First Attempt at Peafowl

[Tuhmu]

Hello everyone!

I've finally made a step towards peafowl and purchased some eggs, 3....! (Along with some yellow golden pheasant eggs, 10) This will be my first time hatching both species....I have high hopes but the odds are stacked against me, the eggs are shipped and from ebay so we'll see how this goes. I do have a brinsea advance with a humidity pump, so that part is pretty much fool proof.

I plan on employing two incubators for this, the brinsea to do most of the incubation process and then letting the brinsea be the hatcher; moving the peafowl eggs into the styro bator while the pheasant (and my own brahma eggs, to fill in any empty space (can't let that extra space go to waste!) that will be timed to sync with the pheasants) hatch in the brinsea, do a quick cleanup (if possible) than get the peafowl eggs in the brinsea to hatch. I just don't trust the styro as a hatcher, humidity is all over the place.

So assuming that I actually do get some to hatch (peafowl that is), the plan is to keep them in my large covered brooder, 3'x 8' for the first couple months and then move them and any pheasants into my new 4' x 8' coop that is almost complete just need the plywood and tin put on it.

So far, other than them being shipped ebay eggs, does this plan seem to be ok? I've had mixed results with shipped eggs, so it'll be interesting. The two people I purchased them from have good reviews, including some that revised their review to include their hatch rate which all seemed decent.


In the long term planning stage, I would like to build another building (sizing is still being figured) probably in the 8' x 16' range with an attached covered run. But I have to get to that stage first!

 

[hennypenney]

I've never hatched pheasant or peafowl but I did have some chicken eggs shipped. I wished I would of read more " hatching shipped eggs" advice. The air cells were all damaged. So my advice is to read how to set them before getting your eggs. Out of my 14 eggs, 6 seem to be ok.
I did let them set for 12 hours in egg carton large end up. I don't think that was enough. There's varied advice so I went with my gut after losing most, I shut off my auto turner and put them in a cut down paper egg carton and kept them upright to set air cells and then started barely turning 3 times a day. Apparently rules are different for shipped eggs as they are so fragile after travel. Good luck.

 

[Garden Peas]

Hello everyone!

I've finally made a step towards peafowl and purchased some eggs, 3....! (Along with some yellow golden pheasant eggs, 10) This will be my first time hatching both species....I have high hopes but the odds are stacked against me, the eggs are shipped and from ebay so we'll see how this goes. I do have a brinsea advance with a humidity pump, so that part is pretty much fool proof.

I plan on employing two incubators for this, the brinsea to do most of the incubation process and then letting the brinsea be the hatcher; moving the peafowl eggs into the styro bator while the pheasant (and my own brahma eggs, to fill in any empty space (can't let that extra space go to waste!) that will be timed to sync with the pheasants) hatch in the brinsea, do a quick cleanup (if possible) than get the peafowl eggs in the brinsea to hatch. I just don't trust the styro as a hatcher, humidity is all over the place.

So assuming that I actually do get some to hatch (peafowl that is), the plan is to keep them in my large covered brooder, 3'x 8' for the first couple months and then move them and any pheasants into my new 4' x 8' coop that is almost complete just need the plywood and tin put on it.

So far, other than them being shipped ebay eggs, does this plan seem to be ok? I've had mixed results with shipped eggs, so it'll be interesting. The two people I purchased them from have good reviews, including some that revised their review to include their hatch rate which all seemed decent.


In the long term planning stage, I would like to build another building (sizing is still being figured) probably in the 8' x 16' range with an attached covered run. But I have to get to that stage first!

Hi Levi! Welcome to the peafowl forum!

Brinsea incubators are said to work well -- wish I had one! Personally, I feel as though incubation is critical, and it doesn't seem to matter as much during hatching -- but the "lockdown" folks will probably disagree with me strongly

It sounds as though you've hatched eggs before, so you're likely to have some success. Shipping is hard on eggs, but I've successfully hatched shipped pea eggs. It can be done, there's just a lot of variables and stuff you can't control.

I'm wondering about your new coop -- 4 x 8 is only 32 square feet. Peas grow pretty fast, and the typical recommendation is to have 100 square feet for first bird. I'm using a converted garden/storage shed for a coop, and mine is on the small side, but bigger than that. Mine barely have enough room -- think about takeoff and landing distance from the roost, clearance from the wall for roosting and room for more than one bird to spread wings, fly up to the roost and land... if there are already birds on it. Your future 8 x 16 coop will definitely be better for the peas -- and the rascals will be full-sized quicker than it seems possible!

