Day 27

[Love that Jazzy]

Hi all!

OK, today is day 27. My peahen has been a good little incubating mommy, but I do not want to have peachicks. Should I just remove the eggs (4) completely when she is off the nest tomorrow? I left the eggs so she could do her peahen mommy nest thing. The male is in the same big pen as she is and I do not have the capability to separate if the chicks are hatched--I have not done this before, and am concerned the male will kill the chicks???

Would removing the eggs encourage her to recycle and renest and lay a whole new batch of eggs? I do have dummy eggs I could put in the nest.

Thank you for your help and advice!

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Wow, I can't imagine why you waited until day 27 to think of this? Especially if you don't want chicks.
They're about to hatch!

Why don't you just let them hatch?
I've never heard of a male pea killing chicks but maybe I missed that somewhere.

 

[PavoFowl]

Wow, it's really sad that you don't want the chicks, especially now that there is a grown and developed chick inside! If you knew you didn't want them from the beginning, why didn't you just deal with it from when they were laid? How sad for them.

If you don't want the chicks and they would otherwise die, let the hen keep sitting them and mail them to me as soon as they hatch. I'll gladly raise them along with my other peachicks.

I have heard that the males will attack and kill the chicks, but I have also heard they ignore them. I guess it just depends on the size of your pen and if you have other hens, among many other factors.

-Seana

 

[Love that Jazzy]

I know, I know. I haven't ever had peahen eggs before, but I have had parrots... I know they are not the same, so I let her sit on them so she wouldn't keep laying clutches which could deplete her calcium levels (even though she has access to calcium). I very well might let them hatch and just see what happens... There is just one male and the one peahen in a very large aviary, completely netted with a very large coop. She is in a small cubby kind of enclosure I had made. If they do start hatching, I'll just let her be mama and let her do her thing and let nature take it's course. It's her first clutch, and his first mating experience, so I'm not sure what will happen anyway. I have not candled them at all. She laid a total of 7 eggs, she's down to 4. One was laid off of a shed roof, one just sat for almost 20 days in the middle of the pen before she laid another, then one broke in her nest somehow. Thanks for the info.

 

[zazouse]

Wow if you had them decoy eggs ,perhaps it would have been a great idea to exchange them back 27 days ago.
It is getting late in the year she may or may not lay another clutch.

My males never mess with pea babies but the Juveniles from the year before do try to pester them till the moms run them off.

You could sell the chicks and buy some wire to make another Pen for later on in case you decide to do this again.

 

[Cindysid]

I'm glad that you decided to at least give them a chance. I struggled long and hard to hatch out my pea babies and I love them so much. I wish that I was in your position. I would already be building another pen.