Ailing wee Pea

[Garden Peas]

I weighed my lard arse on the human scale, then weighed myself again holding the bird. Of course this meant that I had to transport each bird to the house, which was lots of work and a little scary, lol. What's interesting is that after I did a few I could pretty much guess within a couple hundred grams with the rest.

What I want to do is figure out how to set up a portable scale to weigh them in their aviaries. The human scale really isn't very accurate unless it's on flat concrete of wood floors.

-Kathy

Dark is a good idea. I've been thinking I could take the human scale out there and put it on something solid. Then try not to fall down while pea-wrestling and weighing... yeah, this deserves video for sure

 

[thndrdancr]

You need to assemble a team! One to videotape, one to be dressed in a hazmat suit for wrestling sharp strong nailed large wild peacocks, and at least one more to dust the bird while hazmat wrestles the bird upside down GENTLY!!!

 

[thndrdancr]

Oh I suggest covering their head. Seriously, this really helps calm them.

 

[Trefoil]

And you got the part about that's only gonna work on mites, not on this awful little louse thing?

Kathy, is there any other option besides some version of Sevin dust that you know of? Will an ivermectin pour-on, sprayed onto the bird somehow, or wetted onto the bird, kill lice? Does anyone know?

Zaz is right, ivermectin won't work on anything that doesn't suck blood.

The ivermec is placed on the skin, once it is absorbed and the mites bit it kills them, spraying the feathers is not going to do much good IMO I place 1/2 to 1 cc at the base of the neck and the same amount on the base of the tail

Oh I suggest covering their head. Seriously, this really helps calm them.

Good idea and it gives us something to do with that 3rd hand.

 

[Garden Peas]

Have identified more of the original problem... and put him in time out in the pen annex this morning, where he has spent his day, pacing the fence.

I've spent a lot of time watching the pea pens today, while my "problem" bird paces in time out.

The big pen has been quite pleasant. Big Blue stands around his little lekking area and waves his train. Peanut hangs out in his corner or in the door of the birdhouse, sunning himself. The grown BS hen wanders around, eating and minding her own business. Diamond, the half-grown SP peahen, has had a really nice day, and wanders around eating and doing what she likes. No one is bothering her. No one is pecking her. Everybody got a chance to bask in the sun. Everything is peaceful, calm and non-aggressive.

It is really obvious that Quicksilver (new nickname: Chester) is the problem. He is younger than the other two males by a year, and is just coming three this summer. He is being a total pain. I think it was @DylansMom who wrote recently that some males are more jerkish than others... I think she said it more tactfully, though.

Well this teenage pea is maxing out the jerkish scale right now. Diamond's crest feathers are almost all picked off (remember I mentioned discovering that Topaz's head was scabbed in the crest area?), and he just will not leave her alone. He follows Diamond around until she goes into the house and hides on the roost, and he parks himself next to her on the roost. I was afraid this would happen... before he had the two wee peahens to chase, now there is only one, and he is becoming relentless. He's a pe'linquent.

I would just add another fence panel kit to the annex and park his tailfeathers in solitary... but I don't have a good way to get him a warmish birdhouse. Don't want him to lose toes in the still-cold winter weather. Same result if I park the wee hen in the annex, and not a lot of room to bring her into the house for the winter. My plan for the rest of today is to let him back with the others late in the afternoon, so he can go roost in the warmish bird house.

Anybody have any brilliant ideas?

Oh, and with all that time spent watching the pen... I have now observed future eggs getting fertilized

Big Blue is also having a good day...

 

[thndrdancr]

How bout I just take him off your hands for you? : just kidding, sorry I just don't have any answers.

 

[Garden Peas]

How bout I just take him off your hands for you?

: just kidding, sorry I just don't have any answers.

Not looking to rehome him... but honestly, I did think about it today

My juvenile pe'linquent needs to go to reform school.

 

[DylansMom]

Have identified more of the original problem... and put him in time out in the pen annex this morning, where he has spent his day, pacing the fence.

I've spent a lot of time watching the pea pens today, while my "problem" bird paces in time out.

The big pen has been quite pleasant. Big Blue stands around his little lekking area and waves his train. Peanut hangs out in his corner or in the door of the birdhouse, sunning himself. The grown BS hen wanders around, eating and minding her own business. Diamond, the half-grown SP peahen, has had a really nice day, and wanders around eating and doing what she likes. No one is bothering her. No one is pecking her. Everybody got a chance to bask in the sun. Everything is peaceful, calm and non-aggressive.

It is really obvious that Quicksilver (new nickname: Chester) is the problem. He is younger than the other two males by a year, and is just coming three this summer. He is being a total pain. I think it was @DylansMom who wrote recently that some males are more jerkish than others... I think she said it more tactfully, though.

