First chicks = need advice

[Lil Zoo]

I agree, when I had a sick peahen that couldn't walk or move, I called the vet's office and they said I'd have to bring her in. I started asking about the charges and they said she would likely be staying overnight and be under "intensive care". Would have been $100 easily. I posted on here and I'll never forget, Chickenzoo was the one who told me exactly what to do. I also pulled together info. from several other threads. Needless to say, she was cured for very cheap...just the cost of the metronidazole and Cocci-rid and a few other things I bought. I made a "mixture" that included nutrients that seemed good and force-fed her with a syringe (careful to not put it down her windpipe) several times a day and kept the heat on her.

In a week's time she bounced back, and went on to have several clutches until I recently sold her.

I still think it was blackhead that she had. She was trapped as a feral and I kept her in my pen of chickens (wrong thing to do). Live and learn.

I wish I had the "recipe" that I mixed up for her but it was more like "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" type thing.

Good luck with your bird!

Edited to add picture of her on the left and her yearling daughter on the right

They are gorgeous. For further reference what is a blackhead on peafowl and if you do find recipe please share.

 

[Lil Zoo]

I always have to rely on information found in places like here and common sense. We have two vets in town, a pet vet and a livestock vet. Call about anything poultry related and they both say to call the other.

Love small communities but we do lack in choices if we want out of the norm.

 

[Kedreeva]

They are gorgeous. For further reference what is a blackhead on peafowl and if you do find recipe please share.

Blackhead is a type of worm that chickens can co-exist with, but it can kill a peafowl in a matter of days.

As for the treatment of the foot; just be careful going into the pen at night. Announce yourself and make sure that they know someone is coming, rather than sneaking up on them. Since they are still "wild" fowl, there's a chance they could flush upward toward the roof if startled from sleep, and break their neck. I know at least Lily is wild enough to do this, but she was always good here if I just announced myself.

 

[Kedreeva]

Okay there was a comment about a female pea not being fertile with the breeding? I didn't understand this. Why would the female not be fertile and what combination(s) would produce a non-fertile bird. I sure don't want to go there!

The short answer? Probably has to do with the amount of inbreeding done when new colors arise, or a result of a mutation in the genes also causing other effects. Bear in mind that any new color is going to be one bird (maybe a couple if you're really lucky and it's the same pair throwing additional babies of the new color) because it's a genetic mutation. So this requires the breeder then to breed the new color for splits, and then breed those splits back to the color to produce more of the colors. Of course in recent years the people finding the new colors are typically very careful about out breeding them, making sure that there's genetic diversity enough... but in the end there's still some inbreeding done. And aside from that, it's still a mutation, and when genes mutate, sometimes things go wrong.

The specific color here is the charcoal birds, and if i recall it's the females that are not fertile. The males can still produce offspring and since it isn't a sex linked color, the females can be split.

 

[chicken danz]

Okay so I am really dumb. Can you tell me exactly what a split is. I read about splits in chicken colors as well.
I really know quite a lot about birds except when it comes to breeding for color and such. I need a glossary of terms used so I know what is what.

 

[Lil Zoo]

Blackhead is a type of worm that chickens can co-exist with, but it can kill a peafowl in a matter of days.

As for the treatment of the foot; just be careful going into the pen at night. Announce yourself and make sure that they know someone is coming, rather than sneaking up on them. Since they are still "wild" fowl, there's a chance they could flush upward toward the roof if startled from sleep, and break their neck. I know at least Lily is wild enough to do this, but she was always good here if I just announced myself.

I'll remember that. Lily and LuLu both seek the fartherest corner when I enter the pen. Snowie stays out of arms distance but is just to curious to be afraid. He awaits the treat. Figured Mr. Gorgeous would be more flighty.

 

[DMFarm]

First, does it make a difference if the dark pied is a white eye? Deerman told me both of mine would be white eye, and you made a distinction between "dark pied" and "pied white eye" as a result of silver pied by silver pied breeding. I still get fuzzy on genetics when it comes to the interaction of 'not straight' breedings (straight being something like piedxpied vs 'not straight' piedxpied white eye or piedxwhite or something). I still intend to breed a white from silver pied to my dark pied from silver pieds- so much the better if I get pieds (my favorite) along with my silver pieds!

As for your charcoal pied white eye- cute! Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet? If I'd been working on it 6 years I'd be getting a DNA test haha! If it's a girl it won't be fertile, right?

Silver pied is one of the hardest genes to understand.To produce silver pieds both parent has to carry pied and white-eye genes. Deerman is right both should be white-eye because both parent was silver pied but not all dark pied out of silver pied parents are white-eyes. Here is a 3 year old midnight dark pied both parents are silver pied but he is not showing any white-eyes.

The charcoal is to young to tell what it is I will be able to tell in a few months. I hatch out one last year and it was weak and died the next day. Charcoal color chicks are hard to produce because charcoal hen want lay you have to use hens that are split to charcoal. Charcoal is just a weak mutation and it not from inbreeding.
Here is my 3 year old charcoal blackshoulder male.


chicken danz
A split is a bird that carry another gene that the bird is not showing.

 

[Frosty]

Silver pied is one of the hardest genes to understand.To produce silver pieds both parent has to carry pied and white-eye genes. Deerman is right both should be white-eye because both parent was silver pied but not all dark pied out of silver pied parents are white-eyes. Here is a 3 year old midnight dark pied both parents are silver pied but he is not showing any white-eyes.

So can they carry the white-eye genes but not show it? I bought the silver pied hen and asked the seller if she had a black shoulder cock to go with her. They were both that years hatch and honestly neither one of us was even sure of the sex of either one at the time. The cock turned out to be dark pied, and the one chick that hatched out was the silver pied cock. The older male has no white-eyes that I have seen. So could he be split white-eye?

 

[chicken danz]

Oh wow! My head is spinning. I think I need a color chart to determine what breeds to what to make what.
I have a yearling pair of white eyed pieds. I was told if I breed them then breed their offspring I will get some whites from them. Of course that is at least 5 years down the road. I was thinking I could pay for their keep with the offspring I produce but now I'm thinking I'll want to keep them.

 

[Frosty]

Oh wow! My head is spinning. I think I need a color chart to determine what breeds to what to make what.
I have a yearling pair of white eyed pieds. I was told if I breed them then breed their offspring I will get some whites from them. Of course that is at least 5 years down the road. I was thinking I could pay for their keep with the offspring I produce but now I'm thinking I'll want to keep them.

Not sure why you say at least 5 years down the road? They can breed as two year olds... so if they are yearlings you could get babies next year and the second generation 2 years later.