Once again I would like to know from the larger breeders what is the best incubator for peafowl eggs

[KsKingBee]

View attachment 3733775
That is a typo. I was starting to type "I do not use the bottom, I just use the three racks."

The thing is to figure out how many eggs are you going to be setting per week. I typically set 198 eggs per week in incubators and the rest go under chickens. That means I set one machine per week plus I use separate hatchers. We move the eggs to the hatchers on day 23. The Brinsea 380 has been increasing in price so the Rcom would save you some money and probably work just as good.

I can not recommend the GQF because it does not control the humidity, for just a little more money you can have better hatch rates with Brinsea or Rcom.

I use the egg trays that Kathy posted above. The green 36 egg tray cut down to 32 is a little flimsy and weak, you should use care on how you pick them up so you don't crack any eggs. The 66 egg tray is very sturdy but heavy and awkward.

 

[GulfstreamGal1]

I don't hatch in large quantities, but I have raised peas for a long time... however many years I've been with BYC. I also use Rcoms and really like them. Yes they do automatically control humidity. I get a nearly 100% hatch rate with fresh eggs, 99.5 temp and 60% humidity. Change any of the parameters and the hatch rate changes too.

Thank you ChicksnMore. this is the kind of feedback I was looking for. I am not crazy about the GQF although so many breeders love it, and the Brinsea Ovaeasy 580 is just so darned expensive! I dont mind turning the eggs by hand a couple of times a day, but at the very least any incubator that I invest in is going to have to hold temperature and humidity to a "T".

I bought two pair of peafowl last year after my husband passed away. I grew up with about 100 peas on my great aunt and uncle's farm in Texas. I fell in love with them as a child and had so much fun watching them. They always brought peace and joy to my heart. My great uncle was from old oil money in South Texas, and when he moved up to North Texas he brought his peas with him. I love all animals and have loved and owned almost anything legal and some not legal here in the US including a "legal" raccoon who I bought from a breeder when she was 3 weeks old and I had her for 18.5 years. Although no more raccoons with birds -- she was a once in a lifetime kinda pet. I did wildlife rehab for three years on a large sanctuary in NJ when I was still flying as a career airline transport pilot. I have been showing and more rarely breeding first Great Danes and now Great Pyrenees. So I felt after my husband passed suddenly and unexpectedly I remembered how neat they were and I live out in the country. So I purchased a pair of Indian Blues and a pair of whites who were supposed to be "juveniles" but they started laying immediately so I started incubating and hatching... I decided I wanted to go a bit further with this experiment and now I have close to 50 spoiled peafowI about half juveniles and half adults. The breeders I have purchased mine from have all been incredibly nice and willing to share their time and knowledge.

I will say the two Hatching Times I purchased did incubate and hatch quite a few sucessfully, but I did almost nothing right and I none of the breeders that I purchased my peas from use them, so I am going to use them as hatchers.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge. The capacity and features are exactly what I am looking for.

 

[GulfstreamGal1]

The thing is to figure out how many eggs are you going to be setting per week. I typically set 198 eggs per week in incubators and the rest go under chickens. That means I set one machine per week plus I use separate hatchers. We move the eggs to the hatchers on day 23. The Brinsea 380 has been increasing in price so the Rcom would save you some money and probably work just as good.

I can not recommend the GQF because it does not control the humidity, for just a little more money you can have better hatch rates with Brinsea or Rcom.

I use the egg trays that Kathy posted above. The green 36 egg tray cut down to 32 is a little flimsy and weak, you should use care on how you pick them up so you don't crack any eggs. The 66 egg tray is very sturdy but heavy and awkward.View attachment 3733974

Thank you KsKingBee for your input now and a few months ago as well. I just had the same issue with the GQF in my mind. Most of the breeders I purchased mine from use them, but I knew they didn't control humidity, and the same breeders also tell me their hatch rate is about 40%. So that is exactly why I am not investing in one. I looked hard at all the Brinseas when you posted about yours when I first asked about incubators. But for the capacity the price is really a lot. I do have a Brinsea Ovation 56 EX as a backup for the cabinet incubators, but that was also I think extremely expensive for the capacity.

Also KsKingBee -- while I have your attention -- what do you use and recommend for a brooder? Again the five stack GQF seems to be what most use.

Right now it is difficult for me to know how many eggs I will be setting a week because of all the age as well as health variables. If you remember back in August I lost quite a few babies and one adult to definitely coccid and probably Blackhead. The 2023 babies who did recover may never be healthy enough to produce. No vet in SC would give me Flagyl or Baytril because the woman in charge of poultry at Clemson -- the one that did my necropsy -- considers all peas to be "meat birds" and has instructed all avian/poultry vets in the state not to prescribe either drug to me. I am thankful I only lost some of my own hatched with the exception of the one "juvenile" adult that I have replaced. I have a good number of adults as well as some who will be turning two in the spring/summer. I have 16 birds from 2023, and the remaining are older. So the long and the short of it is that I am not sure how many I will be setting but I would like to not have to worry about running out of space. Mine did lay enough last year that I got into the routine and had the experience of setting them once a week, candling on the appropriate days, and eliminating the ones that either weren't fertile or died during incubation. Regarding the egg trays -- I myself am awkward and clumsy and inadvertently cracked a few eggs last year. so I have rather have the heavy trays.

