2015 breeding season

[DylansMom]

Today i got the first egg for this season, it came from my opal bs sp pen, but something weird happened, the hens laid a normal pea egg, two minutes later she laid second soft egg! So two eggs in less than three minutes!

Congrats, our wind chill was -20 on Friday morning so I think it may be quite a while until I see eggs. If you can keep track of the fertility of her eggs I would be very interested. Last year one of my best laying Pied hens laid her first egg and then had a problem with her second which was broken when I found it several days after she should have laid it. I incubated the first and hatched a nice white chick, all of her eggs after that second problem egg were infertile. It seems whenever something happens like this, my hens either quit laying or lay clears, anyone else see this?

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Did you open up the soft shell to see if it was fertile?

Didn't think about this! But anyway i will incubate the first egg.

Hmmm, wonder if she needs more calcium or something in her diet? Or if the regular egg was stuck? Or maybe just because it was the first egg... How old is she?

They should be at least three years old or more, i started giving them some grit this week, she does the famous position before she laid the egg!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Congrats, our wind chill was -20 on Friday morning so I think it may be quite a while until I see eggs. If you can keep track of the fertility of her eggs I would be very interested. Last year one of my best laying Pied hens laid her first egg and then had a problem with her second which was broken when I found it several days after she should have laid it. I incubated the first and hatched a nice white chick, all of her eggs after that second problem egg were infertile. It seems whenever something happens like this, my hens either quit laying or lay clears, anyone else see this?

Well, i will try, but both of my opal sp hens look the same, i remember when you told me this last year, the cameo hen who laid soft egg never hatched an egg last year, but i remember i got some fertile eggs from their pen but they didn't hatch, and i can't be sure if the fertile eggs came from her or from the other hen.

 

[MinxFox]

Oh boy...Got my first peafowl egg today.

I guess that is good news for Zaz and me though. That must mean Josh should be getting eggs now or very soon at least.

I found the egg under the roost. I am not sure if it is fertile but I already have a buyer. The preacher is going to buy it from me since last time he 'accidently' froze the peafowl eggs I gave him then didn't want to eat them because he said frozen eggs taste weird. So this time I made him pay $3.00 (Preacher discount - Next time it will be full price) for the egg instead of giving it to him for free. The shell seems thick. I am glad I started giving the peahens calcium recently I didn't expect them to lay this month but at least I am sorta ready. My Mom is excited about me hopefully hatching out a pied peachick and she is asking me if I need to buy a new, better incubator. She has changed her tune since last year when she wasn't for me hatching peachicks.

I am going to see if the preacher will photograph the egg for me when he or his wife cracks it open so that I can see if it was fertile. My peacocks have been fanning a lot and a week or so ago when I went to give my Grandma her mail I heard Alto do the mating call that they make when they chase a peahen. I am not sure if he mated then or not so I am not sure if this egg is fertile. It's in the fridge right now and will be sold on Wed.

 

[KsKingBee]

Calcium, that makes me wonder. I see my peas eating the limestone I put down in the driveway and along the walk paths. I see where the co-op will add crushed lime in the feed for layer feed. So are the hens are getting enough calcium from the limestone they are eating or should I give them the kind you buy in the stores?

 

[MinxFox]

Not sure about that. I have been giving mine High Cal Grit for little birds like parakeets. I got it at petsmart. It is very small grains that I sprinkle in their food every now and then. Also you can give them crushed egg shells which works really well too. You can put the crushed egg shells in their food as well, but last year when I fed it to my peahens they knew they needed it so they would eat it from my hand. You can easily save egg shells you discard from making breakfast and crush those up for the peas. If they are getting enough calcium from the driveway then they probably won't eat the egg shells, if they do eat them it will be good for them. After AugeredIn told me I needed to give them more calcium last year, once I did I could tell the difference in the eggs. The egg shell will be thicker - definitely thicker than store bought eggs.

 

[Trefoil]

Selling a bird that was hatched here as an import may be good marketing, but its also fraud. And also very likely where people are getting 2nd generation "imports" that have the shorter statue and lost the "regal" posture. There is no way short of mutation that this kind & extent of change could happen over a couple of generations unless malnutrition is involved. It sounds like anyone buying an imported bird needs to see the importation papers at the bare minimum. But then, I have no skin in the game as was mentioned in an earlier post. Personally I like the spaldings and really like the "wild" IB that someone pictured, but I think its important to keep tract of what they really are. Having a stud book and registration doesn't solve the problem unless each bird is blood typed for identification.

 

[DylansMom]

After reading that one generation of captive breeding can produce offspring with noticeably shorter legs and a heavier body I started to really wonder about feed. In the wild I assume the birds would have no access to any kind of processed grains/feed. And for the most part we all feed some of that to our birds starting immediately with chick starter. I know it would probably be almost impossible, but has anyone ever tried a completely natural diet with greens, just the foods they would find in the wild? Because we had the Twisted Tibias in our chicks during our first year of hatching, I was forced to take a close look at diet and eating habits. People hatched/raised chicks and hen hatched/raised chicks grow very differently even though they are on the exact same feed. Eventually they will even out and end up pretty equal, but it really brought home how big an effect diet can play during development. Pen size is also something that crossed my mind, I have seen some people keep a lot of chicks penned in a really small brooder cage, very crowded. I wonder if this can also effect their growth much like a fish will supposedly grow to fit the size of it's bowl.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

DylansMom, the egg i got from the hen that laid the two eggs last week which one was soft wasn't fertile, she laid another egg this week, lets see what will happen.

 

[DylansMom]

DylansMom, the egg i got from the hen that laid the two eggs last week which one was soft wasn't fertile, she laid another egg this week, lets see what will happen.

At least she laid again, I had a BS 2 years ago that laid a soft one as her 2nd or 3rd egg, and she never laid again that year. She did fine in 2014 though, no softies. I am really curious to see how she does with fertility, how long between last weeks 2 and this weeks new one?