First Attempt at Peafowl

[Tuhmu]

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

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!

That's great to hear. I may try to see if I can find some more then, just to increase my odds a bit.

I did get both the peafowl and pheasant eggs last night, no broken, air cells appear to be good. The pheasant eggs were especially beautifully packaged, Styrofoam inserts.

 

[Garden Peas]

The "merging" I was most worried about was when I had the first chick hatch a little over two weeks before the next ones, and they hatched a bit staggered over several days. The first chick was much too big for the little guys, so I ended up waiting a couple more weeks. The little guys had some younger guys added to their little crowd, and everyone learned to play nice. Meanwhile, mega chick (who started out small) was growing like a turkey poult. Finally the next three had a growth spurt, and were kinda big for their pen mates. The older one was still bigger, but they were closer in size now, and had experience with other chickies.

I moved all three of the growth spurt chicks in with the mega chick at the same time, so that there would be more distractions and a bit of safety in numbers while mega chick (who was now a good month old) learned how to cope with the juniors. It worked out okay, but I don't mind saying I was a little nervous, and I did make sure there were places where the chicks could get away from each other.

 

[Argus]

Had the same problem this year, one born early April due to the crazy winter. He's so much bigger and thinks he's a human, so I've just decided he gets his own pen until he moves out to the peabarn. I've made it work in the past too, but I just don't want the worry this year.

 

[Tuhmu]

So ran the math on a 12' x 12' building, stud frame with a wood floor, steel siding....looking at like $650

The building itself would be around $350, which would be pretty reasonable for that size of building. I need to do an estimate on it with panel wood siding, that I could stain and maybe just a steel roof once.

I should also maybe run some math on just a post frame building.....the only thing is it would probably have to be a ground floor, which wouldn't be the worst but still.

Hoping I can score a garden shed or a smaller building from someplace, but I think that's pressing my luck. I already have inherited 3, two of which are hen houses and one is my garden shed.

 

[Tuhmu]

Started day one last night on the three whites and the pheasants, 23 and 28 days is too long....they need to make incubators come with a fast forward button.

 

[Tuhmu]

Well, one of the eggs is for sure developing. The other two I can't quite tell, but I guess it takes awhile longer than 7 days to tell with these big eggs. Going to try again next week or maybe Saturday. I don't take them out of the incubator or move them at all, so it shouldn't hurt....

Only two pheasants are developing sadly though

 

[DylansMom]

Well, one of the eggs is for sure developing. The other two I can't quite tell, but I guess it takes awhile longer than 7 days to tell with these big eggs. Going to try again next week or maybe Saturday. I don't take them out of the incubator or move them at all, so it shouldn't hurt....

Only two pheasants are developing sadly though

Try a stronger LED flashlight, I can usually tell by 4-5 days with Pea eggs.

 

[Tuhmu]

Hrm, I have an actual egg candler. Maybe it's starting to go dim, I'll wait again till Saturday and try a flashlight or maybe both at the same time.

 

[KsKingBee]

Concrete floors take much more cleaning and expense than dirt floors covered with sand. I have a brooder house with concrete floor that gets wet when it rains, the water seeps in around the sides. I have to change out the bedding every couple of weeks or after every big rain. If you can make it shed water then it may work better, I know that DylansMom has a huge barn with concrete floors and I never hear her complain.

 

[Tuhmu]

I may be able to do concrete. I'm adding a 30' x 32' shop onto my pole barn, and there may be some concrete left over..not sure if it would be enough to do that much though..escpecially since I was hoping to use what's left on the truck to put in the "people" side of my barn.

Concrete itself is so expensive though, so if I don't have any left over (have to have three trucks come out for the shop) it's probably not going to happen. The flooring I had planned out in my latest design, is 3/4" osb supported by treated 2 x 6 's. with the new coop's plan's size being an 8' x 8' which I figured would be around $600 with steel siding and it being 8' tall in the front and 6ish' in the back. Planning on doing a large covered pen to make up for the space.