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MARTIN'S
BLOG When I get the time I'll try to let you know just what's going on with the peafowl and what's up and coming. |
| Peafowl For Sale | ||||||||
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20 May
2010 8 May 20010 20 March 2010 19/06/2009 I got on my local TV news this week and the radio! Some one had woken up to find a peacock in her back garden. ( I bet she didn't get dressed as quick as me last month when I woke up at 5:30 and there was 70+ one year olds coming down the yard!! but that's another story for another time). Well anyway this lady then phoned BBC Radio Lancashire's breakfast show and told Tony Livsey the presenter about the bird. Turned out to be a 2 year old Indian Blue peacock that had been roaming around the area for some weeks now. It must of been a slack day for news on Wednesday because about 10:30 BBC northwest tonight news phoned me and asked if they could come over and interview me about this stray bird and why it was in the ladies garden. What can I say I thought they see me on TV and I'll be judging Britain got talent next year!! So I said your more than welcome to come to the farm. It was agreed they'd be here around 3:00 that afternoon. Has with most things in life 3:00 came and pasted with no sign of anything. Then about 5:00 a man in a blue van rolled up from Liverpool. They were running late at Manchester so had sent him to film me and ask some questions. The first thing I have to say here is what does our licence fee get spend on? Because it's not on outside broadcasting cameras the one that filmed me was 15 year old. I think they use hamsters to drive them. I did ask if it could shoot in colour and was informed it would be fine so long as it didn't start to rain again then he'd have to put rubber gloves on to touch the buttons. I was placed in front of a pen with all my yearling birds in it. Lets just say at this time of year they aren't my greatest fans. I'm always going in with them and catching birds to box up to go to their new homes. Well they soon get wise to this and as soon as they see or hear me coming into their cabin they all file through the hatch into the outside pen. The same works the other way, I walk around the pen and they all get back into the cabin sharpish. So while the guy sets up the tripod for the camera the birds all get inside out of sight. We did the interview and I answered all his questions. He then said he'd like to take some pictures of the birds up close to the pen, so I said I'll go and heard the birds back into the pen and I'll get him a full tailed male and bring it out to show it him close up.He laughed and said yes ok! You should of seen his face when I walked out of the cabin with a 4 year old indian blue peacock in my arms. He said he thought I was only joking then started filming the birds and asking me about it. It was 5:30 when the man with the camera left the farm to drive back to Liverpool a good hour away if traffic was good and that's not going to be at that time of day. Well they started the local news at 6:30 and by 7:00 when they did the story I said my 5 second bit and was shown holding the peacock. Then I was assigned to iplayer never to be seen again, well not on Britain's got talent anyway. But I made it to TV and I know that the only reason I got on was because I keep peafowl so it's them that where the stars and I'm just glad that I get to walk behind holding their tail!! But wait my moment of fame wasn't over yet on Thursday morning Radio Lancashire phoned to ask if I would do a quick slot on the breakfast show with Tony Livesy. I was on the show last year about names that people give their peacocks. So this was a return visit for me, but this time it was on the phone and not their van at the farm at 7:00 in the morning. 04/06/2009 Well the day as come that I've got round to putting prices of birds on the web site. I was always told never to show people the prices you charge, but to tell the truth it's just to nice a day to be sat in front of this screen replying to emails with a peafowl price list. As I type this I'm sat looking out the window watching a neighbour plough a field before he gets it ready for to plant leeks. I'm almost wishing I was out there doing it for him! and not trying to remember if plough ends in gh? Well I had 3 Black Shoulder pea chicks hatch yesterday. The thing is they weren't mine but some eggs I had in the incubator from Harry. He gave me 53 eggs and 50 were infertile. When I told him I was upset because I thought it must be my incubator. But when he said he didn't think any of them would of been fertile so he so well happy with three I was very relieved but some what puzzled. He said he had been cached out by early laying hens and worming to late in the spring. The 3 eggs that hatched were off a cock and hen he had not wormed. My birds have been very late to start laying this year so I've only had eggs set for 2 weeks now. But fertility does to be very good so far. My white birds are very slow to start laying and even now I've not set any eggs from them. I did notice this morning that 4 hens had started to left their wings drop so I should get some eggs in the next couple of days, touch wood! I was came to ground with a bump last month and it just makes you see why never to keep peafowl with the aim of making any money from them never mind paying their way. Well here are all the details. A company called Birds & Animals, UK contacted me back in March, 05, 2009 to see if I had two white Peacocks with full tails. At the time I was not able to help them as it was coming to the start of the breeding season and knowing my luck if I'd sold any then something would of happened to my breeding cocks and it would of left me without any full tailed birds. Birds & Animals, UK contacted me again on April, 21, 2009 saying they really needed the birds and would pay £200 each for the birds. I again told them I couldn't help them but I'd ask around to see if anyone else I knew may have any they would be willing to sell. How ever no one could find me anything so I left it at that. Again Birds & Animals, UK contacted me on 05/05/2009 saying and I quote from email "we are desperate to find two male peacocks at about 3 years old" I again said I'd ask around as people would now know if they had any birds that they would not need to breed from this year and I'll need to know just what price you are offering for them. They said they really need them and would pay £300 for each bird. So I asked around again and this time I managed to find 2 birds with full tails and both at the same place. They were both in pens also, so it would be easy to catch the birds for shipping. I contacted Birds & Animals, UK and sent them pictures of the 2 white peacocks by email. They replied saying that they are just what they wanted. This was on a Wednesday and they said They'd contact me on Friday to confirm and arrange payment for the birds. Birds & Animals, UK did contact me by phone on Friday morning they said they wanted the birds and would pick them up on Monday and how did I want to be paid? Now this is were I slipped up! I'd been on their web site and they claimed to have offices in New York, LA and London. I thought they are a big company so they aren't going to do a runner now after agreeing they wanted the birds. Before I go on here I'm