Peafowl for 2013

[MinxFox]

Ooh that is exciting destinduck! So you found someone with a Javanese hen? What are you going to do with the extra males? They might get a bit agressive if they have to share one peahen. Trades are fun...I have only done one once with peafowl though...When I wanted to get Dragon (RIP) the pied peacock, we first visited a different peafowl breeder to buy a pied peahen, and we also bought a dark pied peahen there too. When we got to the breeder who had Dragon, we traded the dark pied hen for Dragon and also we paid a little cash too. That makes me wonder...I wonder what kind of cool bird trades people have done?

Well, since our poodle passed away, my mom has been searching for a new poodle, and it just so happens that there is a poodle breeder in Defuniak FL with a puppy my mom really likes. Me being me, anytime we talk about going someplace, if it happens to be near a peafowl breeder I have to convince my parents that we should stop by the peafowl breeder's place too. Rocking BAB Ranch is in Defuniak, and I have really been wanting to go there again! This weekend we might be going so I am super excited. Chances of me getting another peafowl are slim, but I am just wanting to check out what they have. It has been years since I went there, and I hardly remember the birds I saw there so it is definately time to go back. Also I wanted to see their setup. Their website has photos of their pens but I figured if I visit I can get the photos I am really looking for.

For breeding I am going to eat the first eggs my peahens lay, then the rest they can hatch out. I need to figure out what kind of bird to breed Peep to. I think Peep is just a split to white, so I don't know what kind of peafowl I should breed him to....I don't really have good pairs anymore. I have one of this and one of that. The only pairs I have are whites and I don't really want to breed for whites...I think I will try breeding the white peacock to my pied hen, then the other birds I don't know what to breed them to. The main priority is still seperating the birds...The weather is being weird around here so I haven't started building more pens yet. I need to find time to do that...

Also I will be selling some birds. I don't know how many, but for sure I will be selling the 2012 peahen hatched chicks. I have two of them right now and I think both of them are males. Damsel's chick is very smart and very tame and Ice's chick is more weary yet will still get close but not eat much out of my hand like Damsel's chick.

 

[destinduck]

I havent got her yet but its looking real good. I will give you some eggs or chicks of my Javas if you want some. If I get the hen and if I get eggs and chicks. Lot of ifs! LOL! Anyway I dont care to raise any personally. I got my hands full with all the waterfowl around here. Im not going to keep the boys together. Im going to put the big one in my big pen. Sorry about your mom's dog.Hope yall get the one she likes. Edited to say If you and your Mom want to swing by here and see my birds yall are more than welcome. Just PM me and I can give you my number and how to get here.

 

[MinxFox]

Oh okay just making sure because I would hate for you to have your peacocks beat each other up. Yeah I am hoping that we get a nice poodle. That was our little lap dog and we had her since I was 5 and we have always had a dog until now so it is strange without a pet in the house. We looked at some other poodles, but their legs were really short. It was strange. We are just hoping to find a nice looking dog. Nor a show dog, just a well portioned one. We like the minature poodles. My mom says they are the perfect size to hold like a baby. We will have to visit you someday. I have been to bird breeders that have a few ducks, but I haven't been to one that has a nice setup for ducks like what you have.

 

[destinduck]

Please, you are too kind. My pen building skills are lacking.

But Its a good little variety of birds. People sometimes freak when they see Max (my black lab ) and I tell them thats my duck dog. Yes I also love to duck hunt with him and hes my best friend. Whats funny also is one time we let a mallard with clipped wings out of the pen just to see what my son's dog would do and my sons hunting dog (british lab)and he didnt have a clue. Its like he knew it was a pet. And hes the best retriver there is! I may try it with Max to see what would happen. BTW Even if he grabbed it he wouldnt hurt it. They are trained to be soft on the bird.

 

[MinxFox]

Haha well anyone with more than one variety of bird and more than one or two pens is amazing to me. Hmm yeah I figured they are gentle when they hold the birds. When I watch duck hunting on TV they always look like they lightly hold the bird. I can see why because you want the feathers all nicely preserved if you want it mounted. I don't see anything wrong with hunting ducks when you also own them. My dad likes to hunt turkeys but we also really like turkeys even though we don't own any. We sometimes talk about owning turkeys, but the peafowl are enough. Our dog that passed away that I was talking about was interested in the peafowl and when I free-ranged my first pair she snuck up on them and sniffed at them when they were not looking. We used to let her into the pen with them (she wasn't a crazy dog, so she didn't chase them) she mainly just walked around and she walked into a small pen connected to the large peafowl pen and my smallest peahen walked in there behind our dog and kicked the dog. Ever since that day the dog would never want to be around the peafowl. She would hide behind one of us. She didn't even do anything to make my peahen kick her, the peahen just decided to kick the dog. Although when I was raising Peep, the dog was a lot more interested and I think she would have killed a peachick. When Peep got bigger he would peck at her and then she was afraid of him too. I guess any new dog we get needs to get used to the birds, especially if I decide to free-range again. It is cool though how dogs seem to know what is a pet and what is not.

