I know that probably this is just a matter of opinion, but I'm just curious what will happen here. I have a 6 year old peahen that has gone broody and she's setting on 4 of her own eggs and three chicken eggs. Obviously, the chicken eggs will hatch first, if they're going to. In that case, what will she do? Will she mother the chicken chicks and abandon her own eggs? Kill the chicken chicks? Continue to set on her own eggs? Also, obviously the chicken chicks are not going to be as mobile as pea chicks would be, so I'm not sure what else she will or will not do. She's never hatched any thing before; in fact, I'm not sure her eggs are fertile, I've never seen her mate with our peacock, although she flirts with him. She free ranges and is not particularly tame or easy to handle. If she were a chicken, when the eggs hatch, I'd put her in a pen with the new babies until they were old enough to be able to better handle the outside world, but i'm not sure what to do here. We've never had a successful hatch with any of our hens, although we once had another peahen who voluntarily took over the mothering of some young pullets we'd introduced to the flock who did not have a mother, and the peahen did a very good job taking care of them until they were able to take care of themselves. Point being, I'm just not sure what to expect....anyone have any thoughts? The chicken eggs will be due to hatch May 22. I haven't candled them.
