How old must a peacock be before peahen eggs are fertile

[oldguy]

Yep, just wondering - how old my peacocks should be before peahens will be fertile? Peahens are laying, the peacocks are 11 months old.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Hello there @oldguy ! So exciting that you are getting eggs!

But...as I understand it, your fella is too young to have fertilized them.

The experts will be chiming in here soon.

 

[Dany12]

Ideally the male must have a year older than the female!
male = 3 years old ... female 2 years !

The more he have that ... .... the more he is fertile and the more he is attractive for the peahens !

 

[MeepBeep]

As said 2 years is about the soonest, 3 is better... They are only fertile when they have their train (tail) so no train (tail) display no fertility...

 

[oldguy]

Thanks for the replies. I learn a lot here. My hens are 3 years old and i have 4 males in there with them that are 11 months old. The males fan and strut around but i haven't seen any breeding take place. The females are dominant at the food dish. I'll keep and set the eggs and update this thread if any hatch. I have 2 eggs thus far.

 

[KsKingBee]

Brad Legg told me two years old and it didn't matter if the cock has eye feathers or not. Like mentioned above the older the better and the more eye feathers the more attracted the hen is to him.

 

[Midnightman14]

I agree with KSkingbee there really are no set rules when it comes to this kind of thing. I've had males with no trains mate successfully and hens that are 1 lay fertile eggs. I have noticed though that a hen will almost always go for an older male over a younger one if she has a choice.

 

[ndebrfank]

Ideally the male must have a year older than the female!
male = 3 years old ... female 2 years !

The more he have that ... .... the more he is fertile and the more he is attractive for the peahens !

How old does the male Peacock have to be before he can fertilize eggs? Also, how does a female have to be to be fertilized?

 

[KsKingBee]

How old does the male Peacock have to be before he can fertilize eggs? Also, how does a female have to be to be fertilized?

It is not the age but the maturity of the bird. I was told years ago by one of the biggest breeders in the US that as long a the cock has at least one eye feather he can fertilize an egg. Right now I have some yearling European Violet hens that have one of them is laying. Once I saw that first unfertilized egg I promptly put two yearling cocks both with eye feathers in the pen with them. We will see what becomes of that but you also have to realize that like fumbling teenage humans it will take practice for the birds to get the mechanics right to actually get the deed done.

 

[KsKingBee]

A few years back I had some yearling hens in my bullpen because I was short on space. One of those yearling hens laid four eggs, two of which hatched but she was under mature cocks.