I forget how stressful this pea egg time is! Is it for you, too?

[new 2 pfowl]

Hello fellow peapeople...I haven't been a peaperson for that long and every year at this time I think: Yay! Chick time!
Somehow I forget how stressful this is with free ranging peas. All three girls are on nests now but I only know where one of them is (luckily, off the ground). So the girls and their eggs are in constant danger from various predators, and I worry! And so the boys are all on high alert and they're yelling out warnings all day, and especially all night!
And then when they hatch, more worry!
Yikes! Maybe I'm too sensitive for this!

Of course, I know egg business is stressful for those of you with penned peas, too, and from what you all report incubating eggs is really challenging. Is your life getting stressful yet?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

New2,yes it is. I have been debating the past two weeks on seperating peas for breeding season but the weather forecast has been rainy and cold,this week rain almost every day.But I did get 6 pens seperated where they will be all summer.I still must finish 3 more outside breeding pens for the Cameo's,Taupe and 2011 hatched birds that may breed and lay a few eggs.
I bought a nice Humidaire Incubator last week that will hold about 150 eggs.I've had it plugged in all week and been tweeking it but cannot get it exactly on 99.6 degrees.Perhaps some new electronic gadgets ordered this week will solve that issue.Another thing with this incubator is there is no way for a hatching tray to be put inside this incubator,so once again,I'm forced to make a box with a blower-heater and way to control humidity.More new fangled gadgets are coming this week for that.
One thingy about making my homemade hatcher,,I hatch so many b/s chicks that unless I'm there to see which chick comes outta which egg,it a guess until they reach about 6 months old.Fortunately this problem only happened once 2 years ago,,but I'm going to incorporate as box system similiar to a tic-tac-toe drawing with 6" sides to put each egg color into until they are hatched out.No chance of them fence jumping anymore.
Last year it was hurry up and finish the breeding pens after we came home from Mt Hope,,this year still not as bad,but none the less more work that must be completed real soon.

 

[zazouse]

I been watching mine, i have 5 hens mated that i know of and some of them are going off by themselves looking for a nesting area, it is stressfull for me if they decide to nest outside the safe zone but i can do rounds outside their nesting area , i have done it with my guineas and they hatched out keets without insident, peas will not be allowed to sit a nest.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Zaz, you're so lucky you have the dogs to help you keep an eye on things!

fbc, that incubator thing sounds really tricky. And you're already getting eggs, right? Are they going in with the wine yet???

 

[frenchblackcopper]

New2, the purple eggs aren't going into the bator yet. Not until I get a hygrometer to tell me the humidity levels. Vino is for "hatch days" and I plan 2 hatch days per week. That was my justification last year to wifey to buy the wine cooler-fridge to help keep eggs at a constant 55 degrees for up to 4 days before they are bator bound. I'm using some zoo-med parts to build my hatcher. Got most of the wood needed yesterday to build it with. I plan on making it 24"x48" with a top hatching tray and lower "fluffling" tray. I think the trays will be about 24"x30" leaving me a space for my electrical equip,ect. Since these do not turn it's pretty simple to make a box with a controlled environment and tons of airflow. Maybe that would eat up some bandwidth on it's construction? I'm no cabinet maker but know what it takes to hatch pea eggs successfully.

 

[kmsek]

I still have no eggs we have breeding action , Moved other two 1 yr olds out of pen do to intense picking by older male and female. What gives they are both aprox 4 yrs old and have bred in past .....

 

[zazouse]

I still have no eggs we have breeding action , Moved other two 1 yr olds out of pen do to intense picking by older male and female. What gives they are both aprox 4 yrs old and have bred in past .....

I believe it takes 2 to 3 weeks after first mating has occured before they start laying, I observed my first matings on 4-4 and my hens have been looking for a nesting area but have yet to lay an egg.

 

[casportpony]

I don't have eggs yet either, but I keep hearing that noise they make when they try to mount the girls, so maybe I'll see some eggs before the end of the month?

 

[zazouse]

Some of my young boys make that horn sound when they try to mount each other.

Silly peas

 

[sandspoultry]

New2, the purple eggs aren't going into the bator yet. Not until I get a hygrometer to tell me the humidity levels. Vino is for "hatch days" and I plan 2 hatch days per week. That was my justification last year to wifey to buy the wine cooler-fridge to help keep eggs at a constant 55 degrees for up to 4 days before they are bator bound. I'm using some zoo-med parts to build my hatcher. Got most of the wood needed yesterday to build it with. I plan on making it 24"x48" with a top hatching tray and lower "fluffling" tray. I think the trays will be about 24"x30" leaving me a space for my electrical equip,ect. Since these do not turn it's pretty simple to make a box with a controlled environment and tons of airflow. Maybe that would eat up some bandwidth on it's construction? I'm no cabinet maker but know what it takes to hatch pea eggs successfully.

How many eggs does the wine cooler/fridge hold? I have seen them but never looked at one up close. That sounds like a good idea