do peahens get a train?

[john in wa]

last fall i got my first peafowl i was told they were 2 males 1 hen. I traded 1 male for one young hen. but now i am wondering if the other hen is a male. she has a small train and does not look like my young peahen. but also does not look like a peacock. I will post some pics of her as soon as the sun comes up.

thanks

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

There have been a couple of cases but they are RARE visit this website to see a Peahen with a train: http://boxess.com/connerhills/patpea.html

Pictures of your bird would be Great, but more then likely it's a male.

Steve

 

[deerman]

Old peahens sometime get trains after they are to old to lay. like 20 year old. Sounds like you have a yearling male.

 

[john in wa]

A couple pics. I would say she is really old. as some of you know i got the birds from my uncle after my aunt passed last year. He told me they were old. her train looks allot like the pics of the unisex hen about same length and kind of rough like she made it through a wind storm. My Uncle also told me he got eggs from her last summer and i have yet to get any eggs. the male does his strut in front of her daily and she just ignores him.

 

[toejam]

Could it put its train up like a male?

 

[Kev]

I have seen several peahens like that. One person I know had 3 of them. One was even fully colored out identical to a male, tail was not that long though, looked more like an blue male in middle of winter plumage. All of them were really old hens that either started laying barely any eggs or no more eggs. All of them also had the slightly rough look too. I had one old Java hen, she was normal for the 20 years I had her.. then she started to grow triangular feathers in the tail with some of the stringy parts. Severasl years later, she grew a few eyes and completely stopped laying before she passed on.

Here's another page with male colored peahens on it: sex changes

 

[john in wa]

she never puts up her little train. my uncle told me her egg production had slowed and she did not give as many eggs as she used to. but i think she is done as far as laying. i guess i will just let her live out her life here roaming the farm. I do have a young hen that will be laying next year. The male i would say is close to the same age as the old hen. he does a lot of strutting but now i wonder if he will be fertile. I was really looking forward to incubating some eggs this year but it looks like maybe next year. I love the calls they make and watching them. any time i do any garden work they are first inline to pick bugs and worms after the rototiller. Thanks

 

[Kev]

He should be fertile. My 26 year old peacock still makes babies as of this year. May want to watch his tail during wet or cold, make sure mud or ice is not clinging too much. I had to move my old male to a solid roof and totally dry pen, as every time it rained hard, his tail would get very heavy with mud. He can't keep his tail off the ground very much anymore.

 

[john in wa]

Well i decided i could not wait till next year and bought me some eggs off e-bay. i should have them Wednesday. will let them set and settle then into the Brinsea. I am also going to get some eggs from a lady a couple miles up the road in 3 weeks.. she has more birds than she knows what to do with and told me to come back in about 3 weeks and she would give me some eggs to hatch...

thanks

 

[john in wa]

well i candled the eggs today and seen little black dots in 4 of the 6 eggs. i put all 6 eggs back in the incubator and will candle them again in a week. i have them in the brinsea eco 20. the temp stays right in the 99.5 to 100.2 if i let the room get to warm. I am keeping my fingers crossed the other 2 eggs develop. will post again next week when i candle again.