Breeding Season Questions

[PoultryFanatic22]

After patiently waiting, what seems like an eternity, my peafowl are finally old enough to breed! This being my first time breeding I have a few questions.

A little background info, I have 5 two year old peahens (cameo, purple, india blue, and two india blue pieds), 1 two year old peacock (India blue) and 1, 4 year old peacock (white). I have the 2 year old india blue and a pied hen living with me. The other peacock and hens are boarded at a friends farm.

The peacock that lives with me has been making the call they do right before they mate for a few weeks now. It’s a honk but different than their alarm honks. I finally was able to see him do the call and then mount the hen two days ago. How soon after mating do peahens lay?

Another question I have is how long can eggs be stored? The other peafowl I have boarded are a 1.5 hour drive away from me. My plan is to make the trip over there once a week to collect any eggs and bring them back to incubate. I have successfully incubated and hatched chickens, ducks, quail, turkeys, and geese. I spent several hundred dollars on peafowl eggs a few summers ago but had no luck and ended up buying chicks instead of wasting more money on shipped eggs. I’m hoping I have better luck since the eggs I’m expecting to hatch this summer won’t have to go through the shipping process.

Here are some pics of everybody:

Blue (lives with me)

Kitana (lives with me)

Miss America, Indigo Moon, Jade and Cheyenne (boarded)

Albus and some of his ladies (boarded)

 

[KsKingBee]

Approximately two weeks after seeing the first mating you can expect eggs.

Two-year-olds will breed better with and older mate. Expect a lot of non-fertile eggs when breeding two young birds together.

Pea eggs start to lose their viability after about ten days. For best results gather the eggs daily and store on egg turners at about 55* and set all the eggs once per week.

Pea eggs are not like other eggs and can be very hard to develop and hatch. If you can obtain a 40% hatch rate consider yourself very lucky.

 

[Midnightman14]

Be aware that the older male might try to run off the younger male. If they are being kept together you're going to want to separate them before the older one kills the younger one.

 

[PoultryFanatic22]

Thank you for your replies! I decided to take all my peafowl to my friends farm last week but the two males are still separated in different pens. I went back this weekend and was thrilled to get my first few eggs!!

I wanted to know if I should incubate these eggs on their sides like goose eggs or upright (pointy end down) like I would do with chickens?

Also is there any idea what color chicks I might get from the two pens?

Pen 1:

White male (Not sure if he is split for anything)
2 India blue pied Hens
1 India blue hen (split to white)
1 Cameo hen (I think she is split to white but not sure at all)

Pen 2:

India Blue male
1 purple hen

Will the older male be able to fertilize all 4 hen’s eggs?

 

[KsKingBee]

Thank you for your replies! I decided to take all my peafowl to my friends farm last week but the two males are still separated in different pens. I went back this weekend and was thrilled to get my first few eggs!!

I wanted to know if I should incubate these eggs on their sides like goose eggs or upright (pointy end down) like I would do with chickens?

Also is there any idea what color chicks I might get from the two pens?

Pen 1:

White male (Not sure if he is split for anything)
2 India blue pied Hens
1 India blue hen (split to white)
1 Cameo hen (I think she is split to white but not sure at all)

Pen 2:

India Blue male
1 purple hen

Will the older male be able to fertilize all 4 hen’s eggs?
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We incubate our eggs vertically in egg turners, others will argue that laying on their sides is better. You will have to try both to find your truth. All of your chicks will be India Blue color but will have all kinds of white patterns. The chicks from the Cameo and Purple hens will all be IB but the cocks will be split to the mothers color. Only if the cocks are split to another color will you get anything other than IB.

 

[PoultryFanatic22]

I set 9 eggs in my RCOM Max 20 DO last Saturday night and just checked fertility. Only one egg out of the 9 is growing. I have the temp set to 99.5 and humidity has been at 55%. I have the turner set to turn once every hour. The one growing egg was 102.80g when set last Saturday and is now 98.10g. It’s lost 4.7g so far and from what I’ve read that seems about right. Might I be doing something wrong?

Instead of using my younger male, I did move all my hens with the older male in hopes of increasing fertility. I’m puzzled as to why only one of the eggs was fertile but not the others? Might it still be too early to get fertile eggs?

I just set another 4 and am hoping I’ll have better luck with this batch.

 

[KsKingBee]

No matter what you do you can't make an unfertilized egg develop. Fertility gets better as the season progresses unless you start changing cocks and pens.

 

[MelStL]

I set 9 eggs in my RCOM Max 20 DO last Saturday night and just checked fertility. Only one egg out of the 9 is growing. I have the temp set to 99.5 and humidity has been at 55%. I have the turner set to turn once every hour. The one growing egg was 102.80g when set last Saturday and is now 98.10g. It’s lost 4.7g so far and from what I’ve read that seems about right. Might I be doing something wrong?

Instead of using my younger male, I did move all my hens with the older male in hopes of increasing fertility. I’m puzzled as to why only one of the eggs was fertile but not the others? Might it still be too early to get fertile eggs?

I just set another 4 and am hoping I’ll have better luck with this batch.

Beautiful flock!!! Did your egg hatch? How is the second batch doing?

 

[PoultryFanatic22]

Thank you! I did have one chick hatch out two weeks and another two that have just pipped today. Hoping they will be able to make it out okay