It's complicated

[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.

 

[Frenchman Creek]

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.

I use a maintenance dose of one teaspoon of corid powder per gallon of water. I also periodically worm with wazine which kills the most common form of worms in poultry and follow that up in ten days or so with another dose. As wazine will not kill Cecal, gape or capillary worms I use safeguard goat wormer for the next round. Each area of the country will have different time tables as to how often. The wazine is water soluble so can be added to the water. I administer the fenbendezole orally by putting the correct amount per bird on treats and given to each bird as a treat. I am not sure if you keep your three juveniles with your chickens but if you do you need to be especially watchful for chicken poop that looks like yellow orange mustard color. This normally is a symptom of black head which can be fatal for peas. Peas are great to have but at times they do require more TLC than chickens. Good luck with all of yours. FC

 

[casportpony]

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.

I use a maintenance dose of one teaspoon of corid powder per gallon of water. I also periodically worm with wazine which kills the most common form of worms in poultry and follow that up in ten days or so with another dose. As wazine will not kill Cecal, gape or capillary worms I use safeguard goat wormer for the next round. Each area of the country will have different time tables as to how often. The wazine is water soluble so can be added to the water. I administer the fenbendezole orally by putting the correct amount per bird on treats and given to each bird as a treat. I am not sure  if you keep your three juveniles with your chickens but if you do you need to be especially watchful for chicken poop that looks like yellow orange mustard color. This normally is a symptom of black head which can be fatal for peas. Peas are great to have but at times they do require more TLC than chickens. Good luck with all of yours. FC

The one dose of Wazine will kill roundworms, if they drink enough. Your follow up dose of Safeguard will treat the roundworms that hatched, and cecal worms, but only if you gave enough... it will *not* treat capillary worms or gapeworms. Capillary and gapes need Safeguard for several days in a row.

-Kathy