New Peafowl and hatching eggs?

[Kedreeva]

So, in the past we have tried to buy baby peafowl from local bird swaps, but they all met untimely deaths- two flew into a wall and broke their necks, one refused to eat once home, and one survived almost a full year and then keeled over for no reason we can explain.

Now we are at a new farm with a much better roaming area and less walls, and we have gotten our first India Blue peacock- and to take less chances, we bought one that was a year old already. His name is Malik and he seems to enjoy his new home quite a bit (I will get some pictures!). We kept him penned in the barn (with windows) for the past few weeks and yesterday we clipped his wings and let him into the outside coop for the first time. He sat right where we put him for a while, staring at us in a very offended way, telling us that he was going to die because we clipped his wings. Finally we walked over and nudged him and he got up and walked the perimeter of the coop, examining the fencing... and then he eyeballed the wooden top of the fence (maybe 5-6 feet up, a height he could flap to in the barn previously) and made a jump. He didn't make it, of course, and he was very indignant about that but he'll get over it.

Saturday we went to another bird swap, looking for a female to bring home to him, but out of dozens of vendors, there was not a single peahen! And there were NO babies this year from any of the vendors, only 1yr+ males! I most likely won't be able to make the other swaps this year, so I decided to go looking for some hatching eggs online. After a few hours, I picked from the myriad of sites I had found and won a pair of auctions from the same person, meaning I will get 8 eggs in the mail. I hate to have them go through the mail, since I know that they can get shaken up in shipping, but fortunately they don't have too far to go- we're about 7-8 hours apart in the same state. My fingers are crossed and I should be getting them in the mail monday or tuesday, wednesday at the latest.

My incubator is set up and running at a constant temp, and I'm working on the humidity! Figured I would keep track on this thread of the hatching and progress. Anyone have any tips for hatching out peafowl eggs? Anything I should avoid? Do special for them?

 

[hinkjc]

Oooh, good luck with yours. I have peafowl eggs in the hatcher right now. Not sure how it will all turn out, but I'll let you know. I kept my temp/humidity the same as I do for turkey eggs and they are set with turkey eggs. Hoping we get some peeps.

 

[Kedreeva]

Got a picture of Malik, our year old peacock we picked up about a month ago. Getting ready to set him down after the very undignified wing clipping we gave him.

Sadly he can still jump 5+ feet so he has to stay in the indoor coop until we get netting up and he learns where home is. He jumped over the wall of the outdoor coop and made a bee-line straight for the road. Luckily it's not a busy road and my friends were able to recapture him. Silly bird!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We do the same as hinkjc, do everything just like you would for turkeys. temp 99.5 to 100 (ours runs closer to 100 so they hatch about a day early) about 40% RH during incubation then up to 60 for hatch. We try to hatch them with chicken chicks if possible, they will follow the chicks around to feed and water, once they get the hang of it you can seperate them. Don't over crowd them, keep em warm and dry. We feed 28% medicated game bird starter. For litter we start with pine shavings then after about 3 weeks switch to clean fresh sand in the brooder. Alot of people raise them on wire as well. Either way keep a close eye for cocci, at that age that will kill them off quick. Another reason for losses is I think alot of people put them outside to early, they are fragile when young and like turkey poults a cold wet chick equals a dead chick pretty fast. When ours do finally go outside the "maturnity pen" is totally covered and they will live there until 5 or 6 months old before joining the flock.

Steve

 

[hinkjc]

Well, my hatch result was 6 baby turkeys (all turkey eggs hatched fine and on time) and only 1 peafowl baby. Disappointed, but so glad I put some turkey eggs in there so he now has company. I definitely don't think it was due to incubation, but more likely the shipping which damages the air cell. I'll leave the rest of the peafowl eggs for another day and keep my fingers crossed that another one is just running late.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Hinkjc,,I got lucky and today we have 13 new peas that hatched ,10 of them from about 1 1/2 weeks ago,,and 3 new silver pieds from a seller off E-Bay(100% hatch rate) from Cecilia Ky,,,he had another auction this week with 5 eggs from the same pen,so those are now in the bator.Actually,all 3 trays are full of pea eggs again before the egg laying season is over. We have about 65 eggs or so in the bator,next bunch to start popping is next weekend I think,,

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I hatch mine the same as well, except I run humidity a bit higher, 50% and 65% at hatch, both turkeys and peas do great like this for me.
Good hi pro starter for the first few weeks, then cut it back to prevent leg twisting problems. And keep them warm and dry for the fist month or two, and off the ground!
By the way, I should have some cameo/cameo white eyes, and midnight black shoulder eggs available over the next few weeks too, and maybe some opal and opal black shoulder if any are interested.
Good luck with the hatching!