Re: Peahen leaves the nest -- Peafowl Talk

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Subject: Re: Peahen leaves the nest

Author:
D C T --friendly poultry orthopedist

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Date Posted: 19:33:34 06/23/08 Mon
In reply to: Janet 's message, "Peahen leaves the nest" on 09:58:46 06/23/08 Mon

This is certainly something outside my experience.
My very first mother peahen would sleep on perch between
her two daughters until they were ten months old. She drove
them away only as a new breeding season arrived.
Last year a had some large mean peachicks that were eating
feathers off the back of the peahen that was raising them.
I had to put her in a different pen. NO complaints from her
but the juveniles did make sad noise for a while. They
were old enough to not need peahen.
Actually it seems unusual for a mother to adopt any babies
that are not her own.....but strange things do happen

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[> Subject: In my experience....

Author:
gardner
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Date Posted: 15:55:02 06/25/08 Wed

I have free ranging peafowl... And I had two peahens with three chicks each, about month apart in age. I would find two of the chicks switching places often, and the hens would take to their new one with no problem.
I asked about this and got this reply...
The chicks mature sometimes differently.. and in one family one of the chicks was just a little slower maturing, and in the other family a chick was a bit older acting... so it is not uncommon for the hens to adopt each others chicks.
I think the peafowl have different hierarchy when left to roam freely, even the males at different times would come over to the hens and show them some little tidbit of food they'd find... My main hen, her mate, her oldest a male 3 years old, and a sister one year old, and the last sister less then a year old all hang out together... well not now 'cause she's sitting on some eggs.