 

[destinduck]

Well just got the first new bird for 2013. A new big beautiful 5 yr old Java is now in the big pen with the quackers. I hope he does good in there. Man hes a big tall rascal. I will try and post some pics of him tommorrow. Hes skittish as the dickens. I thought he might break his neck when we let him out. Yehaw! He was kept in a nice pen but not alot of human contact really. He has a huge train and fortunately it didnt get messed up on the way over here. Minxfox do you got some kinda white for sale??!!! He has to have company .Right?

 

[new 2 pfowl]

Pictures! pictures! waiting for pictures!!

 

[MinxFox]

Well just got the first new bird for 2013. A new big beautiful 5 yr old Java is now in the big pen with the quackers. I hope he does good in there. Man hes a big tall rascal. I will try and post some pics of him tommorrow. Hes skittish as the dickens. I thought he might break his neck when we let him out. Yehaw! He was kept in a nice pen but not alot of human contact really. He has a huge train and fortunately it didnt get messed up on the way over here. Minxfox do you got some kinda white for sale??!!! He has to have company .Right?

I have three white peahens. 2 of them are sisters and they are spaldings...Probably low %. Then the other white is an India blue. The spalding whites were given to me as chicks, and now I am still on the fence about selling them or keeping them...The friend who gave the whites to us said he wanted one if it was a peacock, and one did turn out to be a peacock but we haven't gotten any word on if he wants it or not. I certainly want to get rid of some birds. I would probably sell one of the spalding hens. One of them is named Goldilocks because her face is very yellow, almost an orange yellow and it got brighter recently. The other one still has some good yellow on her face but not as much as Goldilocks. Both of these hens have escaped the pen before because I had a hole in the pen that I didn't know about and they were easy to herd back into the pen. They both eat out of my hand. Goldilocks is more friendly than her sister though. I put a lot of thought into it and I am not sure I want to breed any variety of spaldings and I am getting tired of the whites, but they are great birds just not colorful enough. My parents might want me to keep them though, so I will have to see.
This is Goldilocks. Her sister looks just like her except for the face and personality.


Goldilock's face (her face is even more colorful now then in the photo. She has a bit of an orange tint to her face now).


This is about how small they were when they were given to me.


When they were small, they did act flighty. Now that they are older they are pretty tame. They are quick to take food from your hand, more so then the other varieties. I started thinking they were spaldings when I noticed their crests were tighter and when they all got the yellow faces I knew they were spaldings. They don't look taller though. The peacock hardly has any yellow on his face. He has a bit of a yellow tint but it is the peahens who have the very noticable yellow.

 

[johnskoi]

I am excited about this year's pea breeding, laying and hatching. Last year was my first year with hatching peas and it went ok (I guess). Although I only ended the year with 2 of the 4 that hatched (1 died after having leg problems within a week after hatching and then the other pea got sick and died

) I'm still happy. And a very generous BYC'er Terri was so VERY kind to give me a trio of peas.

Terri is just too kind for her own good. (Thanks again Teri). So, I have 9 peas going into the new year.

I was so lucky to hatch out a white pea and I am hoping for more white peas and more females.

What is everyone hoping for with this year's breeding, laying and hatching? Is anyone lucky enough to be getting eggs right now? I think it's too early but ya never know.

found my first 3 eggs of the season ...one staring at me from the floor, which made me hunt for the other 2 that were laid in a small loft ..got 'em in the bator half an hour ago -- should know in 5 days .

... . all of my hens are coming into their second year, as are most of my boys -- have 2 boys coming into their 3rd year, but a few of the 2 yr olds seem more interested in the girls --- mostly blues, whites, bs, blues split to either white or pied, one opal hen, one purple hen (possibly split to white or pied) and two purple silver pied boys -- if they're fertile, they'll probably be blue

the reason they're laying so early is that i have lights on 24/7 in their pen for heat for young silkies that they share their space with (i have a problem turning my bators off when there's a fertile egg around.......

 

[johnskoi]

saw one of blue splits mounting a bs hen a lttle while ago, so the odds just went up