not sure what to do.....

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crazypoultrychx

crazypoultrychx

Chirping
6 Years
May 13, 2013
130
3
86
New Orleans LA
ok....so we found the peahens nest....and when I found it there were 5 eggs under her.....now there are only 4.....I dont want to run the risk of losing any further eggs but not sure what to do right now....I am not sure when they were laid and I have an incubator and I can incubate them but do I pull them from her and put them on the automatic turner or do I hand turn them or should I just leave them with her and see what happens......if I do pull the eggs will she go back to normal behavior??
 
Since you want these Peachicks to hatch, I'd pull the eggs after the incubator is warmed up, humid and ready for eggs. And I'd destroy the nest so the PeaHen will hopefully forget about ever using it and return to her regular "Pea routine". You may need to pen her up for a while tho, if she's used to free ranging 24/7.

If she's not sitting on the nest then the eggs more than likely have not started to develop, but I would candle them to make sure they are fresh (you will not see any development in them, and the air cells should be small). If they look good, set them right away, then count the day after they were put in the incubator as day one, and keep track of when you set them... then you may want to candle weekly to check development progress and air cell size. My Pea eggs typically hatch on day 26-27, but some people have their eggs go the full 28 days.

Depending on what kind of incubator you have, IMO/IME you may be better off hand turning the eggs. Chicken egg turners in the table top styrofoam incubators do not work well for Pea eggs, but if you have a Sportsman with Turkey egg trays or even a Brinsea with adjustable egg racks the Pea eggs should do ok as long as the temp stays stable and you can maintain some humidity for them.

Humidity recommendations vary depending on your climate/location, so if possible consult others in your area that successfully incubate and see what they recommend. That being said some people do great with around 50% RH, but others like myself have better results with around 35-38% RH.

Temp for still air incubators should be around 101.5-102°F (make sure it never gets higher than 103° F) measured on top of the eggs, or 99.5°F for incubators that have a fan. There are several threads with Pea egg incubation info in them here in the Peafowl section if you do a search, but you can always start a new thread and ask whatever you need to and many of the regs here will be more than glad to help you.

Keep in mind if you incubate the Pea eggs (and they hatch for you) you will need to raise the Peachicks in a pet/predator proof brooder until they are old enough to go outside into a safe, predator proof grow out pen. It's not often that Peahens and Pea flocks will accept young Peachicks as their own after they've been artificially incubated.

Best of luck.


ETA...
Edited because the suggested still air temp info I provided previously was a degree too high... sorry
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