I hope you don't get sick of me. *Update- mysterious illness?*

[furbabymum]

More baby peacock drama/questions.

Both mothers appear to be missing 1 peachick. So I’m missing 2. I didn’t hear them crying anywhere so I imagine they must be dead? How would they die? Should I take the other chicks away from them? The peahen from my "Bad Mom?" thread recently grabbed one of the other hens chicks and shook it. She got it by the wing and now that wing is hanging down from the chick. I managed to catch it and it did flap that wing so hopefully it’s not too damaged. Anything I should do about that?

So far if this is how peahens hatch out chicks I won’t be letting them do it again.

Update: I think it may have been illness. Though what I'm not sure. One peachick was just not right yesterday so I took it inside and cared for it until it passed. The day before it appeared to be fine so I'm not sure what would have happened to cause this. Any ideas? I'm going to offer up medicated feed now just in case.

The chickens hatched out 4 eggs and every single one of the babies survived. The peahens are now down 3. I don't know that I'll ever let them hatch eggs again.

 

[DylansMom]

More baby peacock drama/questions.

Both mothers appear to be missing 1 peachick. So I’m missing 2. I didn’t hear them crying anywhere so I imagine they must be dead? How would they die? Should I take the other chicks away from them? The peahen from my "Bad Mom?" thread recently grabbed one of the other hens chicks and shook it. She got it by the wing and now that wing is hanging down from the chick. I managed to catch it and it did flap that wing so hopefully it’s not too damaged. Anything I should do about that?

So far if this is how peahens hatch out chicks I won’t be letting them do it again.

Your hens & chicks are free ranging, right? If so, it is probably 1 of 2 things, either something got the missing chicks and they are dead or they got separated from the rest of the group and mom didn't realize it. Peahens can't count, and if they get out of earshot and cannot hear a little one any longer they do not even realize they have left 1 behind. My cameo hatched 6 chicks, we sold 4 during the first 2 weeks and she never batted an eye, as long as she still had some there she was content and never missed the sold ones. I would try taking a long slow walk around the property during a quiet time of day, see if you hear them. When I used to free range we always considered ourselves lucky if 1 or 2 survived to adulthood, there are just so many dangers for free ranging babies. Now we keep them penned and we seldom lose babies. Our hens also do not like other hen's chicks, they act very aggressive toward them and I believe they would hurt them if given the chance. I attributed it to nature, those other chicks would be competing with her chicks for food. "Bad Mom" pecking at her own chicks surprised me, pecking at other's chicks does not.

How is your little one with the funky wings doing?

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

Trust me if anyone here is going to get sick of somebody it will be me

, I asked a lot of questions!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

If they are free ranged its better to penned them, in the past, we let our geese raise their chicks and they were free ranged, so we were loosing chicks everyday or every other day, we thought our geese are strong enough to protect their chicks but in fact they can't even protect them from cats! They can just beat us

 

[furbabymum]

Your hens & chicks are free ranging, right? If so, it is probably 1 of 2 things, either something got the missing chicks and they are dead or they got separated from the rest of the group and mom didn't realize it. Peahens can't count, and if they get out of earshot and cannot hear a little one any longer they do not even realize they have left 1 behind. My cameo hatched 6 chicks, we sold 4 during the first 2 weeks and she never batted an eye, as long as she still had some there she was content and never missed the sold ones. I would try taking a long slow walk around the property during a quiet time of day, see if you hear them. When I used to free range we always considered ourselves lucky if 1 or 2 survived to adulthood, there are just so many dangers for free ranging babies. Now we keep them penned and we seldom lose babies. Our hens also do not like other hen's chicks, they act very aggressive toward them and I believe they would hurt them if given the chance. I attributed it to nature, those other chicks would be competing with her chicks for food. "Bad Mom" pecking at her own chicks surprised me, pecking at other's chicks does not.

How is your little one with the funky wings doing?

They are free range but we also have a large fenced run. Since hatching out the chicks the hens have remained inside the run. It has no top on it but it's fenced all the way around.

The other poster mentioned cats and that just hit me. We've been struggling with the cats and I bet that is it. I did walk around and didn't hear the chicks but I will do it again. The cats are going to be dog meat now though.

