Incubating Peafowl Eggs...

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello, we have 3 peahens that are 2 years old and should be ready to start laying. This is our first time trying to incubate peacock eggs. Does anyone know what the incubation period, temp, and humidity levels should be when trying to incubate the eggs?

So exciting. I am looking to do peahen eggs this spring for the first time, so I'm curious to see the advice you get.


I have a question to those with experience that say they use a higher humidity 50% or more for the peafowl. When you do chickens do you run that range or do you find the pea hens need a higher humidity than chickens?

 

[casportpony]

Quote: Do you weigh your eggs, or do you watch the air cell? I found that any of mine that lost less than 13% were what I call "juicy".

 

[casportpony]

Quote: I was really quite surprised when I heard peeping at day 24.

 

[KsKingBee]

So exciting. I am looking to do peahen eggs this spring for the first time, so I'm curious to see the advice you get.


I have a question to those with experience that say they use a higher humidity 50% or more for the peafowl. When you do chickens do you run that range or do you find the pea hens need a higher humidity than chickens?

Pea eggs are so totally different. The shells on chickens gets thin and brittle at hatch time, pea eggs don't. Peas need to loose 10 to 15% weight before hatching. Running too high of humidity the chick will be big and fill the air cell, this will keep the chick from having enough room in the shell to be able to swing the head to break out. If the egg has not lost enough moisture there can be liquid in the shell and the chick can drown. Too dry in the hatcher the chick will dry out too soon and get stuck and if too wet the chick is 'sticky' and can get stuck. The main reason I like my Brinsea as it has a humidity pump and will keep the incubator at a very precise percentage.



There is a lot of balance you have to find and your location may be very different than mine so you will just have to experiment and find what works best for you.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Do you weigh your eggs, or do you watch the air cell? I found that any of mine that lost less than 13% were what I call "juicy". 

I go by air cells.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Pea eggs are so totally different.  The shells on chickens gets thin and brittle at hatch time, pea eggs don't.  Peas need to loose 10 to 15% weight before hatching.  Running too high of humidity the chick will be big and fill the air cell, this will keep the chick from having enough room in the shell to be able to swing the head to break out.  If the egg has not lost enough moisture there can be liquid in the shell and the chick can drown.   Too dry in the hatcher the chick will dry out too soon and get stuck and if too wet the chick is 'sticky' and can get stuck.  The main reason I like my Brinsea as it has a humidity pump and will keep the incubator at a very precise percentage.



There is a lot of balance you have to find and your location may be very different than mine so you will just have to experiment and find what works best for you.

That's why I am asking what people use to hatch their chickens at so I can see the difference. If you hatch your chickens at 50 as well as your peafowl, then I'd start with what I hatch my chickens at. But if you incubated your chickens at 40 and your peafowl at 50, then I'd probably start with a ten percent difference than I normally use.

 

[casportpony]

Here is one that I would call "juicy"




Above pictures from: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-2013-will-have-lots-of-pics/70#post_11428309

 

[BigWeenMachine]

Quote:
We have 3 incubators. The first is a cruddy styrofoam circulated air one that cannot keep an even temperature so that one will be our hatcher. We also have a Lyon incubator which is dead on consistent and an awesome antique that still gets the job done. That one, however, is already designated for our ancona ducks. Soooo, that leaves us with our Brinsea. It is also extremely consistent. Can't remember which one it is but last year it held about 15 duck eggs and it doesn't have the auto-turner in it (which we don't wanna use anyways).

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Quote:
We have 3 incubators. The first is a cruddy styrofoam circulated air one that cannot keep an even temperature so that one will be our hatcher. We also have a Lyon incubator which is dead on consistent and an awesome antique that still gets the job done. That one, however, is already designated for our ancona ducks. Soooo, that leaves us with our Brinsea. It is also extremely consistent. Can't remember which one it is but last year it held about 15 duck eggs and it doesn't have the auto-turner in it (which we don't wanna use anyways).

Sounds like the Brinsea eco 20.

 

[casportpony]

My best hatch was in the RCOM 20 Max, and that I ran at 47% and 99.5. Tried some in the Janoel at 50-55%, and almost all of them had issues.