2015 Peafowl Hatching Support Group - Eggs and Chicks!

[chickens r life]

I currently have about 7 peacocks and 3 peahens.

 

[DylansMom]

Your peas sure are picky! Mine don't care how I give them their greens they go for it any way I feed it. Wired to the fence, cut up with their food, hand fed, etc. I wonder if shredding it would make a difference? My peas never cared for apples until I started shredding apples and then they really love the small shreds.

I like picking wild plants for my peas as well. The green sprout from the end of a thorn vine is very tasty to them, clover is yummy, a lot of weeds I don't know the name of is yummy to them, etc.

They definitely all love yogurt. Peep has his own special way of eating yogurt off of a stick.

You have no idea, yesterday I found a decent cantaloupe at a roadside stand, none of those at the grocery store yet. I cut most up for us and took the rinds out to the pens. I left a thick layer of orange melon on for them about half went crazy for it and the other half turned their noses up. I assumed it was because most of my older birds were raised by breeders and maybe not introduced to greens at an early age. With my babies I gave finely chopped Kale from the Grocery store and from our garden, then when they were almost ready to go on the ground a started giving wild dandelion leaves, they went crazy for both and they will take greens from my hand now, but not with the gusto they used to show. Same goes for meal worms these occur naturally in out barn, they love the shavings on the cool cement floor. If I move a water bucket the young peas will immediately scratch up the moist shavings and eat all the mealworms they find, once adults they will not even look at them. They like grapes, not sure how to get calcium in those.

 

[DylansMom]

I currently have about 7 peacocks and 3 peahens.

Uh Ohh! You need more hens!

 

[KsKingBee]

Mine love alfalfa, I just peel off a flake and shred it in their pen. They waste the stems, but eat all the leaf.

-Kathy

Mine love alfalfa. Half of their diet is alfalfa pellets soaked into the mash. They devour a pan of dry chops in a day or two even though they are on new grass in the pen. And alfalfa has nearly 3% calcium, and peas only need about 1 1/2 % in their feed. I hang a flake of green alfalfa bale in a feeding net for entertainment, it does not go very fast unlike the chops in a pan.

Personally, I think your birds are like spoiled kids that only want to eat dessert. Perhaps less choices?

 

[DylansMom]

Personally, I think your birds are like spoiled kids that only want to eat dessert. Perhaps less choices?

I dare say you've probably hit the nail on the head here. However, I felt like a neglectful Pea-mommy all winter knowing yours' were getting a warm mash everyday, so mine are probably not the only spoiled brats.

 

[DylansMom]

Crackle hen laid #6 last night and I will get a picture of it and post it, it again has that crackled look although not nearly as severe. The last 2 days I have given her potato bread cubes with liquid calcium supplement drops on it, multi-vites in the water, and hopefully will have yogurt tomorrow.

 

[KsKingBee]

I dare say you've probably hit the nail on the head here. However, I felt like a neglectful Pea-mommy all winter knowing yours' were getting a warm mash everyday, so mine are probably not the only spoiled brats.

Yes we spoil our birdies don't we? I can't mix any scratch grains into my mash as they will throw out the mash looking for grain. They go nutty for peanuts and grain of any type, they only get that after they finish the daily rations of mash. Some days they are more hungry than others, so they get the extra scratch.

 

[ellymayRans]

I dare say you've probably hit the nail on the head here.  However, I felt like a neglectful Pea-mommy all winter knowing yours' were getting a warm mash everyday, so mine are probably not the only spoiled brats. 

I would make a small garden in the pen and plant the kale etc. mine prefer to pick it themselves.

I was bummed yesterday when I bought some large nice Azaleas to plant and I no more than took them out of my truck and they were eating the flowers off of them faster than I could get them picked back up!! I literally had to run with one in each hand into the house because they would not stop!! Geez!

 

[Kedreeva]

I was bummed yesterday when I bought some large nice Azaleas to plant and I no more than took them out of my truck and they were eating the flowers off of them faster than I could get them picked back up!! I literally had to run with one in each hand into the house because they would not stop!! Geez!

nominating this for Best mental image of 2015 - person carrying two giant flower plants and running away from a half dozen screaming peacocks

 

[DylansMom]

I would make a small garden in the pen and plant the kale etc. mine prefer to pick it themselves.

I was bummed yesterday when I bought some large nice Azaleas to plant and I no more than took them out of my truck and they were eating the flowers off of them faster than I could get them picked back up!! I literally had to run with one in each hand into the house because they would not stop!! Geez!

I may try that next year, at this point we are having a spring drought and my regular garden is struggling. Our pen runs are raised to promote good drainage, and therefore they dry out very quickly, nothing I planted would take right now. By the way we have 14 pens, so not going to be able to do that in every one.