Damsel is still nesting...EDIT: Very bad news graphic pics

[MinxFox]

The due date for the eggs to hatch should have been around the 10th. Today is the 13th. I haven't checked on her yet today (just a reminder I can't just walk out in the backyard to see my peafowl since they are at my grandma's 2 miles away so every day we visit them at 3:00 normally.) I read something about peahens knowing if they have a bad egg and they will roll the bad egg out of the nest or something...Deerman said that is not true and they don't know so now I hope that all her eggs are not bad. Dragon is just now losing his train he still has tons of feathers left and so I wouldn't think fertility would be a problem...Maybe it is too early still for me to worry but I just want to make sure that she will stop if all the eggs are bad. I don't even know how many eggs she has. I would take the eggs and candle them but I don't want to scare her off the nest making her abandon the eggs. Damsel is doing such a great job staying on the nest and being out their in the heat and rain I just hope that it all pays off for her. If the eggs are bad will I have to force her off the nest? How long until I know they probably are never going to hatch? She won't kill herself sitting on eggs for too long right? I give her a few treats when I visit and have a small dish of water next to her. I tried to make her sit up a little to see if she would show me the eggs but she hissed at me and tried to bite me so I just left her alone.

Oh and on a side note I found an egg next to the hose inside the pen on the 11th. I still have it in the pen waiting to see if a peahen makes a nest there or if nothing happens then I might try incubating it.

Peep wants brothers and sisters!

 

[Kedreeva]

How many days is that due date (the 10th?) into incubation? I would give her until day 35 (we give everyone 5 days over the max range of their egg hatching date just in case they didn't start when we thought they did, rather than 3) before we check. At 35 days, I would kick her off the nest (wear gloves if you have to) and take the eggs. Since I have an incubator, I'd have that set up JUST IN CASE, and I'd take the eggs inside to candle. It might be that the eggs really didn't start when you thought they did and the chicks are alive, or it might be that they didn't make it for some reason and you can get rid of them. I know it can be hard to crack eggs to see what happened, but doing so may help you determine what went wrong. I crack any that didn't make it just to give myself peace of mind that I didn't toss an egg that was alive but just not moving. But this is all just me!

 

[zazouse]

Ya know i have checked the nest of guineas,chickens,geese and ducks and i do it just after dark.
I put a light on the ground to one side by the nest and slide my hand in under the other side and take an egg candle it and put it back if it is good,if i find one good egg i stop if i find a bad one i keep going till i find a good one or have pulled all the bad ones which ever comes first and i have never had them leave the nest.


I have had ducks chickens and geese roll out bad eggs but not all of them do it so it just depends on the bird.

If you decide to check them have the bator ready just in case she does leave the nest , but unless she is feels she is in real danger i highly dought she is gona give up those eggs , just talk to her like you always do to let her know it is you there with her.

Geese are said to be the most protective but checking them at night has never been a problem here, this was taken with a flash and the light was on the side so i could see but they could not see my hand as i checked for babies and eggs.

 

[MinxFox]

Thanks for the help everyone, I was wondering if it would be better at night...I am afraid I have some very bad news...
Damsel was on one egg, which I didn't know she only had one but anyways my dad called and said that he found a dead peachick in the pen and Damsel was up walking around. I went to the pen and about 17ft. away from were Damsel was nesting was a dead peachick lying there. Does that mean it hatched and walked around then died?! It wasn't even dry yet and its eyes were closed...Why would it be so far from the nest? I found fragments of the broken shell in the nest but nothing much don't the peahens eat the remains? I think the peachick hatched too early. I wish I could have done something...I don't think ants killed it. There were ants on it but not a bunch we think they got on it after it was dead. I don't even know if one of my peafowl could have killed it. I have five peafowl in the pen, 2 other peahens and one four year old male (the father) and a two year old male. You know what is worse? I think it might have been a pied..If it is a pied I think it has markings like Dragon. What freaked my mom out is it looks kind of like what Peep looked like when we helped him/her hatch and Peep wasn't moving because he/she was so tired. I have pictures so if you don't want to see a dead peachick look away.

Maybe the pictures will help show how it might have died.

I moved the dead chick out of the pen and far away so as not to attract predators. It's head was covered in yolk with the eyes closed.

This is the part that I think might have caused it to die, that red stuff that didn't get absorbed, that definitely doesn't look normal.

On a brighter side Ice is now nesting in the small part of the pen. I put some water next to her. I know for sure that she is on one egg. I saw the egg there the other day and wondered if I would see a peahen on it soon.

Was this just a freak incident?

 

[Kedreeva]

The "red stuff" looks to me like the hatching gunk most chicks have and don't absorb (think 'waste product'). Sometimes it can look more reddish brown and be scary to see.

However, it looks to me like the chick didn't hatch on its own at all- if it had hatched and then died, you would not see the eyes still sealed like that. As soon as they start to zip their eggs, they can open their eyes. If I had to guess, I'd say someone pecked open the egg (probably while Damsel was up eating or drinking), especially if there are only fragments of egg.

Sorry for the loss! Always tough to lose them so close to hatch

 

[zazouse]

I am so sorry Min, this is just so heart breaking for momma pea and you

 

[chickenbottom]

damsel could have stepped on the egg cracking it. and another one saw it and went after it even damsel could have done it. its happened with my hens before and its just an accident. but thats what it sounds like to me sorry about your pea chick

 

[MinxFox]

Hmm I hope another peafowl didn't crack it open when she got off the nest. What I didn't mention is that there was yet another egg I found recently next to the hose inside the pen and today I found it cracked open with nothing inside like someone cracked it and ate out the inside of it. Maybe one of my birds has a taste for egg...Durring the begining of breeding season I was finding a lot of eggs that ended up being broken days later. I am just hopping that Ice can hatch out a peachick without any problems. Since Ice is the dominant peahen I think a chick from her will fair well.

If the peachick was white I think I would have died...We really want a white peachick. Thanks everyone for the replies and ideas for what could have happened.

 

[Tracydr]

You may need to start incubating your eggs, since all your peafowl are penned up and it sounds like somebody may be eating them. Hopefully, Ice will be more protective. I've never only had one egg in the nest before. Do multiple hens lay in one nest for one hen to incubate? I've always had 5-8 in a nest but never knew who laid them so had no idea how many a single peahen lays.
Mine also seemed to lay up high on a platform in the rafters of my barn. I was always afraid the chicks would plummet or, of course, predators could get them, since they free-ranged, so I listened for pipping and brought the chicks inside as soon as they hatched. I don't think they would have done as well free ranging. As it was, I lost one to a hawk, stolen out of a covered dog exercise pen. Probably weigh a pound to a pound and a half and the hawk pulled it through the slats of the pen!
I'm sorry for your loss and wish you luck with the next hatching. I love peafowl and can't wait to move back to the country where I can have a bunch of them again.

 

[MinxFox]

Yeah I incubate some eggs and let the peahens incubate some too. I mainly wanted some hen raised peachicks and some people raise ones. I have one I hatched this year, my first peachick I have ever hatched and Damsel happens to be its mom. Normally peahens do lay around 6 eggs then after they lay all the eggs they start to set on them. I think because the breeding season here is coming to an end the peahens just aren't laying as many eggs anymore. I am a little surprised that they are laying just one egg and then incubating it, but Ice did the same thing last year. I know peachicks have a better chance of dying sometimes if they are being raised by the peahen and not a person but I just want to watch one or a few of the peahens raise a peachick.