Peafowl Hatch (I need help, PLEASE)

[Wolf-Kim]

Okay. I candled the remaining 5 of my eggs and I only have one that had continued to develop.

It is due to hatch this Saturday, the 27th.

Please, tell me anything and everything I can do to ensure it has the best chance at survival possible. It is the first peafowl I'll have ever owned, nevertheless hatched.

My friend who gave me the eggs is always saying the "peachicks hatch trying to die" and that most people who raise peafowl know this. I am worrying now.

How high should the humidity be?

Should I immediate brood it with chicks?(since it will be completly alone?)

I have gamebird feed, which is 30%, but it is non-medicated. Is there a way I can medicate it?

I'm scared and don't even have it hatched yet.

Please, please, please, give me any advice to help ensure a good hatch for this one and anything I can do to help it thrive.


Ooo, I'm so excited and worried at the same time. I really hope to keep this guy/girl. I've been looking forward to it for the past 4 weeks.
-Kim

 

[Kev]

Breathe in, breathe out..?

I pretty much disagree with peafowl hatch trying to die.. however it certainly is repeated and a lot of people DO have a hard time raising them. Part of it can be to location- some locations just make it harder as they are conductive to diseases fatal to peafowl OR the person has other birds who are hosts to diseases lethal to peafowl- chickens can carry Blackhead with little or no visible signs yet this is extremely highly fatal to peafowl(and turkeys) especially if left untreated.

The other part of the problem I believe is attempting to raise them like anything else.. the problem is (chicken)chicks, ducks are EASY to raise.. Ridiculously so.. These can and will survive and even thrive in conditions that are honestly less than ideal for them.

If the conditions and enviroment are right, peachicks aren't such suicidal things, really. Never will be as easy as chickens, though(I will say that poults- which a lot of people also think are quick to die- are easier than peachicks.. but then poults are very easy for me to raise..)

They like it HOT(95-100F spot in brooder.. But you also must have cooler spots in the brooder!), they do not tolerate crowding very well. This can be either numbers of birds or simply the brooder isn't large enough- they NEED room to be healthy and do well. They do not like to be alone much either, I would recommend giving it chick companions, just not too many or forced to share a very small brooder with a bunch of rough older/bigger chicks.

In other words, you need to fuss and pay more attention(but don't carry it around in an air conditioned house.. the young ones chill fast!) to the brooder the peachick is in.

 

[warcard]

I also wouldn't deem them suicidal, just a little more delicate, which you can feel even the first time you pick up your chick. For it's size it will feel remarkably light. They can have problems starting to eat, so a teacher chick is always a good thing, and yes they don't like being alone, so again at least give him one buddy. You should be fine with the unmedicated feed, but a little vitamin water never hurts, and be sure to dip his beak in the water when you first put him in the brooder.

One problem I have had is that some of my brooders have wire floors, and I have had some of the peachicks try and get to food that has fallen down (at least I think that is what they are doing) and slice into their beak. No the wire isn't sharp, but their beaks seem to be very soft, I have seen my guineas also do this without issue. I just move the peachicks to another brooder for awhile to heal, and they seem to stop the behavior.

Happy Hatching

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Is it better to have a wire-bottom brooder or will my wooden solid-bottom brooder work fine as long as I keep the shavings clean?

I have a few chicks(chicken) ranging from 1-3 weeks old. Which would be better companions? I'm guessing the younger(1 week), but I'll ask your opinion.

-Kim

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Chris, you inbox is full. LOL Typed a message twice before I realized why they weren't going through.

-Kim

 

[crystalchik]

Hi there Wolf-Kim!
I know how worried you are! It will be okay!

How high is your humidity now? What kind of incubator do you have? That has been my main prob with the peachicks. It has been too high and the chicks become water logged and do not hatch.
I want to tell you, without scaring you too much, that hatching a peafowl is one of the most difficult obstacles you will go through if you choose to raise them. But please know that I am not trying to scare you and that it is just as possible as it is impossible!

When the chicky is hatching, someone told me you should never open the door, but you need to find a way to keep and eye on him(we'll call it a "him"). Truthfully, I have always opened the door (for about 8 years now) and they have always been okay, but who knows, maybe hatch rate would have been better! Anyways, hopefully he will just pop out like a chicken chick, but peachicks tend to have a little more difficulty when artificially incubated, so if he has made at least 50-75% progress on the egg shell and does not come out still for a while, and say the egg seems dry, go ahead and pop the top of the shell and ease him out.
If he pips and in, say 24-36 hours he does not make ANY progress, here is what I do: There is a good chance that something may be wrong with the chick and he cannot make it out, and therefore shouldnt make it out. But I cannot stand the thought that the chick may be fine and just have a wing stuck to the inside of the shell because it is dry, and it will die even though it was healthy. SO, here is the decision you will have to make( I am only telling you for a "worse-case-senario" situation in the case you may not have time to ask questions!), you can decide to pick the chick out or not.
Here is what i do to decide: 1.) If you smell the hole that the chick pipped, does it have a strong, nasty odour? If it does, do not pick it out. There will be no question to whether you smell this or not...you WILL know! He may have a bacterial infection, and this you cannot fix. If you take him out, he will live much longer and suffer much longer than if you leave him in the shell.
2.) If no 1, than go ahead and pick just a little around the hole, membrane and all. If you get blood, STOP! Wait a few hours.
3.) If no 1 or 2, pick the shell WITH OUT THE MEMBRANE, down to the bottom point of the egg where the chick's bottom is. What do you see? A little green is okay, if the chick has been in there a while, but through the membrane, do you see an excessive amount of yellow(yolk) or blood or green? If NO, than make a small tear in the membrane down there, if nothing excessive leaks out, than you should be okay to go ahead and pick.
Pick around the shell from where the chick started. then ease the chick out. Check the navel, if it is big, open, bloody, or the yolk is not all absorbed, you may have a problem. You can try treating him with Bedadine, but there is a possibility that he will not make it if if is bad enough. And even if he appears fine, there is still a possibility he will not make it. But I say, that he is going to die in the shell anyways and we have nothing to loose if we try. However this is your choice.

