Those who need help in sexing peafowl

[Birdrain92]

Wow! Now that I think about it that would explain the reason why that temp is warmer then the temp I found because the thermometer is on the ground so it won't get as much heat as the top of the egg.

 

[casportpony]

I bet if I check the surface temp of the chicken it will be no less than 102.

-Kathy

 

[Birdrain92]

I'm talking about like a 1/4 of an inch off the ground when a hen sits on it. An egg on the ground is like and inch for chicken unless it's a bantam egg. Closer to the body making the egg warmer then the thermometer.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

HUGE Learning curve throughout this entire thread.Going to screenshot it all,,97 pages and counting.

 

[MinxFox]

Because Coco's toes were messed up so I would hold her and then straighten her toes out and work with every hour. To me having toes messed up and being touched every hour and have my toes straightened for a half an hour that seems really stressful. She's the only one that hatched out on 24 days. Other peachicks I hatched were 28 days. That was 3 years ago Aurora and Ion. Ion died from predator or just flew away since he was free range. Aurora died because of Ion constantly stepping on her so I separated them then she decided to sleep in her water and ended up killing herself. Reason why she was in her water because Ion sleeps right were Aurora's water is and she wanted to be with him but he kept on stepping on her and running her over. I had a thermometer under Jadea. I just put it in her nest and she sat on it for an hour and then when she got up I went to it and it told me 90 degrees. It also depends on where it's located at and it was probably right next to her foot. My ducks hatch 28 days and my turkeys hatched out in 28 days and my chickens hatched out in 21 days. I don't know why she hatched out so early but she did. All eggs contain Salmonella some contain more than others. But when it's cooked it makes it so there is no salmonella.

Okay, I have some experience with having to fix crooked toes. The first peachick I hatched out, Peep, had to be helped out because it was taking him too long to hatch so his feet were all curled up and he couldn't stand. I messed with them for a long time and they corrected themselves. He was not overly stressed by this and is three years old now. Example 2: I let my boyfriend take an incubator home with an egg and he too had to help out his peachick. He spent time working on its feet and it was not overly stressed, but months later it died, I don't know what went wrong with his bird, but it wasn't under my care. Example 3: My peahen hatched out some peachicks and one had really messed up feet. It could hardly get around. The chick was already imprinted to the peahen, so you would think that taking it and fixing its feet would be too much stress, but even in this case after keeping the chick for a day with shoes on, it was returned back to the peahen at night and I don't even know which bird it grew up to be. I think it was Crooked Beak (I sold him). Here is the photo of the example 3 peachick:
When we found the chick:


After we put on the shoes. The poor thing was exhausted after struggling trying to walk, but the next day you couldn't tell which chick was the one we rescued. We held the chick on a plastic top, drew an outline of its feet, cut out the plastic shoe, then taped it down with masking tape, and added 3 circular felt stickers to the bottom of the shoes for traction.


Quote:

Birdrain92 Your post 913 above,A suggestion for you,,get a 1 qt waterer with a quail bottom on it,,this is smaller than the normal size used for chicks to drink out of,,you won't lose peachicks due to drowning in the water supply again,and if you manually straightened the peachicks toes every hour,they should have been taped for 2 days and the curled toes would be straight.I use shipping tape and have showed how I do it here on BYC. It may take 2 people to get the tape layed flat,then get the peachicks toes spread out like normal,then put the foot down on one side of the tape,then lay the tape over the top of the foot and press between the toes so it sticks together-then trim off excess tape. Point being,curled toes cannot be "massaged" hourly to become straight,they must be set in the proper,natural position and kept that way for several days to correct. Suprised your aunt didn't tell you this??

Maybe my situation was different because the chicks just needed their feet uncurled, but what I have found is that right after or very soon after the bird hatches or you help it out, you hold it under a heat lamp and hold the feet out straight working with the feet. It isn't something you take lots of breaks from though. You devote several hours to holding, bending at the "ankle", propping the chick up to see if it is standing correctly, and then when the chick lies down you make sure it lies down with the toes all out straight. The shoes are a better solution, but the very first chick I have ever hatched was Peep, and he never wore shoes. It was just me holding him all the while picturing a peafowl foot in my head making sure I was holding it out right. If caught before the legs, feet, and toes harden though and are still very soft, you can definitely fix them without shoes, but it is just very time consuming, but after a day the feet are fixed when you do it by hand.
The first photo is Aaron's bird Taco, the second photo is Peep right after he hatched. In this first photo, Aaron had already been working with Taco's feet for a bit as you can tell they are starting to straighten out a little, but they are still not dry yet so you can still keep fixing them.


This shows how curled Peep's feet were and I used my hands to fix his feet.

Peep's feet now.


Just my input because I have seen both work, as long as you don't wait to long to do either options.

 

[margaret8]

How about when they walk on the 1st joint? Is there anything you can do for them.

 

[MinxFox]

1st joint? Like walking on the toe?

 

[margaret8]

1st joint? Like walking on the toe?

It's leg was out flat and he scooted on the part where the feathers started. The other leg was normal.

 

[Birdrain92]

Crooked toes was a first for me so I just did what I could do. Sadly by the time she was standing which was the day after she hatched I realized it because I've seen peachicks were the toes are all together when they are out of the egg, but then when they are walking they are perfectly fine so that's why I didn't realize it until later. Wish I knew this before it was to late. I'm not sure how you can say this feather is female, it's the same feather in the past blurry photos.

 

[MinxFox]

Ooh I am not sure about that...In that case, I wonder if making some sort of cast on the leg where it can bend at the joint would work? I am not sure how to answer that one. That is more serious than what I have dealt with, although I had one that was so messed up with the feet and legs that it died. I tried fixing it but everything that could go wrong did go wrong for that poor chick. I don't think I have seen one like what you are mentioning though.

Edit:
That feather does look like it is from a peacock, but I just don't see that on the photos of Thor. The feather shape doesn't look like the one you photographed. I do see the tips being a little frayed on the edges, but overall the feathers are too scaled. That feather is just a piece of a feather you took. most of the photos down here I copied from this helpful photo album: https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6627101/more-peafowl/ looks bluish in the neck, but peafowl change color in the light. My peahens look bluish in certain light. Just 1 feather will not change my mind.



Especially because of photos like this:


Which show the nice brown wing which reminds me of a photo I have of a peahen:


A male about the same age as Thor would look like this. You don't go from solid brown to lots of barring. Already lots of rust feathers.

Same peahen from the wing photo.

Her back.

Thor (in front if anyone is confused still). Thor Does not have pointed scale back feathers. They are nice and rounded, just like the peahen in the photo.




Very similar neck color. Too similar for this to be a pair.