Yes it is the one on the left. I was hoping for speckles or at least something a little distinctive but no they look just like a chickens egg though they are much bigger and even a bit pointier at the end. Too big to fit in this boys mouth. He has been going under the nickname of The Savage lately. He loves eggs.
His favourite game is to run full tilt at me and then launch himself up into my arms, so far it is a little gangly but I think we can perfect it. But only on command! And no, butter would not melt in his mouth. It wouldn’t have Time! Look at that bad boy face. When we are not playing the game he just head buts me which he is very quickly learning is not appropriate. What is funny in a pup will not be funny from a dog. Here he is practicing sitting and staying – with bad grace I might add. He is learning as fast as I can teach him and needs a very firm hand. But he is the cuddliest dog I have ever had and sticks very close.
In all I found four peahens eggs. Two were in a chickens nest in the Peacock Penthouse with other chickens eggs. Two were on the floor by the door as I told you yesterday. The wee chook who lay the other eggs in the Peacock Penthouse is sitting on hers, I wonder if the extra large bump in there bothers her.
And here is one of our surrogate mothers. She is an old chook called Giraffe. She is a very sweet old thing.
I also have a cockoo marran who is broody. So last night I went out in the dark and transferred the cuckoo and two ordinary eggs into Fort Knox (sorry Peghorn Leghorns time to grow up and roost like big chooks). When she is settled in there I shall add the peahens eggs. Giraffe is minding them until then. Giraffe is one of my original girls and an excellent broody chicken but old now. We will meet the fat Cuckoo Marran tomorrow. So I will have four eggs under two hens. How about THAT for not having all my eggs in one basket! The peahens settled themselves back with Kupa last night in the rafters and so far have been very good about not eating gardens so they are free in the hopes of them sorting out this nesting business. But maybe they abandoned the eggs because they were infertile we will see. The incubation period for a peacock egg is 28 – 30 days so we will know by the end of June.
Below is a shot of our raging creek yesterday. It will be higher today. Last night we had two more massive storms accompanied by tornado alerts. No tornado here but again the rain and wind hurled itself at us. The lightening flashed like nightmarish disco lights, so bright that I could see it with my eyes closed and had stars in my eyes when it was over. Thunder roared like hell’s door was swinging open and slamming back in the gale.
The rain gauge says another inch of rain was had. But I think we got off lightly. It goes without saying that the basement is flooded again.
Yesterday I called the man at a very strange store that sells bull semen. And we had a curious discussion. I told him I wanted the semen from a Hereford bull who had short legs and a good solid frame but a bit smaller than these massive beasts we see in the catalogs. Oh, he said, so you want a short dumpy bull. I laughed. Well, I don’t have one of those, those are hard to find, they don’t breed them like that anymore. The closest he said is a bull called True Grit. Well, I said, I quite liked that movie. We will have him then. Thirty dollars a straw said the man.
So the Breeder will take her tank of liquid nitrogen and collect two little straws of hopefulness this week and the Lady Vet will be breeding Queenie at the same time as Daisy on Sunday.
The breeder is still looking for someone special in a straw for Daisy.
Good morning. It has dawned calm and cloudy this morning. I need to get out there and see how everything fared in the storms. What wild weather.
Have a lovely day.
your stormy friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
81 responses to “A peahens egg looks like this”
I have a broody hen too. She’s a Buff Orpington and I have to remove her from the nesting box everyday or she wouldn’t leave. Poor baby, I have no eggs for her to hatch as my chickens are just for laying. Not quite sure how to get her to snap out of it but I’m sure If I remove her from the nest often enough she’ll get the idea. Love hearing about your farm C! Good Morning to ya 🙂
Here in Andalucia they pick the hen up and run her bottom under the cold water tap (or dip her behind into a bucket of cool water) – they don’t seem to mind and if you do it once or twice they stop being broody, Weird, but it seems to work!
If I don’t want mine to brood I put them in a cage with a wire bottom. If they’re bottom doesn’t stay warm they break the broodiness much easier. Or maybe you can find someone with hatching eggs to put under her! 🙂
what excellent ideas, my mum used to say put them under a box for a few days and they go off when they have to sit in the dark for a while. Though I quite like the cold water trick! c
Thanks Chica! I’ll try anything at this point. LOL!
I’m so sorry about your basement!
You can candle the eggs in a week or so and look for a “blood spot” which will tell you if they are developing. I wouldn’t toss the eggs if you don’t see it, but it might make your wait a little less boring if you do!
