What's with my peafowl?

[deerman]

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Live in Ohio, not all my peahens are laying ,but about 90% are. Getting 16 + eggs aday.

Steve made a good point, just because all 2 yr old should breed. You will still find the bird that will never be fertile ,no matter what age.

Peafowl are not like chicken,you may not see them breed. I see a few , but have alot of breeding age peafowl..

Another odd thing , i have had 2yr old produce more fertile eggs their 2nd yr than their 3rd yr.

 

[Kev]

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Been staying out of that.. but knew what you were referring to...

Yes it is confusing if that male is three and still doesn't have much of tail. You have a 4 year old midnight with just 2' tail?! Would love to see pictures. This male and this mid are the firsts for me...

My experience has been different regarding 2 yr olds with either no or not many eyes, they have proved fertile for me. Not always 100% and usually have few hens only. What I do is try to make sure the male is "dominant" over the hens.. as many older hens will refuse a 2 yr old if they have been with mature males before. Either outright boss him around or refuse to squat for him. So I usually have 2 yr old males paired off in a pen by himself with either females that grew up with him or other 'submissive 2 yr old females, seems to build up their confidence. And those females are still young and most mate with these males pretty willingly, so they also get to have mating experience with those hens. Then introduce adult peahens if wanted and hope he is confident enough to fight back and 'win' if these adults challenge him. If he comes out dominant, usually the eggs come out fertile.. not always 100%, but a portion of eggs.

If the hens dominate him.. very often the fertility will be poor or nonexistent.

It's also management skills, not just mother nature from my experience.. of course there are always exceptional cases.

 

[deerman]

If the hens dominate him.. very often the fertility will be poor or nonexistent.

It's also management skills, not just mother nature from my experience.. of course there are always exceptional cases.



Two very good points, I rarely have any two year olds that dont breed..of course I don't raise the greens.

I also only run two or three peahens with 2 yr olds. older peacocks get 4 to 6 peahens each

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

Maybe we should send all our Peafowl to you guys , Because it sounds like the rest of us don't know what we are doing

.

 

[deerman]

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Steve , think you raise alot of green and spalding. Sure your may be longer before breeding. I have a spalding 75% she didn't lay untill she was 3 yr

Now I have got fertile eggs from any 2 yr peacock I had peahen with. Only had 2 peahens not to lay as 2 yr old, both where spalding.

Just sharing info.....that works for me.....never said you didn't know what you were doing.

 

[Kev]

Hm, spaldings and greens? Okay my above comments were limited to Indians only.. spaldings and greens are different for sure.

I spend a lot of time outside and observing the birds, either just plain watching them or trying something and then watch for a long time if that idea works or fails.. that is how I've come up with all those little tricks & observations.. one of my youth interests was studying to be an animal behavor scientist, ha!

p.s. Steve(anybody?), do you have any ideas for spalding males that seem to just suddenly start chasing and beating on a hen? Never figured out the "cause" for that and a good way of stopping that short of moving the hen into another pen. Have perches and hiding places but sometimes the males are so persistent.. right behind her no matter she goes. distressing to watch.

 

[Choctaw Valley Farm]

I have no idea why they start doing it, We have a Burmese male that was on three hens he was with two of them for a year or more and the other for 3 or 4 months before breeding season, and now he is a one women man he about killed two of them had to take them out, I was feeding one day and had a Opal Silver Pied hen sneak in his pen and before I could get to her he had her beat down and bleeding and I was in the next pen, The remaining Burmese hen with him he is nice to so I guess some are just picky on who they want to be with.

(All three hens were Burmese)

Steve

 

[Kev]

That's similar to my case right now.. he had 4 same age females with him in that pen his whole life, added the current hen when she was about 6 months old(2 yrs ago). Sold the original 4 last summer so he had only this hen with him from then to now. She laid a few eggs this year, were fertile.. have two chicks already, so he did breed her. The only thing I can think of is she has stopped laying for about 2 weeks, is he beating her up because of that? Non-breeding female, get outta here? There's only one pen sharing a side with his pen and it contains a single white peahen. He doesn't seem to be aggressive towards the white peahen.

Opal silver pied? You're hurtin' me here now.. love the opals, only have opal pair split for black shoulder. Would love to see what opal pied or silver pied looks like.

 

[homesteadingcowgirl]

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Pictures would be great though!

 

[deerman]

I have a Opal Silver Pied hen, last of my Opals, will post pics ,soon as I can take a few. I am bad about taken pics of the peahens. Spend more time taken pics of the peacocks......