It's complicated

[Garden Peas]

Also, the male hasn't "honked" yet. The females are just starting to but the male hasn't. Sometimes I think he is trying but kind of heaves.

What does this mean?

Thanks

Honking (make a goose-like "honk" noise) is an alarm call. Mating calls from male peafowl are more of a loud (ah-ahow or "pee-ah") noise -- sometimes compared to a really loud cat or a woman "screaming," lol (not so funny if the police get called to your house, as some owners have experienced

}.

I wouldn't expect a one year old to be doing much in the way of mating calls, but he may be working on getting the "honk" alarm call going. Watch to see what else is going when he tries to make it. Remember males often are unsuccessful at breeding until 3 years old, 2 is kinda precocious for a male...

 

[Garden Peas]

Well he hasn't started to do any sort of calling... Well, we used to have 9 ish peafow but have of them disapeared. Now we only have 4 males and 1 female (bad ratio) they normaly fly up on the roof and sleep there. We also have a lot of redwood trees and I've seen them fly into branches so I assume they could/do sleep there.

Last spring, the one and only peahen hatched maybe three or four babies (one of them is the one in the cage now we named him Ody) sadly, none of the chicks survived except for Ody. This year, I am thinking of taking the chicks from the mama. Does that sound appropriate? I assume that the two other peahens that out neighbor found where from the same mother later on in the season. I am just trying to do what's best for them and the mommy has done a terrible job keeping them safe.

Thanks

Hmmm, the wisest thing might be to pen momma herself, so you don't lose her AND the chicks. It's hard to guess whether they are being lost to predators or disease, but peahens are incredibly vulnerable to predators during the time that they nest. If you want chicks, put one of the males in with her.

It's great to have momma raise the babies, but you may want to treat for coccidia, which can cause chick losses in a hurry. If momma is penned with the chicks, you can offer some medicated chick starter or medicate the water with amprolium so that the chicks survive the time that they are most vulnerable to it.

If you can't keep the hen safe from predators (which is hard to do if she's free-ranging), you will probably lose her AND the chicks. Remember, her instincts to conceal herself in the brush just make it harder for you to find her, but don't necessarily conceal her from all the critters that make a living off of eating what they find.

Good luck!

 

[chickens r life]

Thanks for the help!! I don't want to own her up (mostly because it would be very difficult for me to catch her) I'll keep an eye on her and when she hatches the chicks I'll put them in a safe place and treat for coccidia. What's the dif between coccidia and coccidiosis?

 

[Garden Peas]

Thanks for the help!! I don't want to own her up (mostly because it would be very difficult for me to catch her) I'll keep an eye on her and when she hatches the chicks I'll put them in a safe place and treat for coccidia. What's the dif between coccidia and coccidiosis?

Sadly, it will not be nearly so hard for whatever your local predators are to catch her -- probably why your bird count is down so far already. A nesting peahen is a sitting duck -- a predator dinner, waiting to be eaten. If you want her to live through nesting season, best to figure out how to do it. Lots of sad stories on here about nesting peahens that got eaten. Lots of folks to help with advice if you want ideas for catching her.

Coccidiosis is what happens when the coccidia make your chicks sick. Peas seem pretty susceptible, so many folks feed a medicated chick starter (protein levels vary) to help the chicks through the most vulnerable periods.

Also, if she lives long enough to hatch the chicks and you scoop them up, she may lay another clutch of eggs and go back to nesting on the buffet table for the local wildlife dinner menu.

 

[chickens r life]

I guess I'll have to catch her then. I have to admit, she is a very good hider. I ounce spent several hours trying to find her with no luck. She is a lot better if a hider than some of my previous hens. I once found a hen nesting on one of our grass cutters...

So coccidia is the bacteria that lives in the intestines and coccidiosis is what people call when they get sick from coccidia?

 

[Garden Peas]

I guess I'll have to catch her then. I have to admit, she is a very good hider. I ounce spent several hours trying to find her with no luck. She is a lot better if a hider than some of my previous hens. I once found a hen nesting on one of our grass cutters...

So coccidia is the bacteria that lives in the intestines and coccidiosis is what people call when they get sick from coccidia?

Yaay! Glad you are gonna catch her -- ask for suggestions and there will be lots!

As for coccidia, not exactly. There are lots of different bacteria, some good, some bad. Some bacteria cause intestinal illnesses. Some beneficial bacteria help digest food. In peafowl specifically, and birds in general, there are a number of different illnesses -- different KINDS of illnesses -- that can result in what looks like an intestinal illness, not just bad bacteria.

