Brooding Peahen - infertile eggs

[Mickkk]

Hi!!

We had a peahen wander onto our farm last July. She is seemingly happy and has clearly shown no interest in leaving. She started brooding a few days ago in some tall grass by our garden. I'm not super concerned but I don't think she is sitting on fertile eggs because there is no male around.

Do I need to break her broodiness or let it run it's course? At what point should I start to intervene?

Also are there fertile eggs I can but to put under her? I don't mind having one or two chicks around.

I just don't know much about peafowl and don't want to cause more harm than good with her.

 

[KsKingBee]

If you can find some pea eggs local or even turkey eggs I would switch them out for her unfertilized eggs. If not I would pull the eggs as she is in a position for being taken by a predator unnecessarily.

 

[RIMO]

Someone probably dumped it at your place. We had the same thing happen about 14 years ago. At first I thought she would give up on the nest. After 45 days, she still wouldn't give up, so we took the eggs. Oh how she cried. Then she did another nest. We took the eggs sooner... then a 3rd nest. Then she finally gave up. The next year I was ready, I found a place that would sell me one chick that was ready at about 28 days when she started setting on the nest. We drove 6 hours for this one $35 peachick 13 years ago hoping it would be a peacock. But we waited until after dark, took a couple eggs and slipped the chick under her- in the morning we had a happy mom and chick... but it was a peahen. Two years later we repeated the same drive for two $35 peachicks. Neither were a peacock. Two years later we bought a mature peacock and four $35 peachicks. Two of those chicks were peacocks Moral of this story- buy a chick when your hen has been on the nest for at least 3 weeks. Slip the chick under and remove at least 1 egg, preferably 2 when you leave the chick behind. You'll know by the end of the first season if you have a peacock, the head will be blue. You can plan on repeating this every year, or just buy a peacock. Save yourself the 6 hour round-trip drive.