Peachick issues

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Deerman - we shall see... the Emerald Spaulding eggs we bought are due to stop turning next week.

Steve

 

[Kev]

Quote:
I pay a lot of attention to my birds, including the babies. What I have noticed is that some peachicks eat readily by themselves, no helpers needed at all and then there are the ones that absolutely refuse to eat by themselves.. these only eat when someone else is eating.. in a brooder situation those chicks often grab another chick's beak when there is food in it.. and they continue this eating pattern for a very long time- a month at least. Same thing with babies being raised by hens or peachicks- all of them readily run to mothers when they do the food call.. but again, some of them peck at things by themselves while some pretty much don't.. and rely very heavily on the mother calling attention to food.

My own guess is it may be a genetic/inborn thing and may be part of why some people or certain chicks seem to have such a hard time while others barely have any problem at all.. part of it may depend on whether the chick/chicks are one of those more independent eaters or very not-independent eaters.

 

[deerman]

Most of mine will start eating, when all peachicks are started together, I do use the egg yolks first day. Never use chicken chicks, as I dont let chicken with any of my peafowl.

Like even pheasant and quail, just make sure they find the water and feed. Dont think it a genetic thing, but thats just a guess.

Know they like bright color.

 

[Kev]

Deerman, it's some peachicks, not most/all. A few peachicks definitely are very dependent on pecking/food calling by mother stimulus to eat.. doesn't matter if it is another chick, peachick or mother. A brooder with several or many peachicks will work fine even for those particular peachicks.

My reason for guessing genetic is those 'very dependent ones' show this behavior to an extreme from day one and stays that way for a long time and shows up in all situations- whether in brooder or being raised by hen or peahen.. which seems to rule out environmental cause.