Montana Chet,welcome! You've come to the right part of the internet to learn about peas,hope you will become a regular here.
Now onto my questions:
1. How do you make a profit on peafowl and realistically, how profitable are they? Is most of the money made through the internet nowadays or is it still a fairly local minded business? Is there a demand for unhatched chicks, hatched chicks or adults? How about the feathers, are they profitable? I know you can sell all of that but is it profitable.
Raising peas is not a get rich hobby by no means. The internet lets anyone know you have peacocks on a GLOBAL scale. There is demand for everything you have listed because prices are diffrent for fertile eggs,peachicks,and older birds. Three years ago I sold 90% of my peas eggs that was laid,now I hatch about 95% of the eggs they lay.
2. Do you have to keep peacocks and peahens separated until breeding and then separate them again? How about chicks, do you have to keep them separated from the peacocks? When the chicks are old enough to be out of the brooder, do they go in with the peahens or are the separated too?
I pen breed for specific colors and for the most part my Peacocks and Peahens are together all year long,in the group they will likely be in come breeding season.My peachicks never come in contact with dirt until they are 1 year old.I have one building and outside pen that are on a big slab of concrete. Peachicks are kept insid emy garage in a big pen on the concrete floor until about 3 months old,then they get moved to the outside concrete floored pen. Too many health issues with peas growing up on dirt for me.
3. Do you suggest getting hatched chicks or unhatched chicks to start my peafowl? What are the pros and cons of each? Buy adults old enough to breed.Shipped fertile eggs is a crap shoot and the postal service doesn't handle them well. Pea eggs can be expensive,and take it from somone who has spent hundreds of dollars on shipped fertile eggs,,buying breeding aged adult birds is cheaper in the long run.
4. If a peahen isn't bread until she is 3, is that a problem? I assume if I get 4 chicks I hope I get at least on peahen or one peacock so I can breed them but I hear peahens are ready to breed at 1 or 2 and peacocks at 3 and I wonder if that would become a problem for some reason. If you buy peachicks a few months old they can be sexed so you know what your getting.
5. If you have multiple peacocks, do you have to keep them separated from each other? How many peafowl would you advise per pen (pens being as large as needed, not cramped)? My breeding aged males never intermingle with other breeding aged males not even in the wintertime. They stay with the hens they will or have been with during breeding season all thru the winter inside pens.It's recommended 100 sq fr per bird but if your breeding groups stays together all year long and gets along as most of mine do,they can get by on less square footage per bird.
6. What all do I need to start? I know I will need a brooder box regardless and an incubator if I get them unhatched but what else is needed? Is there any "tools of the trade"? If you eventually want 30-40 breeding peas then plan now and plan for more. With this many birds you can easily have trios or quads of many difrent colors and patterns. If you pen breed like I do and if your eventually going to hatch peachicks start looking for cost effective ways to build your aviary,and breeding pens,and also you will need to consider an adequate sized incubator and housing-rearing of those peachicks once they hatch.
7. What do you suggest for a brooder box and incubator? What are things to look for in them and/or what one do you suggest specifically? This all depends on how many and what colors of peas you will have and how many eggs you will hatch per season.
8. Should my pens have water plumbed in so I can wash the inside of the shed or does that cause problems (ex: mold, disease, etc.)? I will probably plumb it in for filling water dishes too but wondering on how to best clean the shed and pens. You will discover Peas would rather be outside 99% of the time,compared to being inside. They are nothing compared to chickens when it comes to dust in my opinion.
9. Do you suggest grass in the pens or dirt? How about straw? Are small trees or shrubs a good addition to the pens? My breeding peans were grass but after the first year it no longer has grown back and I now use grass hay to cover my outside pen dirt floors with because during heavy rains here the pen will become a muddy mess and the peacocks trains will get so full of mudd they cannot fly on the perches so now each spring I cover the outside breeding pens with straw or grass hay.
So that's all I can think of right now! I'm sure I'll have more questions later. Thanks in advance for any advice! One last thought,,always plan for expansion. When I originally started I was only going to have maybe 3 breeding pens with 3 diffrent colors. Those 3 pens are now 11 breeding pens and we have 10? colors. If your constructing new pens and buildings don't design your plans in the corner of your property that won't allow for adding pens,ect. My entire back area of my property is perfect for adding more pens as I need them until my feed bill is large enough to choke a horse,then I will stop expanding,ect.
