This and that...

[Frosty]

I posted before about this... I had some shipped eggs, out of 6 the closest I came was one perfect looking chick that died before hatching. My hen wasn't laying, I wondered if it was because I was feeding gamebird breeder or if something else was going on. In the end, I resigned myself to not hatching any this year. My cock is dropping train feathers, I thought somebody said that they drop the shorter feathers first, but he is dropping the long feathers first. I moved the peas into a small (100 sq ft) portable pen in the front yard. The plan is to move them around to fresh ground and hope they manage to kill a few weeds in the process. They haven't killed any weeds yet, but I do enjoy watching them. The pen is a bit smaller than ideal since I have the mature cock, a mature hen, and a juvenile cock in there but they don't seem to mind. Since the mature cock lost all of his long train feathers, he doesn't take as much room. While they are in there, I have swapped them back to gamebird maintenance, and figured since I'm not getting any eggs I would run some safeguard in their water. I should have done that a long time ago but we have a very narrow window between freezing weather and laying season, and this year I spent that time plus some dealing with flood issues.

The morning after day 3 of the safeguard, temps were going to shoot up into the mid 90's during the day with high humidity. I was going around making sure everybody had plenty of water, and had to change out the last of the water with safeguard for fresh clean water. The first thing I saw as I went into the pen with water, was... an egg. It was apparently laid the evening before. Of course it's in the incubator now, but it probably won't do anything since the cock is dropping his train. But I figure it definately won't do anything if I don't try, right? I found it Tuesday morning, Wednesday evening there was another. So apparently she is laying now, and I have to wonder... I had switched the feed over a few weeks ago, and just finished them up on the safeguard. Which one was enough to start her laying? Or was it both the feed and the safeguard together? Is there a chance that these eggs will develop? I guess only time will tell...

I have a neighbor who is rather rough looking, his lives with his mother and she is a real sweetheart. The son looks like the type you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. I saw him pull up to the house one day and I walked over. When he turned to see what I wanted, I told him that I wanted to know if the birds in my yard are bothering them. This rough looking guy got a beautiful smile on his face, and he said 'No! We have been enjoying them and trying to figure out what they are. Mom thinks they are peacocks, but I didn't think so.' I told him to tell his mother that she is right, they are peafowl. I explained that I was concerned that the noise might be bothering them. He was still grinning ear to ear as he told me that when he is coming home from work in the early hours of the morning, the one (that would be my 3 year old cock) stands up tall and calls out to him like it's telling him 'good morning'. It was so neat to see this rough looking guy with such a beautiful gentle smile, just because he could see the peafowl.

 

[xlboergoats]

Who knows what the peafowl are thinking. We thought that we had hatched the last or our Purples for the year. The peacock has started dropping his train, but just in the last week. We have not had an egg from that pen in a few weeks. The Blues are still laying and the peacock in that pen has not started dropping his train.

Last night, I went over to make my rounds for the last time. Since the Blues have been laying regularly, I expected to have an egg in that pen. Sure enough the Blue pen had an egg in it, but there was also an egg in the Purples' pen. Who would have thought it?

I brought both eggs to the house and will set them under a chicken hen in a couple of days. I am anxious to see who lays tomorrow evening since my peahens usually lay every other evening. The only way that I will know if they are fertile is to set them and then wait and see. I am glad that I have a set of chicken hens that have been so faithful to set this year. We start them under a chicken hen and then move them to the incubator. We have one chicken hen that has started five sets of eggs for us this year. I don't know if she is dedicated or just lazy.

Ernie Haire
Arp, Texas

 

[Knix6468]

about raising the chicks on wire, If you incubate 10 chicks and go and stick them in a pen with adults, or as a group of juveniles in a pen they will do better on wire.

If you have chicks hatched by mom, mom will tend and teach them what to eat, and care for the baby. But, If they are penned I would watch to make sure that there
isnt another bird that is aggressive toward the new chick. They are so cute running around with mom.

Good luck whatever you decide

 

[hvnsnt3388]

I hatched a clutch from my dark pied pen and thought the season was over also. Yesterday evening I found a next with 2 eggs in it. The make has dropped maybe 80% of his long feathers so Im curious too. Does anyone think they may be fertile?

I am going to leave things as they are and let her lay and set this clutch too. She typically lays 6-7 eggs before setting. I am marking the eggs and i guess if she doesnt set within a month i'll start removing them.