Well this teenage pea is maxing out the jerkish scale right now. Diamond's crest feathers are almost all picked off (remember I mentioned discovering that Topaz's head was scabbed in the crest area?), and he just will not leave her alone. He follows Diamond around until she goes into the house and hides on the roost, and he parks himself next to her on the roost. I was afraid this would happen... before he had the two wee peahens to chase, now there is only one, and he is becoming relentless. He's a pe'linquent.

I would just add another fence panel kit to the annex and park his tailfeathers in solitary... but I don't have a good way to get him a warmish birdhouse. Don't want him to lose toes in the still-cold winter weather. Same result if I park the wee hen in the annex, and not a lot of room to bring her into the house for the winter. My plan for the rest of today is to let him back with the others late in the afternoon, so he can go roost in the warmish bird house.

Anybody have any brilliant ideas?

Oh, and with all that time spent watching the pen... I have now observed future eggs getting fertilized

Big Blue is also having a good day...

Yes that was me and I don't think I put it any more tactfully than you did. My Poppie, the porch Pea, is my Uber-Jerk he has spent the last 2 breeding seasons penned alone as he cannot be trusted with a hen during that time of year. He is currently sharing a pen with my Bronze BS hen, but I will remove her to a safer pen come March. He does the exact same thing, he just follows them relentlessly pecking at them, tried to scalp my Cameo BS who is the mellowest old girl, so it's not like she gave him any reason. I have not found anyway to stop it other than Time-out alone. Poppie didn't start until he was like 8 years old, so you could have your hands full if he's doing it already.

 

[Garden Peas]

Yes that was me and I don't think I put it any more tactfully than you did. My Poppie, the porch Pea, is my Uber-Jerk he has spent the last 2 breeding seasons penned alone as he cannot be trusted with a hen during that time of year. He is currently sharing a pen with my Bronze BS hen, but I will remove her to a safer pen come March. He does the exact same thing, he just follows them relentlessly pecking at them, tried to scalp my Cameo BS who is the mellowest old girl, so it's not like she gave him any reason. I have not found anyway to stop it other than Time-out alone. Poppie didn't start until he was like 8 years old, so you could have your hands full if he's doing it already.

Thanks so much, that helps a lot! Sigh... I have been hoping in a couple years that he would be making pretty opal SP chicks... was not expecting him to become a permanent bachelor, but I'm thinking that's the direction that he is going in a hurry

I don't feel it's safe for Topaz to go back out there with him, ever... she's going to have some permanent damage to the right eye, and if he pecks the other one, she may be functionally blind. But she'll probably be okay with the other birds, since they are all peacefully coexisting. Sounds like Quicksilver is going to have to have separate living quarters. He always followed the BS hen around, but he didn't peck at her like this, and he's not harassing her nearly as much. But she is the one that hatched with him, so they sorted it out as chicks, and she's as big as he is. The big blue birds are still bigger than he is, so he doesn't dare hassle them. But he's just harassing these poor wee peas non-stop.

I guess he can spend daytime in the time out pen and nights in the bird house for a bit until we can see how that works. I just hope he doesn't redouble his efforts this evening to make up for lost time

otherwise, he can worry about his own toes, maybe...

Maybe once Diamond is full grown, she can make him back off? Meanwhile, I wish I could give her a can of pepper spray

 

[DylansMom]

Thanks so much, that helps a lot! Sigh... I have been hoping in a couple years that he would be making pretty opal SP chicks... was not expecting him to become a permanent bachelor, but I'm thinking that's the direction that he is going in a hurry

I don't feel it's safe for Topaz to go back out there with him, ever... she's going to have some permanent damage to the right eye, and if he pecks the other one, she may be functionally blind. But she'll probably be okay with the other birds, since they are all peacefully coexisting. Sounds like Quicksilver is going to have to have separate living quarters. He always followed the BS hen around, but he didn't peck at her like this, and he's not harassing her nearly as much. But she is the one that hatched with him, so they sorted it out as chicks, and she's as big as he is. The big blue birds are still bigger than he is, so he doesn't dare hassle them. But he's just harassing these poor wee peas non-stop.

I guess he can spend daytime in the time out pen and nights in the bird house for a bit until we can see how that works. I just hope he doesn't redouble his efforts this evening to make up for lost time

otherwise, he can worry about his own toes, maybe...

Maybe once Diamond is full grown, she can make him back off? Meanwhile, I wish I could give her a can of pepper spray

Poppie fathered quite a few chicks in his younger days, with the Cameo BS and several other BS hens. When this happened the first time I thought is was just that particular hen, so I pulled her out and switched in another, things were peaceful the rest of that season. Then the following year he went after that hen, so we swapped again, this time the honeymoon only lasted a couple weeks, that was when he went after the Cameo BS. 3 years ago I had yet another hen in with him and they mated early and produced some fertile eggs and then one day I heard her distress calls and found her head bloodied, that was it. I've not gotten a chick from him since. He will IMO go after any hen when the testosterone is high, he just can't seem to help it. I chased him out of the pen and he actually paced outside of it all day trying to get back in at her. A shame too, because he is otherwise a good boy who likes nothing better than sunbathing on the porch.