Pea Eggs Scheduled to Hatch? - Page 8

75 Eggs.  OMG, your going to have to start sectioning off you house.  Your pea palace is big but that's a whole lot of peas.  What does the wife think of living with peas perching on her headboard, Ha Ha.

I have a 2'x3' box on our dining room table with a 75 watt lite bulb inside,thats where all peas goes after they hatch for at least a week,,then I have a 4'x8' brooder box out in the garage that I can seperate into 4 small 2x2' pens if I have to,,after about 2 weeks in this coop,they go outside above ground in wire floored pens until fall,,new hatched peas this year won't see Pea Palace until they are breeding aged birds.If I do build another 48x48 pen on the west side of pea palace,,I may move younger birds inside that larger pen  after the breeding birds are moved back into the east side breeding pens.But I have several  8x12' fenced pens just for younger peas,,I have all my 2011 hatched peas in these smaller pens now.Next year they will be moved to Pea Palace.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frenchblackcopper 

I have a 2'x3' box on our dining room table with a 75 watt lite bulb inside,thats where all peas goes after they hatch for at least a week,,then I have a 4'x8' brooder box out in the garage that I can seperate into 4 small 2x2' pens if I have to,,after about 2 weeks in this coop,they go outside above ground in wire floored pens until fall,,new hatched peas this year won't see Pea Palace until they are breeding aged birds.If I do build another 48x48 pen on the west side of pea palace,,I may move younger birds inside that larger pen  after the breeding birds are moved back into the east side breeding pens.But I have several  8x12' fenced pens just for younger peas,,I have all my 2011 hatched peas in these smaller pens now.Next year they will be moved to Pea Palace.

So your 8x12 pens for the younger peas are above ground/wire floors? If you could post a pic of one, it would be greatly appreciated. We're going to have to build a larger one if I get a decent hatch out of my eggs - I know they will quickly outgrow my current above-ground pen.

No,my 8x12 pens aren't on wire,but I do have a 6'x16' pen divided into 2 seperate pens that I use after the peas comes out of the 4x8' brooder that is above ground and DOES have a wire floor if I need to,,I have my Yellow  and Dark Red Throat ornamentals in there now,but their breeding  season is about over so they will go into another pen,and the peas can then come to this 6x16,after they outgrow the 4x8 in the garage,I like keeping them off dirt for awhile,,at least until they have some size on them,,normally around the end of October they will see dirt for the first time.My 6x16 does have 2 an enclosed box on each end for them to get into if they want,,took me about a day to biuld it and is really handy and will work with an birds I have.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frenchblackcopper 

No,my 8x12 pens aren't on wire,but I do have a 6'x16' pen divided into 2 seperate pens that I use after the peas comes out of the 4x8' brooder that is above ground and DOES have a wire floor if I need to,,I have my Yellow  and Dark Red Throat ornamentals in there now,but their breeding  season is about over so they will go into another pen,and the peas can then come to this 6x16,after they outgrow the 4x8 in the garage,I like keeping them off dirt for awhile,,at least until they have some size on them,,normally around the end of October they will see dirt for the first time.My 6x16 does have 2 an enclosed box on each end for them to get into if they want,,took me about a day to biuld it and is really handy and will work with an birds I have.

I seen a post about wire floors somewhere ( so much information you catch when looking for something else).  Why should they be on wire floor when younger?  Could you explain.

Randy, what kind of floor does your 8x12 have? I'm trying to figure out what to do about the flooring of the 8x16 "coop" that we're building because we have a HUGE mouse problem, and with certain flooring, that problem could be eliminated in the pea pen. Right now we're considering rubber flooring that sits right on the ground, with pine shavings on top. Or maybe a few inches of fine grit sand, but not sure. Any suggestions?

My 8x12 pens are NOT on wire,rather just a pen with 2x4" welded wire and a large coop that I made that actually has 4 compartments 2'  above the ground,each compartment being 4x8,with an individual 8x12' wire pen off each compartment,this coop is 16x8,,has a shingled roof and is all made with plywood  and OSB sheets.I have white plastic 4x8" sheets covering the inside of these 4 compartment floors so  poo don't rot the wood.

   Mmmaddie,if your asking about my 6x16" pen with 2 compartments,,,it has 1/4" hardware cloth as a floor except in the 2 compartment 3x4 box enclosure at one end,this has a 1/2" plywood floor with a piece of rolled asphalt covering the plywood so the  poo doesn't rot the plywood.All the rest of the sidewalls is made using 1"x1/2" welded wire,,roof is sheet metal,,maybe a pic or two would help? It is about 3' off the ground.If you have mice problems you need to use hardware cloth to keep them OUT!!

 None of my first peas seen dirt until they was 6 months old after the ground had frozen once,,they're wasn't anything worm wise for them to eat,then comes winter for another  4-5 months with the ground frozen,,,leaving me little or no chances of internal parasites until the birds are almost 1 year old,,I've had great luck keeping all my peas off dirt until they are about 5 months old,,close to our first freeze here in Illinois.

Lil Zoo,,many quail are kept off ground their entire life,,,internal parasites caused from eating worms is the culprit along with many diseases chickens carries that other species are not immune to,such as blackhead.Soil born disease and parasites is why,and in my opinion the first 6 months of peafowl is the most critical,,get them to that age,,and they should survive anything.