Now onto my questions:
1. How do you make a profit on peafowl and realistically, how profitable are they? Is most of the money made through the internet nowadays or is it still a fairly local minded business? Is there a demand for unhatched chicks, hatched chicks or adults? How about the feathers, are they profitable? I know you can sell all of that but is it profitable.
Raising peas is not a get rich hobby by no means. The internet lets anyone know you have peacocks on a GLOBAL scale. There is demand for everything you have listed because prices are diffrent for fertile eggs,peachicks,and older birds. Three years ago I sold 90% of my peas eggs that was laid,now I hatch about 95% of the eggs they lay.
2. Do you have to keep peacocks and peahens separated until breeding and then separate them again? How about chicks, do you have to keep them separated from the peacocks? When the chicks are old enough to be out of the brooder, do they go in with the peahens or are the separated too?
I pen breed for specific colors and for the most part my Peacocks and Peahens are together all year long,in the group they will likely be in come breeding season.My peachicks never come in contact with dirt until they are 1 year old.I have one building and outside pen that are on a big slab of concrete. Peachicks are kept insid emy garage in a big pen on the concrete floor until about 3 months old,then they get moved to the outside concrete floored pen. Too many health issues with peas growing up on dirt for me.
3. Do you suggest getting hatched chicks or unhatched chicks to start my peafowl? What are the pros and cons of each? Buy adults old enough to breed.Shipped fertile eggs is a crap shoot and the postal service doesn't handle them well. Pea eggs can be expensive,and take it from somone who has spent hundreds of dollars on shipped fertile eggs,,buying breeding aged adult birds is cheaper in the long run.
4. If a peahen isn't bread until she is 3, is that a problem? I assume if I get 4 chicks I hope I get at least on peahen or one peacock so I can breed them but I hear peahens are ready to breed at 1 or 2 and peacocks at 3 and I wonder if that would become a problem for some reason. If you buy peachicks a few months old they can be sexed so you know what your getting.
5. If you have multiple peacocks, do you have to keep them separated from each other? How many peafowl would you advise per pen (pens being as large as needed, not cramped)? My breeding aged males never intermingle with other breeding aged males not even in the wintertime. They stay with the hens they will or have been with during breeding season all thru the winter inside pens.It's recommended 100 sq fr per bird but if your breeding groups stays together all year long and gets along as most of mine do,they can get by on less square footage per bird.
6. What all do I need to start? I know I will need a brooder box regardless and an incubator if I get them unhatched but what else is needed? Is there any "tools of the trade"? If you eventually want 30-40 breeding peas then plan now and plan for more. With this many birds you can easily have trios or quads of many difrent colors and patterns. If you pen breed like I do and if your eventually going to hatch peachicks start looking for cost effective ways to build your aviary,and breeding pens,and also you will need to consider an adequate sized incubator and housing-rearing of those peachicks once they hatch.
7. What do you suggest for a brooder box and incubator? What are things to look for in them and/or what one do you suggest specifically? This all depends on how many and what colors of peas you will have and how many eggs you will hatch per season.
8. Should my pens have water plumbed in so I can wash the inside of the shed or does that cause problems (ex: mold, disease, etc.)? I will probably plumb it in for filling water dishes too but wondering on how to best clean the shed and pens. You will discover Peas would rather be outside 99% of the time,compared to being inside. They are nothing compared to chickens when it comes to dust in my opinion.
9. Do you suggest grass in the pens or dirt? How about straw? Are small trees or shrubs a good addition to the pens? My breeding peans were grass but after the first year it no longer has grown back and I now use grass hay to cover my outside pen dirt floors with because during heavy rains here the pen will become a muddy mess and the peacocks trains will get so full of mudd they cannot fly on the perches so now each spring I cover the outside breeding pens with straw or grass hay.
So that's all I can think of right now! I'm sure I'll have more questions later. Thanks in advance for any advice! One last thought,,always plan for expansion. When I originally started I was only going to have maybe 3 breeding pens with 3 diffrent colors. Those 3 pens are now 11 breeding pens and we have 10? colors. If your constructing new pens and buildings don't design your plans in the corner of your property that won't allow for adding pens,ect. My entire back area of my property is perfect for adding more pens as I need them until my feed bill is large enough to choke a horse,then I will stop expanding,ect.
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