 

[KsKingBee]

A few years ago there was a blind national survey of peafowl breeders where all results were anonymous, no one could know who was participating and only those in the study were given the end results. All factors were calculated into the study, location, male-to-female ratios, age, cracked and or broken eggs, clean, washed, dirty, broken off the roost, and much more. One of our members here who does not post anymore was involved and told me much of what was released. Large producers were very happy if they had a 40% hatch rate. The only time I could ever say I had a 100% hatch rate is when I only counted the birds that hatched. To be truthful to oneself you must count every egg even the ones that you know better than to set. Your best results will be with a broody hen, no artificial incubation is going to outdo nature but even then you will run into problems with other birds in the pen disrupting the process. You will hatch just as many chicks with a 1:3 ratio as you will with a 1:4 or 5 ratio. Social harmony is a big factor in that as well. The largest breeder in Tejas, maybe in the US told me it is not the number of eggs you gather to set or even the hatch rate that is important but the number of chicks that survive to sell that is important.

There are so many factors to consider none of us get it right or peas would be just as cheap as a $2. chicken.

To answer your hatcher question; I have three hatchers, Brinsea 380, Lehy 416 redwood, and a Brinsea hatcher. The breeders that honestly told you they have a 40% hatch rate in the GQF are doing well with them but are spending a lot of time turning eggs and watching the humidity. That is extra time I don't want to invest when the auto humidity control will allow you to do other things like be gone for a day or two without worrying too much.

 

[GulfstreamGal1]

A few years ago there was a blind national survey of peafowl breeders where all results were anonymous, no one could know who was participating and only those in the study were given the end results. All factors were calculated into the study, location, male-to-female ratios, age, cracked and or broken eggs, clean, washed, dirty, broken off the roost, and much more. One of our members here who does not post anymore was involved and told me much of what was released. Large producers were very happy if they had a 40% hatch rate. The only time I could ever say I had a 100% hatch rate is when I only counted the birds that hatched. To be truthful to oneself you must count every egg even the ones that you know better than to set. Your best results will be with a broody hen, no artificial incubation is going to outdo nature but even then you will run into problems with other birds in the pen disrupting the process. You will hatch just as many chicks with a 1:3 ratio as you will with a 1:4 or 5 ratio. Social harmony is a big factor in that as well. The largest breeder in Tejas, maybe in the US told me it is not the number of eggs you gather to set or even the hatch rate that is important but the number of chicks that survive to sell that is important.

There are so many factors to consider none of us get it right or peas would be just as cheap as a $2. chicken.

To answer your hatcher question; I have three hatchers, Brinsea 380, Lehy 416 redwood, and a Brinsea hatcher. The breeders that honestly told you they have a 40% hatch rate in the GQF are doing well with them but are spending a lot of time turning eggs and watching the humidity. That is extra time I don't want to invest when the auto humidity control will allow you to do other things like be gone for a day or two without worrying too much.

KsKingBee I saw your pics where you had the birds on the eggs. What kind of chickens do you have that will hatch them? -- I couldnt tell from the pictures. I used to find pea eggs everywhere on the farm yet I never saw a hen sitting on a clutch. The breeder I bought my green birds from in Georgia said I need me some good sittin' hens. He says he hatched 27 green babies with chickens this year -- well 2023. Well my chickens don't even lay eggs much less sit on them. I have some Wyandotte, Brahmas, Cochins, Polish, Blue Sumatra... I am not sure what else. Doesnt matter because they eat twice the food of the peas, so I think I need to sell a few. Everyone from my father to my grandmother has always told me their chicken stories -- from mean roosters to snakes. Now I have mean roosters and I bet snakes come soon. I let one mean rooster out of the coop because it would get on the opposite end of the coop and fly at me and beak my leg. I dont know the prooper term for what it was doing but it hurt like hell. I tried deterring it every way I could think of sticks, poles, and trash can lids...nothing worked. Well he thought he was one smart Rooster after I let him out of the coop one afternoon to become a free range Rooster. He still was charging me and attacking my leg when I would come near the coop. He decided to roost at night at the highest peak of one of the chicken coops. Well last week I found a small part of one of its wings. I think a hawk or owl got it although I have one of my Great Pyrenees out there in a run that shares a wall with one of the birds' runs. I feel a little guilty about something eating it, but again it is nature and I don't even eat chicken myself so that wasn't an option. I have one more mean Rooster and the others don't pay any attention to me. So I agree with you we will never outdo nature. But juggling pea eggs under chickens is probably best left to those of you who have a little more patience than me. LOL last year every time I had an egg hatch I would call the breeder I got most of my birds from. Actually I would send a picture and ask him what color it iI have hundreds of photos of newly hatched peas. He kept laughing at me and I didnt understand why. Well now I know because I have the 2023 babies all in this huge dome aviary which was very expensive -- about $9000 total and very cool looking. They are really difficult to identify because they look a different color everyday. Yes I am ordering metal wing bands for this year but the birds last year were supposed to be yearlings so I didn't differentiate them. Well I tried with colored zip ties but they fell off and suddenly Midnight BS look an awful lot like Steel BS....I may be sending pictures for help in the fall. Since the aviary is a dome they just run in circles faster than me. Even the youngest ones are faster than me. If I changed direction they changed direction. The ones in breeding pens were easy, but the babies in the babies in the dome -- I wish he had taken some video.
Now about your hatchers... In a previous post I thought you said something to the effect of the hatchers you make are the bomb. Not incubators but hatchers. Can you show some pics of what you make and why? Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.

