2015 Peafowl Hatching Support Group - Eggs and Chicks!

[Kedreeva]

I started a thread for a non-chicken eggs hatch-a-long in the egg hatching forum (in case you want to join in), but I'd like a 2015 peafowl hatch thread to keep track of what everyone's currently incubating/expecting or already hatched this year!

Feel free to post parent pics, fresh egg pics, shipped eggs pics, incubator pics, candling pics, broody pics, hatching pics, and hatched chicks pics!

I'll start us off with my current incubator load:



And the (hopefully) daddy:



Though it won't ruffle my tailfeathers any if my young opal is the dad. He'll be two years old in a little over a month.

 

[Ravynscroft]

For the most part I would say yes. I try to entice them to come back but I don't think they feel the need to give back to the forum that helped me so much when I was getting started.

I can see their points about answering the same old 'what color or sex is this chick?' And the same cocci and worming misinformation that makes birds sick and then when you do give them the best information available they argue with you. Oh well, it is what it is.

Completely understandable... but then there's the ones that ask for help who genuinely need it, apply it, appreciate it and learn... and that makes it all worth the hassle and the ones who choose to stay ignorant...

 

[casportpony]

@AmyLynn2374 , @pattyhen ,@WVduckchick , @Debs Flock , @Ravynscroft , @Miss Lydia , @Julie Bird , look how cute!

 

[KsKingBee]

We tend to beat ourselves up trying to figure out what did or did not happen right. I would stop turning sooner. I was having some hatching problems and when I moved into the hatcher sooner a lot of those problems went away.

 

[WVduckchick]

I have had 100% hatch rate for the past two years and I rotate eggs from day one until they start pecking.

How about with larger hatches? Not meaning to sound rude, but 100% of 3 eggs?? Not much of a gage, in my opinion.

 

[Birdrain92]

I understand, it's a lot easier to get a higher hatch rate with a lower number of eggs. I let my hens hatch out a clutch as well. I don't have enough room to keep lots of peachicks, that's why I keep it a low number. Someday I'll incubate more eggs, and I won't be surprised when the hatch rate drops from 100%. If I kept a 100% hatch rate with a large number it would be a miracle.

 

[KsKingBee]

I understand, it's a lot easier to get a higher hatch rate with a lower number of eggs. I let my hens hatch out a clutch as well. I don't have enough room to keep lots of peachicks, that's why I keep it a low number. Someday I'll incubate more eggs, and I won't be surprised when the hatch rate drops from 100%. If I kept a 100% hatch rate with a large number it would be a miracle.

With experience comes understanding. The 'dirty little secret' of big breeders, myself included, is a hatch rate that just makes me sick. Then again if there was really such a thing as 100% hatch rate with peafowl they would be as cheap as chickens.

 

[casportpony]

Anyone has found the ideal weight loss for peafowl eggs yet? Is it 13-16% or something else? I'm aiming for 13% loss until lockdown is that right?

Mine do better at 15%. Those that lose only 13% don't hatch as easily.

 

[wein315]

@wein315 , how's the hatch going?

3 beautiful babies! Feeding them game bird starter. 24% protein. Had them out in the sun today and they had a blast. Stayed very close to me the whole time. They ate grass and ran around. Shocked that any hatched considering I took them from someone who robbed a nest from a feral flock that lives in the "hood".
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Yeah I was doing that, but then I cut one and it bled out.

Have you tried holding the pea in one hand while twisting the shell in the other several times, wait just a bit, then cutting the cord as close to the shell as possible?

Take this with a grain of salt as I haven't hatched peas before (yet, lol), but what I found when incubating my Calls and turkeys is that the ones that hatch with navel/cord issues are usually the ones where the CAM never fully encloses inside the shell... the veining network that spreads from the embryo out... using on end turners is when I have found it doesn't finish enclosing properly more often as well... I switched over to using my Leahy, running it completely dry from set to hatch, and just rolling the eggs around a bit a few times a day and got the best hatch rates without major issues... it runs at 30 to 40% humidity...