Lots of questions about our pair (semi-new owners) - breeding and species?

[QueenMisha]

Hello all. Last September, my mother and I bought a lovely pair of peafowl. And they're doing very well so far! Icey and Ming are very pretty, Ming is pied and Icey is a white.
Now, to be honest, we don't know much about them. We've never had peas before. I've been doing some research, but I still have a few questions.
First of all, I read that if a bird has both green AND blue that means they're a hybrid? This is Ming:

What does he look like to you? I have more pictures if necessary.
Also, when Icey begins to lay - how many eggs can I expect to get from her in a season, if I continually remove them and incubate them myself?
I have a Brinsea Octagon 20 and Brinsea Mini. How big are the eggs? Will they fit in the 20? I expect they're too big to fit in the Mini, but I've never seen one so...
Should I give the hen a place to lay? Do they want boxes, or would they rather have some kind of lean-to or small covered area (like guineas would prefer)?
One more thing - I read over the Genetics 101 thread, but I didn't completely understand everything. If I have a pied and a white (I don't know anything about her genetic background or parents) what kind of offspring will they produce? I think I read they will produce 100% pieds, does this ever vary or do I have it wrong?
What kind of feed should I be feeding during the breeding season? I currently keep all of my birds on either 18% all purpose pellets or 22% non-medicated gamebird starter (depending on what my dealer has available; his selection varies).
Thanks to anyone who answers.

Regards,

-QueenMisha.

 

[Birdrain92]

Hello all. Last September, my mother and I bought a lovely pair of peafowl. And they're doing very well so far! Icey and Ming are very pretty, Ming is pied and Icey is a white.
Now, to be honest, we don't know much about them. We've never had peas before. I've been doing some research, but I still have a few questions.
First of all, I read that if a bird has both green AND blue that means they're a hybrid? This is Ming:

What does he look like to you? I have more pictures if necessary.
Also, when Icey begins to lay - how many eggs can I expect to get from her in a season, if I continually remove them and incubate them myself?
I have a Brinsea Octagon 20 and Brinsea Mini. How big are the eggs? Will they fit in the 20? I expect they're too big to fit in the Mini, but I've never seen one so...
Should I give the hen a place to lay? Do they want boxes, or would they rather have some kind of lean-to or small covered area (like guineas would prefer)?
One more thing - I read over the Genetics 101 thread, but I didn't completely understand everything. If I have a pied and a white (I don't know anything about her genetic background or parents) what kind of offspring will they produce? I think I read they will produce 100% pieds, does this ever vary or do I have it wrong?
What kind of feed should I be feeding during the breeding season? I currently keep all of my birds on either 18% all purpose pellets or 22% non-medicated gamebird starter (depending on what my dealer has available; his selection varies).
Thanks to anyone who answers.

Regards,

-QueenMisha.

That is a Indian Blue Pied peacock. The peahen we need photos of. The cross between a green and blue is called a Spalding. Spaldings can be sometimes easy to identify and sometimes hard to identify. Some people confuse Black Shoulder peahens with White peahens from a distance.
This is my Spalding Peahen. Not all Spalding peahens look like this either.
This is my Indian Blue peahen. See how she's a lot different from my Spalding. Sometimes though you can get Spaldings that only have one or two things that show they are Spalding not Indian Blue.
This is my Black Shoulder peahen. Not all Black Shoulder peahens have this much color some are nearly white.


Peahens will make their own nests. Hens will lay 6-8 eggs a clutch if you don't take eggs away. If you do take the eggs away she could lay 20-30 eggs depending on when she starts laying and how old she is and nutrition. 22% protein will be fine for them. 20% protein is a good level of protein. If you have to low of protein then you start getting birth defects. Peafowl eggs are the size of a turkey egg. They are about 3 inches in length and 2 inches and width. I think it's 50% Pied 50% White. Pied peafowl have a Dark Pied Allele and a White allele while Whites have 2 white alleles.

 

[QueenMisha]

Wow, thanks! I'm pretty sure Icey is a white- I haven't seen a speck of color on her - here she is:



Wow, 20-30 eggs? That'll be exciting! I'm 99% sure my Octagon can hold eggs that size, so I should be able to hatch quite a few babies!
I'm really happy to hear about maybe getting half pied and half white offspring, variety is always awesome.

