Runaway peas, ravenous chicks, and hatching (maybe) looking up

It's been a busy week here in PA! I've gotten a few emails answered, the aviary partially cleaned, and my father and I have spent much time in consultation over why our hatches have been so crappy thus far. The last one of over 18 eggs resulted in four chicks, and two of them died within their first three days; one of them had hatched with a broken leg and couldn't walk. My dad went out to radio shack and I spent $80 on new thermometers. Turns out, our old thermometer must have gotten miscalibrated or something, or is just getting old and buggy, because the incubator, especially at the bottom, was a few degrees colder than it should have been! That could certianly explain why my chicks were hatching late (if at all) and dying throughout the process. The last two years, we've had most of our chicks hatch at 26 days. These weren't starting until day 28 or 29, and were not making it out on their own. We've hopefully got the incubator and the hatcher turned up now, so we'll see if things start going better for us. We have almost 200 eggs, but out of the first 50 we only got around 9 chicks. Incubating peacock eggs is hard, but our hatch rate shouldn't be that low!

We've got another set in the hatcher right day, and it's day 26. I came back from my brother's high school state baseball championship game to find two chicks hatched out (a spalding and a pied) and a bunch more pipped, including two opals. If all goes well, these will be my first opal chicks ever. I got my Opal pair (newly name Claire and Charlie; this week I went nuts and named all my yet unnamed peafowl after LOST characters) shipped in from the Nelsons in Louisianna last November.

Of course, Claire thought it would be exciting to escape and fly off into a strip of woods a few days ago. My dad's employees were working on putting up dividers between the new breeding pens so the males (particularly Charlie and my Spalding split to white eye boy, Jack) wouldn't fight each other and oggle unobtainable women. I was scrubbing mats from the brooder, and my little brother, Bradley, told me the guys said one of the peacocks had gotten out. Brad likes to joke with Tom, one of the workmen, so I told him Tom better be pulling his leg. No such luck! Claire had managed to sneak out of the pen while no one was looking, and off she flew. Luckily one of the men saw the direction she went. So off my father and I went with his trusty net. Somehow, from what the men told us we thought we were looking for my white male, Zephyrus. My father was certainly surprised when instead of a white bird with a huge tale he found a small brown hen. But Claire was retreived, safe and sound, and now Charlie has to mind her because he can't see the spalding and white eyed hens in the next pen.

The two surviving chicks from our last disasterous hatch are adorable little monsters. For awhile I wasn't sure that they knew how to eat on their own, and I'm still not certain on this point, but they're still alive, so they have to! Everytime I would stick my fingers in their box covered with grain they would pick at them so violently it seemed like they were starving. And as much as my dad and I watch them, we really don't see them eat off the floor or out of their dish. But they are sweet little things, a blackshoulder and a white out of one of my silver pied pens. Their appetite for my flesh seems to have decreased, so hopefully this means they are eating on their own!

Two yearling hens also found new homes this week. Someone has an appointment to come on Monday for one or two more, and a few arrangements are in the works. I'm glad to see them go. I still have far too many yearlings and two year olds to sell. Once again, it looks like I've going to end up with an excess of yearling males, because most people I talk to want hens. Right now I have so many gorgeous pied boys. I wish I could keep a bunch for myself. I love pieds! But I already have two breeding pens producing 'em, and two pens of silver pieds, so I really don't need any more! I am going to keep a pied hen to put in with my new adult pied male. Since all last year's pieds came out of my white male and two pied white eyed hens, this gal won't be related the the boy I plan to put her with. And there's no use going out and buying a hen when I have so many already!

But really, if there's anyone in the Pennsylvania area looking for peafowl, especially pied yearlings or two year old blue males, email peacockgirl@verizon.net. I have some gorgeous birds who would love to grace you with their prescence.

And hopefully, in a few weeks, I'll have lots of chicks I can beg people to take! :)