I couldn't tell from your post -- does your new pen have some kind of covered run attached? You don't have to have 100 square feet inside the house, but they need a good-sized pen (think a couple hundred square feet), fresh air and sunshine to grow and be healthy.

Good luck with your eggs!

You'll love your peas

they are wonderful birds.

 

[Tuhmu]

Hey, thanks for getting back to me!

I have hatched lots of shipped eggs, so I kind of know the drill there, mostly depends on how the shipper packages them honestly. So here's hoping I get lucky with these, my last two batches of chicken eggs were packaged very nice and hatched quite well.

The 4' x 8' is more of a temporary thing at the moment. Probably around end of summer would be when I could start on something bigger.

I would like to have something large enough that I could eventually keep two pairs or trios. With the building being the corner of an "L" shaped coop with two runs. But it will kind of depend on cost also. Planning on probably a post frame with steel siding, but I'll have to consider it more and see what all the options would be.

 

[Garden Peas]

Pen building is one of the biggest challenges in raising peas. I'm always inspired when I see other people's pens and creative ideas.

Those babies will be huge before it seems possible -- they don't take long to get to small adult size

Something I wish I had known -- and thought carefully about -- before I started building pens, is that some peachicks are tiny enough to squirt through chicken wire when they first hatch.

No big deal if they are in the house in a brooder, but a bona fide crisis if they are peahen-hatched and momma is on the other side.

Keep us posted on hatching progress -- we'll be rooting for you. And photos, we

chick photos

 

[Tuhmu]

The eggs all arrived today! I don't get to do anything with them for another 6 hours though >.> until I get home from work. Hoping they made it ok, my postlady knows the drill with the eggs and puts them in my neighbors entry way. So at least they will be out of the elements and in a somewhat cool place.

Another quick question, how accepting are peafowl of other aged chicks? If I were to set another batch next week and assuming I get some from each batch.....would they be ok together? I'm guessing a week older wouldn't be that big of an issue but just to make sure.

 

[KsKingBee]

I have read that you should let the eggs sit quiet for a couple of days before setting so the air sack can reattach.

I doubt that a hen of any kind would take in more chicks after a week of having her won. Then there is an exception to every rule.

Last year I had a chick hatch out early under one broody chicken and another broody hen killed it.

 

[DylansMom]

The eggs all arrived today! I don't get to do anything with them for another 6 hours though >.> until I get home from work. Hoping they made it ok, my postlady knows the drill with the eggs and puts them in my neighbors entry way. So at least they will be out of the elements and in a somewhat cool place.

Another quick question, how accepting are peafowl of other aged chicks? If I were to set another batch next week and assuming I get some from each batch.....would they be ok together? I'm guessing a week older wouldn't be that big of an issue but just to make sure.

I generally don't have any issues when the chicks are 2 weeks or less apart in age.

 

[Tuhmu]

I have read that you should let the eggs sit quiet for a couple of days before setting so the air sack can reattach.

I doubt that a hen of any kind would take in more chicks after a week of having her won. Then there is an exception to every rule.

Last year I had a chick hatch out early under one broody chicken and another broody hen killed it.

What I've done with other shipped eggs, is let them sit for a day and then put them in the incubator but I don't put them on the turner for another two days (if the air cell isn't attached).

I was just referencing with putting young chicks in with older chicks, sorry I should have stated that different.

I sure hope I get a couple, I went with white this batch but would really like to get my hands on the standard blue too which I may be able to get locally as chicks depending if they hatch any this year.

 

[Garden Peas]

I agree with @DylansMom , you probably won't have any trouble joining up chicks that are within a couple of weeks of age as long as it's just chicks and not adults involved. I've had chicks hatching since the end of February -- it was those darned heat lamps in the pea-shed

-- but mostly in ones, twos and threes, so I've had to add chicks, rearrange chicks, and swap chicks in and out for 3 months now, and it's gone okay most of the time. I had one chick that was only a few days old start savaging a newly-hatched one, so you do have to watch closely, particularly at the start. Try to avoid big differences in size. I noticed that once they had been through the roommate adjustment, then moving up with bigger chicks or adding smaller chicks wasn't as hard as the first meeting with other chicks. There's a learning process getting adjusted to flock manners.

Good luck!