I had to sleep with peafowl eggs on my belly. Will they hatch?

[chickenzoo]

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[MaggieRae]

Now right there is dedication... I can't help ya, but I'll be following along!

<- Going like this!

 

[free_ranger]

2 of the eggs have chicks moving in them!! I can't believe it. They're moving a LOT. It's amazing that they survived. Especially because when I put them back in the incubator I found I had been carrying one of them upside down, so I've been worrying that I messed up someone's air sac. Whenever I woke up I'd roll them over in place on my belly, but then I turned one around because I thought the big end wasn't pointed at my head like the others. So when I sat up they'd be big end up. I actually got cold when I saw I'd carried the little baby upside down. Like I killed it again after letting it get cold. Phew. They must be lucky little things.

Boggy Bottom Bantams I was dying to know too but didn't want to mess with them after I manipulated them so much that night. I thought I shouldn't touch them again except for turn-overs. I'm glad you said you'd candle, if you were me. Thanks again.

Now I'm worried about something else though. One air sac looks like it takes up 1/4 of the egg, and the other looks like it's nearly 1/3 of the egg. Isn't that bad? Is there something I should do? I've kept humidity around 45-50%. If I raise it will it drown the chicks? They're at day 22.

 

[deerman]

Raise the humidity on day 25 , you will not drown them then.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
told you you'd be fine.

The humidity on your reader my be off, large aircell are sign of too low of humidity. I run my peafowl and wild turkeys higher than normal anyway, 55-60% and yes like deerman said, raise it the last 3-4 days for sure, they have to have it, There's no risk of drowning them til the pip the shell, as long as water is condensating on the top of the incubator, you are fine. I geneerally run about 70% for the hatch.
Everyone's different on this, but this is what works best for me.
Good luck!!

 

[free_ranger]

Hi, here is the chick I hatched out of 11 eggs. It's 4 days old in the picture. Can you believe it hatched on day 27, 3 hours after pipping? The other egg never hatched and on day 31 I opened it up to see what happened. It was alive at lockdown but it died before it absorbed its yolk. Poor little baby. So that leaves my little fella as an only peachick... with all that it entails.

What do you think it could be? The seller separates her peafowl by color, so this could be from white, bs, or purple silver pied parents.

One feathertip is a little lighter than all the others, but I wouldn't call it white.


Let's just say that since I'm afraid it'll pass out from crying or overheat itself, I end up carrying it around in my shirt most places, including in the car, and it sleeps in bed with me in my hands or under my chin. I'm going to get it a little friend because it's taken over my life. I guess I'll be going to that auction after all on Friday which is what I was trying to avoid when I started down the road of incubating peafowl eggs.

EDITING to say that I don't know how I somehow bumped this to the top of page one, I was content with it being on page 2 since I already got all the answers and encouragement I needed. I was just trying to put some pictures at the end. Thanks everyone, for your help, and I'm glad I had a little someone to show you after it all shook out. I love BYC!

 

[Kedreeva]

you bumped it by posting XD Congrats on the hatch! It is adoooorable

He's adorable and if those are the ONLY pens available (all white in 1 pen, all BS in 1 pen, all purple silver pied in 1 pen and NO mixes anywhere) then you seem to have a dark pied from the purple silver pied pen (the white pen should breed true, as should the BS pen, and a BS chick would be nearly white at first). This means it'll look like an India Blue (mostly). It will get whiter flights most likely, and if bred to a white chick from purple silver pied parents, it will produce purple silver pied kids. Since all silver pied are also white eye, you may see white eyes on the normal colored train.

When it gets to be about 2 weeks, and you can see the saddle feathers growing in (the ones at the 'shoulder' area on the back, they'll pretty much be the first ones to come in)... will you take a close up picture of them? I have a theory I want to test.

 

[free_ranger]

Sure! I'll take that picture and then post it or send it as a PM.

 

[Kev]

Chick's not purple though, so either there's another pen with another color or a bird of 'different color' in one of those pens. Purple x purple always 100% purple, so a blue chick is not possible from all purple silver pied pen.

If by chance there's a blue hen with the purple male, this will tell you it's a male chick.

Very cute chick.

p.s. what's the theory? love theories!

 

[Kedreeva]

It's a secret theory involving saddle feather patterns at 2 weeks of age.

Briefly, when mine were right about 2 weeks, they had (what seemed to me) starkly different saddle feathers. I was told to wait and the patterns changed quickly, but I guessed then that one pattern would feather male and one feather female. I dismissed the theory when I was told at 5 weeks I had two males... but it's a few weeks later, and one of them has dropped the 'male' patterns and is clearly a female, which is what I'd guessed she would be at 2 weeks according to her saddle feathers. So I'm either a lucky guesser or there's a short window of opportunity to tell the gender very early if you're obsessive. I've only had the two so far, so more pictures of the exact feathers at the right time would be necessary, along with updates on what gender they end up being.

It's entirely possible the difference was random and had no meaning. But if that's not the case, I think it's worth looking into.