How bad did I mess up?

[Frosty]

I didn't get a building up for my peafowl yet... so for the winter I put them in with the chickens. We don't have a blackhead problem here, and this is just for this winter (I hope).

Anyhow, I turned lights on to get the chickens laying (most of them are chicks I got last spring) and it took a while but they started flooding me with eggs. I cut the lights back, and they kept laying like crazy. So I turned the lights off and now we are getting a pretty good amount of eggs so I am happy with that.

The problem is, I had the lights going for about a month total (including the time I had them coming on later). Now I am finding train feathers all over the place, looks like my big guy (whose train just came in!) is losing it already. Was this caused by the days getting 'shorter' again? Or are the chickens pulling them out? I never see the chickens messing with him. Did I mess up the breeding for this year? I really wanted to see him in all of his glory displaying, but he started dropping feathers before it was fully in and I haven't seen him display at all. His 2 year old son doesn't have a train yet but has been displaying like crazy. So how bad did I mess up?

 

[deerman]

I didn't get a building up for my peafowl yet... so for the winter I put them in with the chickens. We don't have a blackhead problem here, and this is just for this witer (I hope).

Anyhow, I turned lights on to get the chickens laying (most of them are chicks I got last spring) and it took a while but they started flooding me with eggs. I cut the lights back, and they kept laying like crazy. So I turned the lights off and now we are getting a pretty good amount of eggs so I am happy with that.

The problem is, I had the lights going for about a month total (including the time I had them coming on later). Now I am finding train feathers all over the place, looks like my big guy (whose train just came in!) is losing it already. Was this caused by the days getting 'shorter' again? Or are the chickens pulling them out? I never see the chickens messing with him. Did I mess up the breeding for this year? I really wanted to see him in all of his glory displaying, but he started dropping feathers before it was fully in and I haven't seen him display at all. His 2 year old son doesn't have a train yet but has been displaying like crazy. So how bad did I mess up?

hate to tell you ....but he is dropping the train because the lights....i have hear of this before....my guess he will be behind breeding season by months....without his train he will not be fertile, but nmaybe your 2 yr old will be.

 

[DCasper]

Wow, I just learned something that will save me a lot of trouble.

 

[Frosty]

hate to tell you ....but he is dropping the train because the lights....i have hear of this before....my guess he will be behind breeding season by months....without his train he will not be fertile, but nmaybe your 2 yr old will be.

That's what I was afraid of. I won't be surprised if the whole year is a bust. Ah well, I just have them for pleasure so no biggie. Thank you...