2015 Peafowl Hatching Support Group - Eggs and Chicks!

[MinxFox]

Thanks Zaz! AugeredIn called me yesterday out of the blue saying an Imperator peachick hatched out while he was gone for a few days and they didn't have time to fix its feet because they were going somewhere again and so he didn't want to just leave the peachick when he knew they couldn't look after it so he asked me if I wanted it. He just happened to be heading to a local plant nursery about 10 min. from my house so we met in a Wal-Mart parking lot next to the plant nursery and he gave me the peachick and we talked a little and then I brought it home and put shoes on the peachick. It is 4 days old today. Yesterday it still had an egg tooth. I might just refer to it as 'he' because after doing the washer on a string it said the peachick is a male, so for now that is what I am guessing.

I will have to check if I can come on the 26th. I really hope I can but there is a church college group trip I will be going on and then there is a college youth camp that I am counseling at. I think I should be able to make it but I am not sure on the dates of those events I mentioned. Edited again good news I can make the 26th! The camp trip is next month instead of this one so I am definitely good to go and meet you!

Edit: New 2 Pfowl - Yes I am super excited! A little tired too because the little peachick made a lot of noise last night. The foot is looking better and better every time we look at it. I just can't help but worry about it but I think it is fixing itself nicely. The more the peachick stands and walks around the more it is correcting itself.

 

[Birdrain92]

I'm happy for how well I did in my FFA competitions and that I'm home and what I came home to! One of my eggs has already pierced completely through and 2 other eggs are wiggling, or the one egg is wiggling it good enough to only wiggle two eggs on the opposite side while leaving the other eggs alone. Also my IB peahen Sage began sitting on her eggs today. I was unable to see how many eggs she has but when I left on Monday she had 2 eggs.

 

[AugeredIn]

Huh well at least now you know and don't have to help out any peachicks! I think the peachick will do well. I think it is harder raising one hand raised peachick but since the peahens can communicate with the peachicks better and look after them more than a human can it should go well.

Today has been a weird day for me. I was at home and I got a phone call and saw that it was AugeredIn calling. I wasn't expecting that so I answered the phone and he told me he had a 3 day old Indo-Chinese green peachick that hatched while he was gone for a few days and it has curled toes. He said he wasn't able to fix the toes because he was going off again and so he was asking me if I wanted the peachick. So it wasn't long before I met him in a Wal-Mart parking lot and got my very first green peafowl! The peachick is doing well. It is in peachick shoes. It still needs to hold its left foot more flat but we will continue to work with it and hopefully as the chick walks it will help correct the foot. Right now it is in my Mom's shirt sleeping. I will post pictures later.

Oh and the peachick drank some water and had a bit of food too.

I am REALLY happy! Thanks AugeredIn!

This was a really un-expected kind of event. Although that is sort of how I got into peafowl in the first place.

You are welcome. He would not have made it if I had left him in the brooder. He would have been culled I am sure. We were out of town for a few days during the hatch. We have great help but he was a late hatch that started to dry in the shell. He was piped upside down so you could not see that the egg was piped. No telling how long he was stuck. I really did not think he would survive when we hatched him but he did. His right leg was originally not very functional at the knee but 18 hours in a cup solved that problem. It looks like you have him well on his way to a full recovery.

The help thought he hatched out of a bronze marked egg but I am certain it was marked green and you can tell it is. You can see how tall he is so I would bet male. It is pretty amazing how tall the green chicks are and how long their toes are compared to IB chicks.

I really didi not think about it or I would have given you a second chick to keep it company. They are cry babies when lonely.

 

[Pyxis]

Well, I won an auction for peafowl eggs and as of tomorrow two will be on their way to me. Does anyone have any tips for me on hatching them? I've hatched just about everything else - chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, quail, guineas - but never peafowl.

 

[Birdrain92]

Well, I won an auction for peafowl eggs and as of tomorrow two will be on their way to me. Does anyone have any tips for me on hatching them? I've hatched just about everything else - chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, quail, guineas - but never peafowl.

Keep the incubator around 100 degrees. I can't remember the humidity level. Rotate them a few times a day. Stop rotating them when it's three days before hatching. Peafowl eggs hatch around 28 days. Sometimes a couple days early or a couple days later. You need it moist enough so the eggshell membrane doesn't stick to the chick but not too much that the air cell gets too big the chick can no longer peck. I like rotating my eggs by hand instead of an automatic egg rotator. My teacher uses one and she doesn't get as good of hatch rates as I do.

 

[casportpony]

Well, I won an auction for peafowl eggs and as of tomorrow two will be on their way to me. Does anyone have any tips for me on hatching them? I've hatched just about everything else - chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, quail, guineas - but never peafowl.

I'm no expert, but I'd say do them like you did your turkeys.

-Kathy

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks! I've read that horizontal is better for them than vertical, so I'll do that and also rotate them 180 degrees once a day. I'll leave the rest of the turning to my brinsea. They can't possibly be as demanding as goose eggs, lol.

 

[MinxFox]

You are welcome. He would not have made it if I had left him in the brooder. He would have been culled I am sure. We were out of town for a few days during the hatch. We have great help but he was a late hatch that started to dry in the shell. He was piped upside down so you could not see that the egg was piped. No telling how long he was stuck. I really did not think he would survive when we hatched him but he did. His right leg was originally not very functional at the knee but 18 hours in a cup solved that problem. It looks like you have him well on his way to a full recovery.

The help thought he hatched out of a bronze marked egg but I am certain it was marked green and you can tell it is. You can see how tall he is so I would bet male. It is pretty amazing how tall the green chicks are and how long their toes are compared to IB chicks.

I really didi not think about it or I would have given you a second chick to keep it company. They are cry babies when lonely.

He has the head shape of a green too. I thought the toes looked longer good to know I wasn't just seeing things! I hope I can hatch some of the eggs I have in the incubator to have a good comparison. I had to look back at photos of India Blue peachicks to see how big of a difference there is between the green peachick and the India Blue peachick.

I wasn't thinking about a buddy for this peachick at the time as well. Also I wasn't thinking about giving you some eggs the other day. My incubator can't take more eggs and I have around 4 I should have given you the other day. I think the peachick will be okay without a buddy I will just raise him like I raised Peep with a lot of attention and outside play time. Hopefully some of the eggs will hatch and then just like what happened with Peep, this peachick will be introduced to younger peachicks and probably won't get along with them or care about them for a while but they will help him get a bit socialized.

The only thing different that I will do is try and train this bird to jump up onto my arm.

That is one of the things I wish I would have trained Peep to do.

The shoes are going to come off of him on Monday. We decided to leave them on longer just incase.

 

[Birdrain92]

Peachick half way here, hoping for no defects! Sage is hard at work with 4 eggs under her.

 

[MinxFox]

Yay go Sage!

I was going to leave the shoes on the Imperator peachick until Monday but he looked like he was doing so well that we decided to take the shoes off. So far his feet are looking good! One toe is slightly crooked but I think as he grows it will straighten out. I had 2 young peahens one year that had slightly crooked toes that straightened when they got older.

The poor peachick didn't know what his feet were and he kept pecking at them but now he realizes they are his feet. We let him down on the floor to walk around without shoes for the first time and he was very fast! He has started to fly a little. He is crying now so I need to go calm him down haha.