Can you all see the jealousy here?? Everyone has bronze b/s,,,,,,,,,,,,but I think I may have found a cheap cure,,I see Craig Hopkins has some adult aged Bronze b/s males,,,for sale,,,and I have plenty of bssp hens,,,,just one more pen to build.
Casportpony,,Blue Creek Farm,,,January will soon be less than a month away,,I started all my birds on the new feed about 2 weeks ago now,,they have consumed close to 1 3/4-55 gallon plastic barrels full so far.Every pea on the place is getting this as feed,including the 2013 hatch. Next batch I have made in about another month will have some more corn in it,due to colder temps and the protein level will come down to 16%. That ton should last me thru mid February,,but from then on the protein level goes way up,,main source of protein will come from fish meal which is 60%,,and my "extras" to round out the vitamins-trace minerals that are so very,very important in non-free ranging peas.
Kathy,glad your up to recordkeeping.It's tedious and somewhat of an inconvenience but the way I look at it,I'm on the computer every night.Starting a spreadsheet and recording eggs and hatches is very easy to do,as easy as typing here.You need a baseline to know which direction your going,mainly better or worse. I'd urge you of Jan 1st to start keeping track of imput costs,vs. peachicks hatched.You will notice significantly more peachicks once your season is over,which will more than justify custom made feed,vs bagged feed NOT specific for peafowl. If you have recorded the total number of breeding birds you used this past year,and the total number of eggs they laid,,and the number of peachicks hatched,you can establish a baseline for 2014 to make an accurate comparison based on feed alone.Any new birds you add for breeding in 2014,should not be used,especially if they are first season 2 year olds that will begin laying for the first time.You want your comparisons between last and next year,to be as close as possible to make an accurate asessment.
Blue Creek,,if you have Excel on your computer,set up a spreadsheet. If your wanting it for just hatches,you need one column for each day of the month starting when your hens first are breeding and laying eggs. Last year I started collecting eggs April 15th,so from that day on each day I recorded,
1) Eggs collected each day per pen
2) Any eggs that were laid,but broken,possibly because they were laid while the hen was on a perch.
3)Candled eggs that were cracked,or rare instances of air sacks being dislodged.
Of these recordings,,you will arrive at your average of eggs laid per color-pen,or group. You cannot discount a hens laying average because of broken or unhatchable eggs.
I then record the total number of eggs suitable for going into the incubator,and the date they were put in. From this number at 10 days when I candle,I then record any non-fertile eggs that are removed.then again normally around the 20th day I candle again,looking for quitters.That number is recorded. Then the actual quitters at hatchtime. Then,the final number that actually hatched out.
You will still have one more column,,that does not go into the above computations,but that is any deaths that occurs after the chicks are past 2-3 days old.I immediatedly use diffrent colored zip ties to mark each peachick once it hatches so I know what color it is.Hatching so many b/s chicks can be confusing since they all are yellow at hatch.I use 4" ties,have 7 diffrent colors of them,and use for diffrent hatched chicks,or in some cases,use just the left leg,or just the right leg for the tie. I wing band the chicks at around 1 month old,when I move them from one growing pen,to the next sized bigger one.Then the zip ties gets cut off.
