Tips for Incubating Peafowl Eggs

[Midnightman14]

Maybe you're a pea-addict who is experiencing their first breeding season or you got some eggs from a friend. Here are some tips to help you incubate well.

1. Use good quality incubator (if incubating artificially, broody hens are the best but not always as committed as you need them to be) I use R-com Max 20 and Max 50 and love them. Remember too that a good incubator pays for itself in no time because you'll have more chicks hatch for potential sale.

2. Turn at least 2x a day. My incubators have an auto turn feature but I still "flip" the eggs 180 degrees every day twice a day.

3. My PERSONAL reccomendation for humidity is 60% through the entire incubation period. I do not recommend raising it before hatching as from what I have seen it tends to cause problems with chicks drowning in the shell.

4. The first time I candle the eggs is around days 7-9 any infertile or dead eggs are tossed at this time.

5. Make notes for yourself as to which pen(s) are doing good for fertility and which ones not so much. It will help you figure out which cock birds are doing their job and which are slacking.

6. For storing eggs prior to incubation I recommend using a wine cooler with trays in it . The wine cooler can regulate temperature at 55 degrees which is perfect for storing eggs (remember to turn them 2x a day)

I hope this helps.

 

[casportpony]

1. Use good quality incubator (if incubating artificially, broody hens are the best but not always as committed as you need them to be) I use R-com Max 20 and Max 50 and love them. Remember too that a good incubator pays for itself in no time because you'll have more chicks hatch for potential sale.

We invested in an RCOM Maru, so hopefully, we will have better luck this year.

2. Turn at least 2x a day. My incubators have an auto turn feature but I still "flip" the eggs 180 degrees every day twice a day.

What do you mean by flip?

3. My PERSONAL reccomendation for humidity is 60% through the entire incubation period. I do not recommend raising it before hatching as from what I have seen it tends to cause problems with chicks drowning in the shell.

My preference is 35-45%, then raise to 60-70%. Higher than 45% mine don't lose enough weight.

4. The first time I candle the eggs is around days 7-9 any infertile or dead eggs are tossed at this time.

We do that too.

5. Make notes for yourself as to which pen(s) are doing good for fertility and which ones not so much. It will help you figure out which cock birds are doing their job and which are slacking.

Great advice. This year we will keep better notes for sure.

6. For storing eggs prior to incubation I recommend using a wine cooler with trays in it . The wine cooler can regulate temperature at 55 degrees which is perfect for storing eggs (remember to turn them 2x a day)

I'd like to get one of these.

I hope this helps.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[KsKingBee]

We invested in an RCOM Maru, so hopefully, we will have better luck this year.

Those are pretty good, there is better but they sure put a hurt on the checkbook.

What do you mean by flip?

Over easy, real easy.

My preference is 35-45%, then raise to 60-70%. Higher than 45% mine don't lose enough weight.

There is no perfect settings that apply everywhere, only experience will tell you where you need to be percentage-wise.

We do that too.

Great advice. This year we will keep better notes for sure.

I track every egg, they get serial numbers then by date laid, pen, set date, fertile, clear, quitter, or fail to hatch, and then by wing tag. Customers can backtrack by wing tag which pen and parents the chick came from which is handy as we can have two or three pens of the same color.

I'd like to get one of these.

We have a bunch of extra turners in the basement that hold the eggs until we set every seven days. Washing every soiled egg when we bring them in with Tek-Trol makes the biggest difference in hatchability we have found.

Thanks a bunch!