 

[Midnightman14]

A few years ago there was a blind national survey of peafowl breeders where all results were anonymous, no one could know who was participating and only those in the study were given the end results. All factors were calculated into the study, location, male-to-female ratios, age, cracked and or broken eggs, clean, washed, dirty, broken off the roost, and much more. One of our members here who does not post anymore was involved and told me much of what was released. Large producers were very happy if they had a 40% hatch rate. The only time I could ever say I had a 100% hatch rate is when I only counted the birds that hatched. To be truthful to oneself you must count every egg even the ones that you know better than to set. Your best results will be with a broody hen, no artificial incubation is going to outdo nature but even then you will run into problems with other birds in the pen disrupting the process. You will hatch just as many chicks with a 1:3 ratio as you will with a 1:4 or 5 ratio. Social harmony is a big factor in that as well. The largest breeder in Tejas, maybe in the US told me it is not the number of eggs you gather to set or even the hatch rate that is important but the number of chicks that survive to sell that is important.

There are so many factors to consider none of us get it right or peas would be just as cheap as a $2. chicken.

To answer your hatcher question; I have three hatchers, Brinsea 380, Lehy 416 redwood, and a Brinsea hatcher. The breeders that honestly told you they have a 40% hatch rate in the GQF are doing well with them but are spending a lot of time turning eggs and watching the humidity. That is extra time I don't want to invest when the auto humidity control will allow you to do other things like be gone for a day or two without worrying too much.

We get 3 major bottlenecks for chick mortality here. If they get past 2 weeks they made it through one. 3 months and 6 months respectively, and their first winter. If they can make those they're doing pretty good.

We have to remember too that peas tend to self cull very vigorously with inferior birds tending to remove themselves. That happens no matter how long you breed because genes both good and bad are inherited from the parents so you can still get bad chicks out of good birds.

 

[KsKingBee]

Your confusion is the hatching baskets I use in the hatchers to keep all the different eggs separate.

 

[Flygirl1987]

I don't hatch in large quantities, but I have raised peas for a long time... however many years I've been with BYC. I also use Rcoms and really like them. Yes they do automatically control humidity. I get a nearly 100% hatch rate with fresh eggs, 99.5 temp and 60% humidity. Change any of the parameters and the hatch rate changes too.

When you use the term "fresh eggs" do you take them straight from the pen to the incubator or do you wait 6 or 7 days and sit all your eggs from that week together? I know breeders do that so that they will have a mass hatching, but do you get a better hatch rate if you sit the immediately? I don't have a place that is 55-60 degrees either. My basement is a little warmer than that.

 

[Flygirl1987]

We get 3 major bottlenecks for chick mortality here. If they get past 2 weeks they made it through one. 3 months and 6 months respectively, and their first winter. If they can make those they're doing pretty good.

We have to remember too that peas tend to self cull very vigorously with inferior birds tending to remove themselves. That happens no matter how long you breed because genes both good and bad are inherited from the parents so you can still get bad chicks out of good birds.

Thank you for the information. I saw some of that with just the few I hatched.

 

[ChicksnMore]

When you use the term "fresh eggs" do you take them straight from the pen to the incubator or do you wait 6 or 7 days and sit all your eggs from that week together? I know breeders do that so that they will have a mass hatching, but do you get a better hatch rate if you sit the immediately? I don't have a place that is 55-60 degrees either. My basement is a little warmer than that.

Mine go into the incubator the day they're laid. I use a hatcher and remove the eggs when they're internal pipped rather than three days before hatch. Waiting to move them until that internal pip seems to increase hatch rate in my opinion. I think some chicks drown when you move them early into the higher humidity conditions, but I haven't experimented to verify that...it's just my thoughts based on observation. I don't hatch in large volume so it's easy to pay close attention to the eggs. I usually only have up to 30 pea eggs going at a time and I only have to pay close attention to the ones due to hatch. Those get candled once a day. When I see the internal pip, I make a very small safety hole where the beak is and then move them into the hatcher and let the chick complete the hatch on its own.
I've noticed a hatch rate difference with different colors. I haven't worked with all the colors, but of the ones I have, whites and silver pieds have the lowest hatch rates and the most delicate chicks. My greens have the highest hatch rate of the birds I have now...of the India Blue based colors, pure India Blue had the highest hatch rate. Both of those colors seem more vigorous to me at every stage of life. I work mostly with pure greens these days, though I still raise some white and silver pied.
I don't have a high chick mortality. I'm used to almost all hatched chicks make it all the way to adulthood. But again, I hatch small numbers and I think that makes a difference.