going to say that people who have taken birds from me in the past know I take payment for them before you come to pick them up. This is for a number of reasons one is so we don't have to mess about with card details and it gives cheque's time to clear. Two is some people say they are coming to pick up birds and give a time and date so I catch up the birds and wait round the yard when I could be doing other things only for them never to show and never contact me again. They just don't consider that the birds have to be caught and boxed up then left in a box at our farm for hours until I have to let them go again knowing they'll have to do it all again one day for someone who does care enough about animals to have them. I have found that if you take payment for the birds in advance then when people say they are coming they come and if they can't they let you know. Now back to Birds & Animals, UK As I said above they phoned on Friday morning saying they wanted the birds and would pick them up on the coming Monday when they asked how I wanted paying I said bring a cheque with you when you pick the birds up. They asked who to make the cheque out to and I said Brow Farm. They again confirmed they would be coming on Monday around lunch time by the time they had driven up from London. We then said our good byes till Monday. Now I had to get the birds to me ready for when Birds & Animals, UK to collect in 3 days time on Monday. So as soon as I put down the phone with Birds & Animals, UK I phoned the owner of the 2 white peacocks and told them I had sold both of the birds and would set of now to get them back to my yard before the weekend. So I took my catching net, transport boxes and cheque book and before setting of to get the peacocks I had Sarah make out an invoice for Birds & Animals, UK ready for me to confirm before emailing it over to them. Then I was away and by 12:30 I was back home with 2 beautiful white Peacocks for Birds & Animals, UK and a large sum of money lighter in my bank account! It was about 1:30 that afternoon while I was still walking round the yard with a big smile on my face from thinking how I'd managed to find and supply 2 white peacocks that were soon to become extras in the British film industry. When I got a phone call from Birds & Animals, UK saying the film makers had cut the sean with the white peacocks in it so they didn't want them anymore! I told them I'd already got the birds delivered into my yard and they'd agreed to pay for them earlier that day. They said they understand that but they didn't need them so would not be picking them up on Monday as they earlier agreed to do. I said it's not as easy as that as we had both agreed they wanted the birds. They then said they'd see what they could do and contact me on Monday. Well as you can imagine I was a little lost for words at the time and didn't thing now was the time to say what words did come into my head the longer I talked to them on the phone. Well as may be no surprise Birds & Animals, UK did not contact me on Monday. I phoned them on Tuesday, they said they understand how I feel and they also stand to loose a lot of money if the film studio didn't take the birds. But as I told them they had agreed to buy the birds and an agreement by word of month is still an agreement. They then said they'd get back to me on the matter and if we can sort it all out. Well again they never contacted me, so I left it a week then sent them a letter stating all date of email made to and from them and the same with telephone conversions between us and also printed the invoice and posted that with the letter. Birds & Animals, UK then replied to the letter saying: Dear Sir or Madam we white to
you in regards of the letter we received about the purchase of peacocks.
We did speak through email and on the telephone as we were looking into
purchasing some white peacocks, but at no point was there any promise
that we would purchase them from you. We did say it was likely but never
actually confirmed. Thank you Hayley Dida Well all I can say is you live and learn, and with companies out there with that attitude to building a good relationship over the years to come then I just don't need that kind of business. I'll never be stung like that again and I've learned to have a set of rules and if people do not want to go by those rules then you should not deal with them. So now some people may think I'm being very hard by taking payment before any birds are picked up or delivered by us. But I can assure you that your being treated in just the same way as Sir Alan Sugar would be. Next on my list of things to as a direct result of this is to have a set of Terms & Conditions drawn up just for live animals, and I'll be putting that any animal we have to get in from outside Brow Farm is a bespoke order and so must be paid for even if not taken away from the farm by the buyer. All companies should have Terms& Conditions by law. This is a good thing so that way both you and any customers know where they stand from the day they agree to buy. Also get any agreement to buy confirmed in writing or on email asap for the goods of the animals as well as your pocket. The only good thing I can say here is that these people have nothing to do with peafowl so none of you should ever have to deal with them. It would of been nice to say that I've sold birds that are now staring in films. But now for the price of £1.65 a day for the next year I have something even better and that's 2 beautiful white peacocks to greet me every morning when I look out of my window. So you could say that there was a silver white lining to this whole story. Right I've got to go now and move some eggs over to the hatcher then set some eggs down and candle some eggs I set 2 weeks ago. You never know I may be moving one of those new white cocks around tomorrow if my breeding bird haven't been doing his job! 07/03/2009 I say this
all the time but I feel I still have to say it again "I can't believe
this time of year is upon us again. It's the end of the shooting season
and as anyone who knows me knows I enjoys a walk out with the dogs and
the gun, but that's another subject for another time. The nights are
starting to get lighter so we now have time to walk through the peafowl
pens before they go to roost for the night. Even if I do say so the
yearlings do look well at the moment and they don't seem to jumpy when
we are in with the birds. Jamie was cleaning them out last week and
he said they just weren't bothered about him taking down all the perches
and removing feed bins and drinkers. I was at my friend Harry the other
day and I must say his young birds do always seem more laid back than
ours. I did breed some Reeves Pheasants this year, but I'm unsure just yet what I'm going to do with them. Caroline calls them "The bandits birds" due to the black band over the eyes. One thing I have noticed is that if you keep them in with the peafowl you don't get any cobwebs building up as Reeves always seem to be flying up the wire and perching on any ledge they can find. I've just been on the phone to Shaun while typing this and he's all set to deliver the birds again this year. So we'll need to get about 4 or 5 deliveries to make it worth his while driving from one end of the country to the other. 20/07/08 Thanks for looking in Martin Caunce
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