Hoping that all goes well, after the little guy comes out, go ahead and leave him in the incubator for a few hours to dry off. Then move him to a seperate box away from chickens. Chickens can carry a disease called Black Head that they are imune too but can kill a peachick. You want to keep them separate for a while so the chick can become stronger. Make sure that you feed him medicated feed, this always makes survival easier, and keeps them stronger. Line his box with paper towels to help him stand and put a little food on the floor, with your finger, "peck" the food. The chick will become all excited and begin to peck at your finger and the food. For water, make sure the container is not too big, and for the first time, dip his beak in the water. After that, put something shiny in there that he cannot eat, like a marble. Peck at the water like you do the food. He will remember where the water is and if he forgets trying to peck at the marble will remind him! Keep pecking with him for about 2 days and he will learn to eat on his own, if he hasne learned from the first time. He will also associate your hand as "momma" and "good" instead of "oh my gosh what is that?!?"
He will be alone in his box, and will cry, mine is crying right now, but it is just safer. Also, he will bond closer with you if he is alone for his chick life (that is not why I keep them separate, I just observed this!)
If by any chance that his feet are curled or crooked, you can go ahead and put on his little booties. I dont know if you know how to do this, but here is a picture of my little chick with the booties. Please let me know if you would like to know how to apply them.

Also make SURE that you check out your lamp thoroughly! If it has any holes or grooves especially for ventilation, either rest the lamp on top of a grate over the cage with the rest of the cage blocked off so the chick cannot fly out, or take foil and wrap it around the top of the lamp over the vent holes. HERE'S WHY: with chickens, they do not really fly out of the cage, they jump. Peachicks, as soon as they can figure it out, WILL fly out of the cage. One of mine learned to fly while I was not home and landed on the lamp, in this case a desk lamp that had long grooves for venilation. THe chick cought his toe in one of the grooves, and went to fly off, and could not free his toe. Needless to say, I found him hanging dead by one toe on the lamp. I have foiled all of my lamps since (make sure the rest of the cage is ventilated and the chick can escape the heat, since it will be more intense), and it has never happened again, but I wanted to warn you.
During his chick times, in addition to the medicated chick starter, mine love this mix: hard-boiled egg, peas, and soaked dry cat food. They LOVE it! and it is very healthy for them. It is fun to watch them eat and he will love you always for it!

As the chick begins to age and be too big for the bathroom tub , move him outside in a cage with a bottom NEXT TO the chickens that you have already made sure are not seemingly sick. HERE'S WHY: if you keep him off the ground up on wire for a long time in his life until he out grows the cage, he will not be exsposed to any dirt, therefore, disease. Why would you want him to, right? Well as soon he hits the ground, WAM, he is overwhealmed with common diseases everyone is immune too and it is extremely hard to get him well! I lost all 8 of my "teenage" peachicks last year to this. So keep him next to the chickens, despite the fact you are not supposed to mix peafowl and chickens. But if they become immune to the diseases from the begining, you will never have to worry about it! Needless to say, worm him and treat him for Coccidiosis in about 1 week after you move him. You can still loose him, remember he is new to this! You want to treat him about every 2-3 weeks, this is all the time it takes for them to get sick. I treat mine with Ivermectin sheep drench for worms and Sulmet for Coccidia. Some people recomend others. Make sure you are constantly checking him to see if he is skinny or for bloody stool. If so, TREAT HIM.

After he is about 6 months old, and is close to the size of your chickens, go ahead and release him with the chickens. KEEP TREATING every 3-4 weeks. This will keep his immunity high and you should never have to worry about having him around chickens. But I cannot stress this enough, DONT STOP TREATING ever 3-4 weeks. They do not get immune to worms, but rather common chicken disease you may not see. Here is a picture of "Abishai" in my chicken coop, here he is stressing over the cat.

I wish you all the luck in the world and PLEASE let me know if you have any more questions and how things are going. Forgive me if there is already another post...it took me 2 days to write this (I started at 1am last night), but I wanted to help you out as much as I could!
God bless you and your baby chicky!
Crystalchik

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Crystalchik...

That was extremely informational. I read the whole thing twice. Your birds are gorgeous. I can see why it may have taken two days to write. LOL

Thanks again soo much.

-Kim

 

[crystalchik]

Wolf-Kim,
Thank you so much & I am so glad I could help! Please keep us updated with how your chick's coming!

God bless,
Crystalchik

 

[sandspoultry]

Kim..... you can do it! Don't stress to much.

I think ours are due to hatch out soon also from those same eggs, I don't even remember if we candled them or not. Since you only have the one let us know what you need male or female and it is yours.

Our hatch of India Blues from our 5 year olds went great, the first egg was a "clear" and the rest are doing well. We hatched them in the Sportsman right along with the chickens and turkeys and they did great. The pea's seem to get along fine with the turkeys!

From our yearlings the eggs were all "clears" , they only layed a few anyway. They are supposed to do better the 2nd year.

Steve & Sharon

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Thanks Steve and Sharon, you guys are truly great friends.

I had 3 of the 6 eggs start to develop, but my broody stepped on and crushed one. I knew it had started to grow because it had blood in it, while I watched that hen eat it. So I rushed the rest of the eggs home to the bator. I candled them the other day and one was completely dark, while one had debree floating, which I assume was one that started and then died, and then the other 3 were completly clear. That naughty hen, I was so mad at her.

I hope your eggs are going to do well.

-Kim