Possible sick peachick

[jsaxman1111]

There is a lot to learn and much of it has to be learned hands-on.

Are there any books you would recommend?

 

[KsKingBee]

I'm trying my best. I enjoy looking at how your birds are with you. What made you start raising them?

You can take the kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid. The folks moved to the big city when I was small but we would go work the farm every weekend. When we moved to a suburban I was able to have all the animals I wanted. Now I have moved out to the family farm and am enjoying my retirement working my ass off raising peafowl and sheep and a bunch of other hobby animals including bees.

 

[KsKingBee]

Are there any books you would recommend?

I recommend you read all of the stickies topics at the top of the main peafowl page.

 

[jsaxman1111]

I love that! I'd love to have bees, but they tell me I'm allergic so my husband doesn't think that's a good idea. Lol

 

[jsaxman1111]

I have been and will continue. Thank you. So informative.

 

[Waterfaery]

The noise you heard your peahen make might have been normal.

I knew my peachicks had hatched because the two peahens were making a noise I had never heard before. It was so loud I heard it from another part of the garden.

When I went in to check on them the two peahens were walking up and down the shed to and from the nest. There were one or two peachicks attempting to follow them and the rest were struggling to get up and couldn't get out of the nest.

Like you, I was new to it and wondered if there was a problem. I decided there was nothing I could do anyway and I should trust them so I left them alone and listened from the garden. After a few minutes they went quiet so I checked again and they were back sitting on the nest. For the next few hours they made that noise every few minutes and then went quiet again.

I realised it was just them calling the chicks. They would get up and walk up and down calling and then return to the nest to sit for another while over and over. Gradually, more and more of the peachicks managed to follow them and eventually, when all of them made it out, the peahens led them all to a different part of the shed to make a new nesting area on the ground.

I learned afterwards that it's a natural instinct to avoid predators that they move to a new nesting area as soon as all of the chicks are able to walk. It's hard to remember exactly now but I would say the whole process took several hours. They definitely don't just start walking out of the egg. I suppose the peahens start calling them to try to get up before they even can so that they can be ready to move as soon as the peachicks are possibly able.

As the peachicks grew up, the peahens continued to make a less intense version of that same noise whenever they were moving around to tell the peachicks to follow them. They occasionally stepped on the peachicks and I was terrified at first but they were always fine.

I hope that's what's happening with yours and that there's nothing wrong. Did you say you have more eggs still to hatch as well? Are they under a different peahen?

 

[jsaxman1111]

There are 5 more eggs. There are two, this one and another that this peahen took over when the other mother abandoned her nest. And then the other 4 are hers. So we will see how they go. I believe this one has splay leg, at least to one. It seems to have the one leg kicked out and its toes are curled. It was like that on both sides but the one seems to be straightening out. The other does not. I was hoping they just weren't quite developed yet and it still needed to strengthen.

 

[Waterfaery]

Are the four of her own at a different stage of development? When are those four due? And I assume the one egg from the other hen is due to hatch soon since it was in a clutch with this peachick, is that right?

Is she still sitting on the eggs or is she looking after this peachick? If there's a big difference in the due dates you may not be able to have the same hen hatch all of them. She'll only stay on the eggs for so long before leaving them if she has live chicks to look after.

I've never dealt with splayed leg on a peachick but I did have it recently with a chicken chick. I made a little hobble with elastic to keep the legs together and it worked really well. There are lots of versions and ideas online but I sort of made my own hybrid version. You might need to fiddle to get the right amount of stretch so that the legs are held in position at a natural spacing.

I've never dealt with curled toes but I know you can make a special shoe using cardboard and vet tape or sticky bandage. I think you basically cut the cardboard to the shape of the foot and then tape the toes out straight onto it. Again, you might need to fiddle with the size and shape so you make something the chick can walk with.

Vitamin B complex also helps with curled toes. You can get drops of it or you can crush a human vitamin B complex tablet into some wet mash. You can't overdose on vitamin B but you can on some other vitamins so the human dose of B complex is safe but don't use a human dose of a general multivitamin.

 

[jsaxman1111]

See...I think this is what happened to the last chick. The mother had been Brody for awhile. I'm pretty sure she was stealing eggs from the other hen as a couple eggs got broken open in the process. So she had multiple eggs at different stages. So when the last chick was born, she abandoned the nest. There is one egg due to open and 4 which should be catching on the 2nd of June.But this chick, she pushed out. She wouldn't let it understand her. Coukd this be because it wasn't originally her egg? I'm hoping she doesn't abandon the nest when the next one hatches. I do have an incubator ready in case but I really don't want to remove them. I am hoping she stays. I have read that when there is more than one hen, they coparent, so I'm hoping that's what will happen.

I did do reading on the fixing splayed leg. There was a good one with pictures that KsKingBee (I believe) had on here. I'm just not sure how long to wait before fixing it. I know you have to do it asap but not sure how long to wait to see if it is just a strength issue.

I will pick up some vitamin B complex to try. I really appreciate you guys and your guidance. I've been reading the sticky notes and trying to soak in all of the knowledge that I can.

 

[Waterfaery]

They will only co-parent if they are both still broody. You say the first peahen abandoned the nest after the first chick hatched. That would have been over a week ago now, is that right? Is she back to sitting on eggs again or is she not broody anymore? If she is sitting, are they both on the same nest or where is she? And are you saying the current peahen is pushing away this chick that just hatched with the splayed leg? Are either of the peahens caring for it?

The 2nd of June is over a week away so if you only have one broody peahen she won't sit on those eggs with one or two live peachicks to look after. You might need to think about what you're going to do in that case. Can you candle the remaining 5 eggs and see how they are doing? That might help you decide what best to do.

If you have two broody peahens, you can try to let one peahen take the first two chicks and leave the other one on the four eggs. The problem is that once one gets up to look after the chicks the other will want to as well. I know with chicken hens some people confine the one they want to stay on the eggs but I don't know if a peahen would tolerate that. Maybe others might know how to deal with that scenario.

When my peahens hatched theirs, there were two unhatched eggs still in the nest. I thought one peahen would take the chicks and one would keep sitting but they didn't. They both left together with the ten living chicks and abandoned the last two eggs.