Yearling peahen trying to nest?

[zazouse]

The only problem i ever have with peas and hens is when they hatch out a bunch a chicks,ducklings or keets, the peas want to meet the new commers and never hurt them, just look, but the hens take it wrong and attack the peas after that the peas will harras the hen for about a week then all is fine but i now round up the hen and hatchlings put them in the brooder for a week and then turn them back loose and all is fine, course sometimes it backfires on me and i can't catch the hen and end up raising them till four weeks so they can fend for themselves

 

[Mellisa]

Our 18 month old peahen, Corona, has been dropping and assuming 'the position' for my husband, me, and our dog. We got her a peacock and she pretty much ignores him. She is free range and he's in the coop until he gets used to our location (don't need him trying to fly home). He's protecting a flock of young pullets from the mature hens and rooster but he'd really like to hang out with Corona!
Now Corona has gone missing most of the day and all night. I know she's gone broody (sitting on infertile eggs) somewhere in our yard. My neighbor is going to come over tomorrow to walk our acreage with me and try to find her. We have too many coyotes for her to be safe out there. I don't know what we'll do when we find her nest. Might have to build an emergency coop and give her
a clutch of fertile chicken eggs to hatch.

 

[Mellisa]

I have what we call 'the nursery' inside the coop. It's where I keep my broody hens / new chicks. The peas are so curious! They do tend to get into trouble. Our new cock, Gulliver, is being a great friend to the young pullets. They climb all over, under, and around him (thus his name). He takes it all in stride and only seems impatient with them when Corona comes around and he wants to get close to her.

 

[3BirdGirlz]

Hope you find her nest. I have a nursery similar to yours My peahen is 2 this year...she's laid almost 20 eggs, won't sit so I put them in the incubator and only 3 have been fertile.

 

[zazouse]

Hope you find her soon, i bet she is within a 100 yards of the feeding area or the area they hang out when it is not breeding season .
I have noticed in the past 2 breeding season i have never found them any farther away, they could go farther but so far they have not, most of them are within 50 feet of my home, very safe till the flooding rains came and washed eggs everywhere, found the hens staning over the nest area because the water was to deep to sit, they would not leave, i finely had to put big stick in the water whre the nest were to stop them from trying to sit in 4 to 8 inches of water

I have found peas to be great nest hiders even in plain site, heck i built nest platforums and after checking them all season my DH tells me there are now hens checking them out and i found 2 eggs in one of the nest., that is what happens when i stop checking

 

[zazouse]

PS it has been my experience that peahens will break chicken eggs pretty easy so i give them either ceramic,goose or guinea eggs to sit and they do well with all of those.

 

[Mellisa]

I just found her nest by following her back. She circled the house 3 times to try to lose me and the Guinea fowl who were following her. The Guinea gave up and headed to the old compost pile for their dirt baths and Corona headed into the street, of all places. She walked up the road and finally walked to a large granite bolder in the neighbor's front yard. She is very close to our property and has a view of the front yard from where she is sitting. I will try to catch her and put her in a cage in the coop until she's not broody anymore OR I'll put some fertile chicken eggs under her. We will see how this goes!

 

[zazouse]

The fastes way for a hen to be found is when she breaks an egg, everything will come to get it once the smell hits the air, seen it happen when a goose egg was bad under one of my hens, after it broke my dogs raided the nest and they never do that with a hen sitting but that bad egg changed their minds real fast.

Glad you found her.