, layer pellets and lucerne chaff, with some cat kibble as an occasional treat to try and make them a little less feral and easier to handle. My goal is to be able to hand feed them and hopefully catch them without the use of a wire hook, nets or any kind of chaff bag as this highly stressful for them and me as well. 

Hopefully this will be adequate, as these are adult birds and mostly done growing. My peacock is rising two and the peahen is older, about four years old. If they should breed whilst still penned I will likely offer them some higher protein feed, although I am not quite sure what yet and might need to contact a more experienced breeder.