To steal or not to steal

[tony garza]

Hi,

I have a trio of IBs in a small pen right now. I've built them a larger pen, 12X32, but since one of the peahens is sitting on six eggs, I decided to keep them where they are. The peahen has been sitting since June 1st and is due about June 28th. The peacock and another peahen are in the pen with the sitting hen. So I steal her eggs and move them to my incubator OR do I leave them with the hen and hope that she will do a better job of raising them. I ask because another post advised not the keep the peacock in with the chicks and to watch out for all the hazards the chicks could get into inside and outside the pen. I'm tempted to steal the eggs from her at day 25 and move all of them to the new pen and hatch the eggs myself. That way I could keep better track of what the chicks do, eat and drink.

What do you all think ?????


Tony

 

[Kev]

In my experience , peahens have all proved to be very good mothers if they were confined to a peachick proof pen, so I would not worry about that part. All I did was put chicken wire or hardware cloth all the way up the sides and have top screened off too.. no buckets or deep pans.. only the white/red plastic waterers, either the metal chick feeder troughs with the tops removed or extremely low sided bowls. That's it.

Having the mother and babies isolated for the first week(s) is always a good idea if it's possible.

So, if I were you.. and the peachicks would not be able to get out of the current pen, would leave the setting hen and move the other two now.

OR.. if the new pen is much safer/peachick proof(and current pen is not), I'd leave all three.. and move only the peahen and babies when they hatch. Then move the other two in whenever you want.

This is also assuming there are no other species in the pens too.

If you want to raise the chicks, then your plan is a good one.. but, for me it always was so much easier having the peahens or hens raise the chicks.

Some males will be slightly aggressive, some males will not, almost completely ignore them. The bigger problem may actually be the other peahen.. she may get too curious and bother them way too much and even be a little mean. Then again, some peahens stay well away, especially if the mother is the dominant one and warns her to stay away.

 

[tony garza]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll take your advice and move the male and hen to the new pen and leave the hen/eggs/chicks in the old pen. It has 1" chicken wire sides and top and it also has a small 4X6 room where she is sitting now. They can stay out of the sun and rain (I hope). I'll chick proof it.

Thanks again,

Tony

 

[deerman]

Quote:

Make sure to feed them a medicated starter

 

[tony garza]

Well, I moved the peacock and the extra pea hen. They disrubted the setting hen that she came off her eggs. She started with 6 but she only had 3 now. I gave her 45 minutes to get back on her eggs, but she never went back. I pulled the eggs and put them in my incubator. The eggs are at about day 23. We'll see what happens.

Tony