Peacocks: Post 12 - June 2026, our first Eggs.
June 2026 - first eggs.
We had a holiday to Chiang-Mai planned for the first week of July. I had noticed Mr.Tumnus get jiggy with the hens in May and now in June the hens laid their first eggs.
It was an interesting process to watch because the hen that was about to lay would spend the bulk of the day normally (or perhaps resting more than normal) but become agitated towards evening with what became the pattern of laying an egg around 7pm just before going up to roost for the night.
The hen would be very agitated searching relentlessly up and down the enclosure for somewhere suitably private and away from the other two birds where it would be safe to lay the egg without being seen.
Initially she didn't succeed in finding anywhere suitable. Also the peacock had become incredibly protective of the laying hen and would follow her like he was her shadow and this really presented a problem because she wanted privacy.
I attempted to make nest boxes of straw in different places such as in the aviary at ground level, in the rabbit hutch slightly raised, on top of the hutch at waist height. Out in the run. But nothing seemed to meet her approval and she would walk to and fro along the netted borders for the last two hours of the day getting increasingly agitated as presumably it became harder to hold the egg in.
Our first egg.
Unfortunately this lead to her giving up on a nest site and going up to roost with the other two and eventually releasing it from the perch 8ft above the ground where it would smash on the floor.
She would then be a couple of days off and then on day three have another egg to lay. Or possibly it was the other hen. At this point I had not yet figured out how to tell the hens apart.
Either way it was generally a pattern of 1 egg every three days.
I spent quite a while watching and researching and in the end figured the hen was obsessed with bushes it could see through the netting but couldn't get to. Therefore she would walk up and down at the borders of the enclosure closest to the bushes or undergrowth which she thought would make for a private nest site.
Fake hedge/nest.
So I tried creating an artificial hedge or screen at the back of the run, and also a bamboo screen. The former having a "roof" or canopy making a sort of natural tunnel for her to walk through. The latter being just a bamboo privacy screen with no such roof. I was experimenting with providing something that she wouldn't feel trapped inside.
She immediately took an interest in the hedge tunnel and began exploring it but refused to use if for another couple of eggs until i thinned the canopy a little. This seemed to hit the mark and she then laid an egg inside it but abandoned it to go and roost with the other birds.
Mr.Tumnus and the other hen were incredibly curious about her strange behaviour and this new strange egg thing.
'Abandoning' the eggs.
We now had eggs being successfully laid in the nest site, but at this time she would abandon the laid egg and roost in the usual perch with the other two birds. The following morning she would take no interest in the nest or egg and not return to it.
I did not know that this is normal behaviour - they do this - they abandon the egg(s) intentionally until there is a sufficient number of them in the nest to be worth the risk of brooding on them. Apparently an egg at this stage is dormant and can be left for quite a few days without compromising it.
In my ignorance I was lifting the "abandoned" eggs and having them for breakfast! I must have lifted and eaten at least three and had one in the fridge at the point that I learned this fact.
When I realised what was happening I took the egg back out of the fridge and placed it back in the nest hoping that it might still be viable. Over the week she did indeed return to lay eggs alongside it in the nest until there were 6 or 7 eggs in the nest.
Brooding.
With a clutch of 7 eggs in the nest (possibly not all her own - both hens might have contributed) she decided it was worth brooding on them.
It was interesting to observe that she would opt to sit on the laid egg outside all day and all night come wind and rain rather than go in and shelter or perch with the others.
She sat night and day 24 hours a day on the nest for a solid month. Only leaving the nest for five or ten minutes a day in order to defecate and to eat. At this point she would run around to stretch her legs and give her wings a good flap. She'd eat and drink quite frantically like she was clearly on a mission and then return to the nest.
Mr.Tumnus was very attentive during this period and would regularly go and sit outside the artificial tunnel to be close to her or otherwise patrol regularly to keep an eye on her.
All in all, she started brooding on them around 24 June prior to our departing for Chiang-Mai. She ending in mid July after our return.
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