What a brilliant idea, I just use a torch? That might make for a good picture if we can do it! I will try.. c
Yes, one that is pretty powerful, and in a room as dark as you can get it. You should be able to find instructions on the internet somewhere. It’s not foolproof, but if it works, then you’re good to go!
I have a picture somewhere of one of the tortoise keepers candling a turtle egg. I’ll see if I can find it.
I have read about it, i shall look it up again and like you say in a week or so we will have a look.. a most excellent idea thank you! c
or get a shoebox size box
cut hole little bigger than quarter [coin] in side
put 60 lit watt bulb inside
or strong flashlight
put egg over hole
in a dark room
shows up what is inside
That is, without a doubt, the dearest dog I have ever seen. What a winning disposition. I’m sure I couldn’t resist him at all. Plus, I mean, you gotta love a guy that throws himself running into your arms. Celi, do tell, what is your tornado plan? Do you have one? (You seems to have plans for most everything…) Where would you take shelter? I thought about you all when Moore, OK was hit so hard. Those poor people. Wonder how they’re getting on.
Does that make a flooded cellar an unlikely tornado shelter?
at the very least a damp one,and there is the risk of drowning down there .. however.. lets just not have a tornado, that would be a better option i think… c
I guess we would go into the basement or if i am outside into the root cellar, buthistorically the chances of a big tornado through here are slim, mind you it is a land of extremes.. c
Amazing – I thought they’d be blue with speckles, or something like that. Good luck with the straws 😉
I am madly in love with our little boy Blue! It is clear he would get away with murder if he lived here with me!
Oh C, so sorry to hear about the basement again – you know I feel your pain!
Hope you get some warm sunshine today.
🙂 Mandy xo
PS. I can’t stop scrolling up to look at the pic of Blue!
Some great pictures today, Cecilia. The portrait of the puppy is quite fantastic, but I love that last picture of Daisy sheltering under the tree.
I know you have a tornado shelter and a plan. You do, don’t you? We will all feel better when you share this information. Be safe!
I laughed out loud at your conversation with the breeder. Thanks for that! We had an elderly friend whose job it was to go around inseminating cows. Made for some entertaining conversation, I’ll tell you that!
I can’t wait to see what baby peahens/cocks look like!
Your boy Blue is adorable! I know he is learning fast and will be a very good dog when he settles down, but don’t we just love a Bad Boy!?
I used to love the movie True Grit when I was younger. My favorite Western at the time. I have a good feeling about this True Grit bull. 🙂
I do worry about you..tornados, flooding, water rising in the river..oh my! Do you have necessary precautions in place for the animals and yourselves…..we don’t want those pea-hen eggs floating down the river.
Stay dry, stay safe and lots of love
I loved your post today…I think your eggs are just fantastic and I love the smirk on your puppy!! We have day 5 of rain today and 4 more on the way! Sending dry, sunny thoughts your way!
Like Mad Dog, I thought the eggs would be blue with speckles (and not sure why, but I expected them to be smaller than hen’s eggs which is very silly). WIll the hens continue to sit on them for 28 days? Am asking becuase we put turkey eggs under a broody hen and the incubation is the same as a pean he and she wouldn’t stay on after hers had hatched – mind you, if you have several broody hens you can move them around. Blue looks sooooo naughty in that photo, like he’s giving you the “evil eye”…so funny!
I could move them around but she will only have pea eggs under her, it is all new to me too! c
OK, I am taking the writer’s perspective here this morning to commend you on this outstanding poetic sentence: Thunder roared like hell’s door was swinging open and slamming back in the gale.
Excellent creative writing. Just excellent.
that’s just what I thought. I often want to steal Celie’s prose for my poems!
I would give my eye teeth to be able to write like Celi (or either of you, for that matter). I also love the mental image of ‘someone special in a straw’. I suspect that will keep me smiling for the rest of today 🙂
Darling girls, I love it when you sit down for a chat in the Lounge! c
Like you, we’ve had a lot of rain in just a few days, and all the creeks and rivers are raging. Fortunately we have sump pumps in the basement!
I have chicks hatching today! We have 18 chicks so far and this hen had 12 eggs, I think. Two more setting on 8 each and a banty setting on 6 very big eggs. Trying to produce as much chicken as I can so I don’t have to buy it from the store. And replace some of my older layers this year. That Blue is something else. What a face! Have a great day, Celi!
Excellent thinking, i am not so good at the dispatching! c
That Blue is quite the charmer! I learned so much here today…how to keep hens from being broody and what that means anyway, the very little difference between a chicken egg and a peahen egg, and straw breeding…who knew this stuff? Fascinating. Please, no tornadoes at your house!