More pea questions

[eggchel]

My two May 2008 cocks have developed some eyes in their tails and a few of the longer ones are starting to drag on the ground.

 

[deerman]

Quote:

they are ready to be fathers

 

[Kev]

Doug, was told the same, about a pair of yearlings by themselves. Supposedly the hen laid and eggs were fertile. The potentially tricky thing about it is everybody assumes yearlings are not fertile so they do not try breeding yearling males so the "actual degree" of their fertility just is not found out, maybe.. Personally never tried setting up a yearling male with laying hens so I can't answer this personally one way or another. I would agree on not counting a yearling male being fertile, though just to be on the safe side of caution/advise.

 

[NateinFL]

I'm glad the experts chimed in here, that is what I had thought was true.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
That's great to hear. I'm glad the question got asked and answered. I had always heard three years for a male so I thought I still had a while to wait.

Now I'll just watch and wait and see if I see any mating going on or any of my females laying eggs. Problem will be finding them since they all freerange. The one that was laid last year was dropped from high in the trees where they roost but since it was someone's first, they probably had no idea what happened.

 

[deerman]

Ruth , yes peahens are known for laying a few eggs from the roost. I have hatch peachicks from eggs layed from a roost 8 ft in the air. Good reason to have straw or sand under the roost. I alway have a few that do this at the begining of laying season. Peahens lay late in the day.

Keep an eye on your peahens, alot are killed when they start setting eggs...Good luck on your first eggs.....

 

[chicknmania]

Is there anything we can do to make the nest attractive enough that she might lay in the barn somewhere? There are different weird places the hens like to lay, that we just embellish by putting more straw in, or whatever. If she does set in the woods somewhere, won't the male want to stay close?(making it easier to find her and the nest?) I would be really worried about ours; I know raccoons steal the eggs or goslings right out from under mother Canada geese, by our pond....and since it's at night, the gander can't see to chase them away....even if he felt like it.