Thanks everyone for your well wishes with the peachick. It's still alive, but just not doing that well. It's either sink or swim at this point, kind of the strongest survive type of thing, it either eats or it dies. I tried my best with it trying to teach it & that's all I can do. I'm trying to arrange to get the other two older chicks, but they're aways away from me & need to figure out how to get them here.
Hawkeye, good luck with your 4H stuff this week & your 4th of July thing. I agree, I don't know how you do something like that, I couldn't pull it off, that's a lot.
Danz, well even the experts on the peafowl site weren't that much help, they kind of say if they make it they do & half of the battle is getting them hatched & the other is keeping them alive for 6 months. I guess if they make it that long they'll be OK. Geez, I didn't know they were so darned hard to raise, I guess that's why they're so expensive. I'm hoping that these two month old ones I'm getting are started well enough that I won't have to worry so much about them. Surely the guy has them eating well at this point. I don't think I want to try to hatch any more, they're just too fragile, they're even worse than the turkeys I hatched & those were bad enough. My turkeys are doing great outside & are growing by leaps & bounds, I'm going to have to figure out a bigger pen for them soon. I just hate having to worry about birds in this heat & the rabbits too, it's such a pain. The chickens that are free-ranging can go under low hanging bushes & at least get in the shade, but I have young chicks still in the grow-out pen that have some shade, but it still gets hot there, especially those days over 100. I haven't used the mister for a couple of days, they seem to have done OK without it, but if it gets super hot again I will. Thank goodness my rabbits are all in a very shady spot under the trees outside, I feel fortunate to have a place like that for them, otherwise they all would have probably already died.
We're not doing that much for the 4th, it's just too hot for me. My DH is off that day, but if anything we'll go over to the fairgrounds here at dark & watch the fireworks for the town, that's about it. He's smoking ribs that day, yum. I hope you all have a great 4th of July & try to stay cool & safe!