Peachicks with adult peafowl

[Vaughnr007]

I have a 50x x 50' aviary w two breeding pairs of peafowl. One peahen is broody with about 7 eggs that will hatch in about a week. How will the adults react to the new peachicks?
I also have 4 peachicks a month old from an incubator hatch.and was thinking of letting them loose in the aviary. Same question. Should I be worried about the adults picking on these chicks?

 

[Waterfaery]

The ones with the mama peahen will be fine. You don't need to worry about the other adults.

With the ones from the incubator, you should use an integration pen. If you search on here you'll find lots of ideas for chickens but the same principles apply. It's basically some sort of set up within the aviary where the peachicks and adults can get to know each other without being able to physically get in each others' spaces.

After a while, you can try letting them loose for short periods supervised or you can add some chick doors, which would be openings that are just big enough to let the peachicks out but not let the adults in. More than one is best so they can get in and out from different angles. This step might not be necessary, depending on your birds.

Going forward after that, it's a good idea to have plenty of cover and spaces for them to hide or get away from each other as well as multiple feeding and drinking stations. That would apply with multiple birds of any age.

 

[Vaughnr007]

Thank you

 

[Midnightman14]

Do not let hens with chicks run with unrelated adults. Not even the father.

 

[KsKingBee]

The ones with the mama peahen will be fine. You don't need to worry about the other adults.

With the ones from the incubator, you should use an integration pen. If you search on here you'll find lots of ideas for chickens but the same principles apply. It's basically some sort of set up within the aviary where the peachicks and adults can get to know each other without being able to physically get in each others' spaces.

After a while, you can try letting them loose for short periods supervised or you can add some chick doors, which would be openings that are just big enough to let the peachicks out but not let the adults in. More than one is best so they can get in and out from different angles. This step might not be necessary, depending on your birds.

Going forward after that, it's a good idea to have plenty of cover and spaces for them to hide or get away from each other as well as multiple feeding and drinking stations. That would apply with multiple birds of any age.

Excellent advice! Every year we will let the breeders raise a clutch if they want to. It is amazing how well all the adults get along and some hens will co-mother the chicks like they are their own. Most cocks will ignore the chicks and some will help raise them. The biggest problem we have is that the chicks can get through the 2x4 wire and can't get back in so we have to keep tabs on them at roosting time.