Advice on the remaining egg

PhilMitch

Songster
Jul 4, 2017
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One of our Peahen's eggs started hatching yesterday, it's her first time and her reactions are too cute.
Five of the six eggs have hatched with one remaining, I can hear the Peachick inside so it's obviously alive.
My question is should I intervene and help it?
I ask this because last year one Peahen abandoned her remaining egg which I then opened and had a dead chick in.
 
Check the egg early in the morning and often during the day, if the hen gives up you will need to intervene. Don't try to hatch the egg yourself unless it has pipped and can't get out. If the membrane is white with red veins do not pick at it, wait until it turns grayish. At the first sight of blood, stop.
 
Okay, thank you for the advice.
Hopefully she manages okay with 6 Peachicks, the most our Peahens have had is 3.
This is possibly the worst picture I've ever taken.😁
 

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@KsKingBee When I went down she had already left it and it's dead.
I knew I should've just opened it.
'Just open it' does not usually go well. If the egg is pipped then it is close to ready but the veins in the membrane still have to be absorbed, if not then it will just hemorrhage and bleed out. It is a very thin line when to help and not help an egg hatch.
 
@Midnightman14 she has still got her three remaining chicks. And she has also moved to where they have always raised them, after that we have had no losses. So hopefully it's all good from here.
 
Well my heart was almost broken today as she only had 2 chicks. I spent at least 30 minutes looking for the chick. During this time she was walking round still with only 2 chicks, so I left her thinking it had been taken.

Around 2 hours later I went to feed them and the other chick was with her. I could not believe what I was seeing.

They also met all the other Peahens and Peacocks today and I'm happy to see her defending the chicks and not letting anyone near them. Last year we had a Peahen that wouldn't stand her ground so feeding the chicks was difficult.

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow. I forget how small they are at this age, even a blade of grass can seem like a mountain to them. 😁
 
@KsKingBee Like I mentioned above it happened again today. This time round though I found the Peachick, he/she was around 50ft away from the Peahen just sitting in the open. The Peachick seems absolutely fine, eating, walking, flying to low branches etc. I picked the Peachick up and took her/him back to the Peahen and it was like nothing had happened.

From all the previous Peachicks this has never happened, is this normal?
It seems inevitable that it will be taken by something if this keeps happening.
 

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