One more thing, I keep hearing about them liking to roost on cars. Is that really true? Or will they just do it if they are in close proximity?
Our coop is about 300 feet from the house (where most of the cars are parked), up a hill. We haven't started to freerange them, we heard the the female should sit on a nest and hatch babies before they are freeranged or they will fly away from their new homes, but will this become a problem when we do release them from the covered pen? I'm kind of concerned 'cause my dad just bought a new Prius and uh... well, he wouldn't react well to it getting scratched.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

They should fit in your incubator, not sure how many it will take but maybe 6 or 8 eggs, depending on your incubator width, she will keep laying if you removed her eggs.

My hens usually lays anywhere in their pens not necessarily in their nest!

 

[Birdrain92]

Wow, thanks! I'm pretty sure Icey is a white- I haven't seen a speck of color on her - here she is:



Wow, 20-30 eggs? That'll be exciting! I'm 99% sure my Octagon can hold eggs that size, so I should be able to hatch quite a few babies!
I'm really happy to hear about maybe getting half pied and half white offspring, variety is always awesome.

One more thing, I keep hearing about them liking to roost on cars. Is that really true? Or will they just do it if they are in close proximity?
Our coop is about 300 feet from the house (where most of the cars are parked), up a hill. We haven't started to freerange them, we heard the the female should sit on a nest and hatch babies before they are freeranged or they will fly away from their new homes, but will this become a problem when we do release them from the covered pen? I'm kind of concerned 'cause my dad just bought a new Prius and uh... well, he wouldn't react well to it getting scratched.

They will perch on cars. If the car is the highest ground. Peafowl will get as high as they can to keep a look out and stay safe. Keep the car near a tree that is taller than the car. They should take to the tree instead of the car. If they know where their food comes from they should stay. If you kept the hen penned the male would return unless you have neighbors with peafowl too. If they find a constant food source they stay near it. So when you do go free range just keep a pan out for food for them and they will return. I keep my peafowl penned so I can control breeding and so predators don't get them. Coyote or fox will go for them. Raccoons and Skunks will kill a nesting hen. If you have a dog that keeps predators away then the hen will do just fine if she nests in range.

 

[QueenMisha]

Quote: Oh, that's good to know, we live in the middle of forest so there are trees everywhere! We don't usually park the cars by the coop except to drop off feed and stuff, so I guess that'll probably be fine.
We have four dogs that keep most animals off the property, but one of them is a GSD who used to kill birds. She hasn't done it in a year or so now, but I wouldn't put it past her if she found a nesting bird... I might just decide to keep them penned until they're done breeding this year so I can collect the eggs... I don't want her laying them somewhere I can't find them.

 

[thndrdancr]

If you ever had a chicken killing dog, really watch it around peas. Peas are ever so much more challenging as they launch straight up, or coming down etc.

When training my pyr, his litter mate taught him bad killing habits, and I had to get up at 4 every morning even after I rehome her to ensure that the guineas and peas were safe. Something about them just appearing from nowhere drove him mad. He never killed another bird, but I had to be 100 percent on top of the situation. Man those days were hard!

If I hadn't been on top of things he would have turned into a worthless bird killer. Anyhow point being peas are even more fun to kill than chickens, so be careful.

 

[Trefoil]

If you park your cars by the house, the peas will probably perch on them if allowed to free range. If you allow the hen to free range you will probably lose the hen and not get any eggs, and if you lose your male the eggs won't be fertile. If you really want to free range, I would wait until after breeding season. Its good to supply the hen with a nest, she'll decide whether to use it or not. Mine lay in a large dog carrier in their run. If they lay in a special place, the eggs are less likely to get broken before you can collect them. How old are they?
When talking about "green and blue", what they are talking about is species, not color. A spaulding will usually have yellow on its face by the eye. Congratulations, you got a very pretty pair, hope you get lots of pied chicks.

 

[QueenMisha]

Quote: I'm can't recall exactly their age, I believe we were told the male is 3-4 years and the female is like 7. And yeah, the more I read the less inclined I am to let them out before I have eggs in the incubator, they cost a real pretty penny and losing them (especially before they even produced any offspring!) would be a real shame.