 

[DylansMom]

They are free range but we also have a large fenced run. Since hatching out the chicks the hens have remained inside the run. It has no top on it but it's fenced all the way around.

The other poster mentioned cats and that just hit me. We've been struggling with the cats and I bet that is it. I did walk around and didn't hear the chicks but I will do it again. The cats are going to be dog meat now though.

Are they your cats or strays? One year I forgot to close a pen door tightly and the wind blew it open, we had a hen and her remaining 2 chicks in that pen( she had already lost 2, one drowned in the water dish my bad, and the other got thru a hole in the fence into the next pen where it was promptly killed by several yearling Peas). She left the pen with those 2 chicks and we lost one to our barn cats and the other was found in our Rottweiler's mouth, very slobbery but completely unharmed.

We named him Lucky and he's about 6 now.

 

[furbabymum]

Are they your cats or strays? One year I forgot to close a pen door tightly and the wind blew it open, we had a hen and her remaining 2 chicks in that pen( she had already lost 2, one drowned in the water dish my bad, and the other got thru a hole in the fence into the next pen where it was promptly killed by several yearling Peas). She left the pen with those 2 chicks and we lost one to our barn cats and the other was found in our Rottweiler's mouth, very slobbery but completely unharmed.

We named him Lucky and he's about 6 now.

They aren't ours. The first year we got chickens we buried 3 cats. 4 years before we got birds, never buried a cat. The dogs share a fence with the birds so I imagine the cats were being lured in. At the time I posted about it and it got rather passionate and deleted. lol You either love cats or you don't it would appear. Basically our neighbor feeds strays. We told him we were having to bury them and he said that was disappointing but it happens. I've found cats hanging out in the barn. That's how I know our akbash is completely useless as a guard dog. I was there encouraging him to get the cats and he just stood with this doofy look on his face and his tail wagging. /sigh From what I've observed the peahens are going into the barn to rest at night. I guess I was hoping the cock would alert us. He usually strikes up an almighty fuss when anything gets into the barn. It's how we've always known there was a predator attack. Apparently he's not doing that now. double /sigh

 

[DylansMom]

They aren't ours. The first year we got chickens we buried 3 cats. 4 years before we got birds, never buried a cat. The dogs share a fence with the birds so I imagine the cats were being lured in. At the time I posted about it and it got rather passionate and deleted. lol You either love cats or you don't it would appear. Basically our neighbor feeds strays. We told him we were having to bury them and he said that was disappointing but it happens. I've found cats hanging out in the barn. That's how I know our akbash is completely useless as a guard dog. I was there encouraging him to get the cats and he just stood with this doofy look on his face and his tail wagging. /sigh From what I've observed the peahens are going into the barn to rest at night. I guess I was hoping the cock would alert us. He usually strikes up an almighty fuss when anything gets into the barn. It's how we've always known there was a predator attack. Apparently he's not doing that now. double /sigh

I doubt your cock would alert on a cat, ours sure don't, they don't even give them a thought. They only seem to fuss over things that pose a threat to them and a cat is no match for an adult Pea. Our cats defer to the Peas and give them the first crack at the cat food dish. However little bitty chicks are fair game to them, we've only ever lost that one, but we are very careful now.

 

[AugeredIn]

We have lots of cats at the farm. Some of them friendly and some not so much so (true barn cats). I seriously doubt that any of the cats could take a chick unless it was a sneak attack. Our cats spend as much time in the pens as outside the pens as they are truly mousers. The peahens do not pay them any attention normally as they are no threat and if you have ever seen a cat fight a peahen there is only one outcome, near dead cat. When we occasionally let the hens hatch late in the season they become way more attentive around the cats. Even the most wary barn cat would not try.

 

[furbabymum]

We have lots of cats at the farm. Some of them friendly and some not so much so (true barn cats). I seriously doubt that any of the cats could take a chick unless it was a sneak attack. Our cats spend as much time in the pens as outside the pens as they are truly mousers. The peahens do not pay them any attention normally as they are no threat and if you have ever seen a cat fight a peahen there is only one outcome, near dead cat. When we occasionally let the hens hatch late in the season they become way more attentive around the cats. Even the most wary barn cat would not try.

I've had this argument before. No offense to you but I have. I can not personally guarantee it is the cats but I refuse to rule them out.