Coccidia aren't actually bacteria at all. They are tiny, single-celled parasites -- protozoa -- which can ravage a bird's intestines. Coccidiosis can kill a peachick very quickly, sometimes within 24 hours of the owner noticing the chick is unwell. That's one reason to be very aware of subtle signs of illness in your birds.

As birds get older, they tend to develop some immunity to coccidia, but with stress or intestinal worms or who-knows-what the trigger, sometimes even adult birds can succumb. Coccidia can be treated with amprolium (often sold as Corid, among other trade names) in the bird's water, and can mostly (though not always) prevented in chicks by using an amprolium-treated chick starter.

Worm infestations -- parasites which attack the intestines or other organs, can make it easier for birds to get coccidiosis, or even blackhead, because the worms weaken the bird and damage the bird's internal organs.

BTW, have you wormed lately? It just occurred to me that your one year-old could also be suffering from worms if it is doing weird gasping things. (Look up "gape worms.") It seems more likely he is learning to honk to sound the alarm, but if you aren't worming regularly, you might want to consider it. Lots of info here on the peafowl forum about worming peas

 

[Frenchman Creek]

Last spring I found a peachick all alone on my farm with no mother in sight. I decided to raise it and keep it with my chickens when it got old enough. 6 months pass and a neighbor finds 2 more peachicks with no mother in sight and gives them to me. (I have peafowl at my farm) turns out the original peachick is a male and the other two are female. Now hat it is spring the make is trying to mate with the young females and it plucking their saddle feathers off. He even drew blood from one of them. (They are in a chicken run) should I let the one male out with the existing peafowl that live on my farm or will he not survive?

Thanks

Hello. You have gotten a lot of good advice from Gardenpeas already but I would like to add one or two things. I have seen my mature males constantly breed my mature females and I have never seen a loss of feathers on the females backs by "saddling" as you call it. Just my opinion but I feel that there is something going on health wise with your three penned birds. You may want to make sure you are giving them feed with the correct amount of protein for maintaining peafowl. If your feed or combination of feed has too low protein level then this could lead to feather picking and eating as feathers are high in protein.

If you have ever observed any of your young peas walking slowly with their heads tucked tight to their shoulders then that is a very good sign of cocci. If you see the young pea standing with its head tucked into its shoulders and only moves reluctantly when you move toward it, then that is a very good sign of cocci and that chick already has two feet in the grave and seldom survives.

Once again in my opinion I would think the reason why chicks keep showing up on doorsteps is because when their Mom yelled "scatter" they were able to scatter when their brothers and sisters were being eaten.by brother fox. Your hen left to hatch chicks and tend chicks in a free range setting will most likely be a single mom again as all of her chicks will either succumb to cocci or predator teeth. You also have to keep in mind that if you are going to leave medicated feed out for the free ranged chicks you will most likely still lose them as mom will keep them moving and they will never get enough medicated feed to help them. Cord in the water would be better for the free rangers and make sure it is their only source of water. Oh yeah, one more thing, someday Mom will not have time to yell "Scatter". FC

 

[chickens r life]

My peas seem very attentive. I will look into feed with a higher protein ratio.

thanks

 

[Frenchman Creek]

Last spring I found a peachick all alone on my farm with no mother in sight. I decided to raise it and keep it with my chickens when it got old enough. 6 months pass and a neighbor finds 2 more peachicks with no mother in sight and gives them to me. (I have peafowl at my farm) turns out the original peachick is a male and the other two are female. Now hat it is spring the make is trying to mate with the young females and it plucking their saddle feathers off. He even drew blood from one of them. (They are in a chicken run) should I let the one male out with the existing peafowl that live on my farm or will he not survive?

Thanks

If your penned peas are kept with chickens then the hens could be the feather picker. Also I was referring to your possible peachicks in the future. Cocci seems to kill most frequently between four weeks and sixteen weeks. Your seven and ten month old birds should be past the fatal period but cocci in their system does not do them any good and they do not seem to thrive as well as birds that receive periodic cocci controls. I have gone through the free ranging of pea hens with their chicks in the past and none of the chicks made it to 12 weeks and a hen or two became predator dinner. Just an FYI.

 

[chickens r life]

If it is in their system, then how would I treat them? With corid? I heard that treating birds for coccidiosis is very stressful on the bird. I also heard that I can treat for coccidiosis using herbs that they consume/ingest.