This year's eggs Update:Damsel on nest

[Glenmar]

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Good point. Mine has not layed yet. Maybe I will have time for my chickens to hatch before then.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

I just try to help folks so they don't go thought the same stuff we did when we started almost 10 years ago, we have hatched out around 700 peachicks in the few years we have had peafowl.

Now just think about it, if every egg was fertile and every egg hatched and the chicks lived.

Leggs Peafowl = 3000 to 4000 peachicks a year

if all hatched. out of this many eggs lets say the avg is 1500 peachicks.

Texas Peafowl = 1500 to 2000 peachicks a year

if all hatched. Out of this many eggs avg 400 to 500 peachicks.

Now, I have no idea if this is right but I guess it is pretty close.

 

[MinxFox]

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I don't really like incubating eggs, that is why I let Ice do whatever with them. The eggs in my care actually makes me feel worse because I have to hand turn them and check on the temp and freak out every time I candle them. With the peahens incubating the eggs I am a lot less stressed out. I understand hatch rates aren't great, but I just would rather have the peahens raise the peachicks, it would benefit the peachicks a lot more. That is just my viewpoint I know some people would rather put the eggs in their incubator then let their unpredictable peahen set them, so I probably sound crazy... I did at first intend on taking the first clutch, but Ice sat on it before I could collect it and then I saw her on the nest and just let her incubate them since she was doing a good job and decided to just leave all the eggs alone.

I am not so worried about it now, I am going to go candle the eggs now and see what they look like...They probably didn't make it since they got chilled but who knows since some of them are fresher than others they could be okay.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

OK, Sorry I tried to help............

 

[MinxFox]

No no don't be sorry I am not trying to say you are of no help, I appreciate your help and I thought that was interesting about the amount of eggs that Leggs and Texas Peafowl gather compared to how many they hatch. Thanks for telling me to collect the first two clutches and I might do that with my pied peahen. So if you just let the peahen hatch lets say...Six eggs, how many peachicks would you say you would normally get? Maybe like two from six eggs? If I were to get two peachicks from six eggs I would be as happy as a dog eating people food, but in the future I would probably be looking to increase hatch rates.

You didn't try to help, you did help because I will remember what you said and if I don't get any peachicks this year because I let the peahens incubate the eggs then you can say "I told you you should have taken the eggs" and I will probably take some eggs away from them next year...This is just me being stupid trying to see what happens if I let the peahens do everything...Sorry.

 

[MinxFox]

Well the incubator did well, I just think the eggs got too cold when Ice abandoned them. She might have even left them because from candling them I didn't see anything, just the yoke shadow. Soo after one last candling today, all of them look the same and look just like last years bad eggs looked like so I took them out to the side of the house were I broke the bad eggs last year when I incubated some. I didn't really throw some of them hard, and they just hit the ground without even getting a crack! Some of them were really tough and took a few throws to break. All the eggs looked pretty much the same inside too. They looked just like an egg you would crack open for breakfast except maybe a bit more orange. They didn't smell but I am sure in only a few more days they would.

We are hopefully going to be leaving soon today to go Turkey hunting in Alabama for a few days. My mom is coming but she is having some technical problems with her phone and has to fix it before leaving by calling tech support. I am glad others are having luck with eggs so far though, that is nice at least this isn't a problem affecting everyone.

I hope you will still talk to me Choctaw Valley Farm...

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

You do know it takes at least 7 days for the blood vains to start showing? I don't toss any of the eggs for two weeks. I also don't candle until day 8.

 

[MinxFox]

Oh gosh.....I am hopeless...7 days...Ahhhhhh I swear I am like death to these poor eggs! Thanks I really should have said something on here before just chunking them...Okay candle on day 8. So I probably won't see anything even if they were good because I haven't given them long enough to actually grow...Oh man well there is my problem...Ha and to think last year I let bad eggs stay in the incubator until 30 days before throwing them out because I wanted to make sure they were in deed bad, then this year I throw out eggs too soon. Ha I am just as bad as my peahen, probably worse. Okay I am going to copy what you just said and put it into my important peafowl stuff so that next year I don't make this mistake again. Okay well at least I know now what to do...Thanks!

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

Breeding season isn't over until Sept you should still get more eggs.

 

[Glenmar]

Quote:
I was kind of thinking the same thing. I was wondering why you were giving up on them so quickly. It's OK some of us are still learning here.
You may have just kept someone else from making the same mistake.