4 Peas in a Pod

LaurieLovesLearning

We have successfully hatched 4 India Blue peachicks. We did it!

One required new shoes to correct his crooked toes while they are still malleable. It is getting used to them. It's toes should be just fine in a couple of days.

I am letting the peas dry off. Tomorrow, I'll get some pictures for everyone.

They are not fluffy at all. Their feather shafts are very well formed and long. As soon as they are dry, they can fly. it could get interesting.

Of course, just as with geese, you should not handle them unless you have to. If you do, 3 years later during mating season, males will have a tendency to attack.

They are dumb at first when it comes to food. I read to put shiny things in their water & feed...quarters, sockets, marbles and to check on them often.

They are not very cold hardy until 1 year of age. I will be selling these chicks since none were white. If our next 4 have any white or our hen hatches some chicks, we'll see if we are able to steal them to sell. We don't know if she'd let us. If any are white, we will try our best to raise it/them.

Torey

Congratulations! I look forward to pics.

Michelle D

So fun! I'm really interested to see what they look like young.

dipat2005

I was hoping you had pictures. Great information.

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

So very exciting! I can't wait for pictures. 😁

LaurieLovesLearning

Sorry about the wait for pictures. Our internet was down all day yesterday.

These chicks are so fast to run & pick at the phone camera that it is very difficult to get a good picture. I guess it is too shiny & has too much contrast to resist.

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

They're so cute! 😍

I really like the pattern on their feathers in that last picture.

water2world

@LaurieLovesLearning Love the pics!! Had no idea what to expect--they are so cute! Congrats!!

OK.......shoes? pics please---something else new to me!

LaurieLovesLearning

@water2world I removed them last night. The one will continue to have a couple crooked toes, but at least it isn't impairing any movement.

I looked for a picture because I know I took one in the past, but I can't find it. Basically, I took athletic tape (I used a bandaid piece on a chicken chick last time), and stuck it on the underside of the chick's foot, with the chick's toes spread as they should be, secured the top with a tiny bit more tape, and made sure nothing sticky was exposed. This is like a light support that keeps the toes in place until the bones harden. Once they seem to get around well, I give the chick a little more time & take the "shoe" off. If the chick isn't ready, a new custom shoe is reapplied.

One had "hobbles" too...that is a thin strip of bandaid "taping" the two legs just below the knee, at the proper width that the legs should be. This is the fix for splayed leg. After it gets around well, the hobbles gets removed.

I had to change my divider between them and my chicken chicks. The peas wanted over there so badly and squeezed their way past the barrier. They were so very happy to mingle! I couldn't leave them there though because the chicks are way to poopy/messy and the feed requirements are different (peafowl need very high protien).

water2world

@LaurieLovesLearning Thanks for explaining that to me--- You can tell that is an area that I have never dealt with! Hopefully next year we will have chickens!

I can only imagine their glee escaping past the barrier to visit new friends! lol

Cornelius

They are so cute and congratulations!

JennyT Upstate South Carolina

It's so funny that they wanted to be with the chicken chicks so desperately and escaped to go be with them.😄

LaurieLovesLearning

@JennyT Upstate South Carolina They did it about 5 times before I cut their shortcut off. They looked pleased as punch once they got to the other side & were just raring to go!

They may hatch stupid, but they learn very quickly.

Michelle D

@LaurieLovesLearning they sound like a joy already! It must be fun to see them proud of themselves.

LaurieLovesLearning

So sad. We lost 3 of the chicks over the course of a few days. One is left.

This last one is so much stronger than the others were. I'm not sure if that's because of certain changes we made or not.

I just hope we can integrate it with the new ones once they hatch at the beginning of next week.