Peacocks: Post 13 - July 2026, hatchlings!
Updated: 2 days ago
12 July return from Chiang-Mai.
We returned from our holiday to Chiang-Mai to find all was well. There was still plenty of food and water in the hoppers, the hen was still brooding on her nest and all eggs were accounted for.
Telling the hens apart. Lucy and Susan.
It was around this point that I discovered a way to tell the two hens apart. Peafowl have an ornamental comb on top of their heads. It may also serve functional purpose but this is a matter of ongoing research. Now I noticed that the subtended angle of the comb for one hen was approximately 90 degrees and for the other more closer to 45 degrees. In other words for one the comb extended from 12 to 3 o'clock whereas for the other from 12 to 1:30.
Since we had no names yet for the hens I thought to name them based on their comb length. In keeping with the nonsensical naming of Mr Tumnus from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, we decided on Susan and Lucy. The longer name corresponding to the longer comb.
21 July 2026 - the eggs hatch successfully!
One week after being home I heard a cheeping in the garden and came to investigate.
Tiny little day-old chicks were being paraded around the enclosure by a very proud mother hen "Lucy".
Four of seven.
Three eggs did not hatch. The one that had been laid by itself behind the bamboo screen was probably never brooded on and remained dormant. I candled the other two and found that they did indeed have a chick inside but since the hen had left the nest and did not return to it they unfortunately did not hatch.
I've seen a few stories online posted from peacock owners who have struggled to have peafowl reproduce without using incubators. So I was delighted to have four successful hatchlings in our first season!
Mr Tumnus meets his chicks for the first time.
I was curious to see how the peacock and other hen would react to having the chicks around.
This next video shows him taking a curious interest in the new creatures in the enclosure - and right at the end he fends off the other hen. I'm not sure if it was him being protective of the chicks or if it just indicated a heightened sense of needing to impose the pecking order again due to the new arrivals.
Adult peacock and pea-chicks together?
I had read about potential aggression of cocks towards even their own young and the advice to separate them for the first few days to keep the chicks safe.
It isn't only the adult males either. The other hen also pecks at the chicks. However I definitely saw more aggression shown by the male.
I was thoughtful about what happens in the wild when humans don't interfere. Presumably the chicks don't all get slaughtered by their own father -- such a behavioural trait would literarily die out, and very quickly! So I spent a while with them all together and I just sat and watched to see how they behaved. I did see some occasional pecking - sometimes even from the mother! What looks vindictive to us may not be so for them. Perhaps more like "steering" the little chicks or herding them to keep them together and stop them wandering off.
I had also witnessed a very protective behaviour from the peacock towards the mother hen when she was brooding the eggs. He had taken a very keen interest in them and in her. He had followed her around like he was her shadow and even sat nearby and seemed to be guarding or patrolling. It would seem odd that, once hatched he would then turn on them and kill them.
I needed to get some food for the chicks. The nutrition from their egg lasts for quite a few hours but I didn't know what time of day they had hatched. Also, it was a hot summer day - hotter than it looks in the video. Chicks can die from exhaustion if they don't get food and water reasonably often. The adult feed is too big for them.
I left them and drove to the supply shop and returned about an hour later with a bag of crumb suitable for them.
Attacking the pea-chick.
I returned and to my dismay found one of the pea-chicks worse for wear. Sort of flat to the ground with a leg out behind it. I wondered if it had been trampled on. The peacock was pecking it and picking it up and tossing it about!
I don't have any video or photos of it because I was preoccupied with intervening and trying to save it.
It was making a lot of distressed cheeping and was clearly exhausted. I wondered if it had a broken leg. The mother hen did not seem to show concern at the behaviour of the male. It certainly did not "protect" its chick or put itself between the chick and the peacock.
Rescue.
I found a box and gathered the limp pea-chick into the cardboard box where I put a small dish of crumb and a small dish of water. I hoped to at least alleviate any distress from it being attacked and violently killed, even though I suspected it probably wouldn't survive if it had a busted leg or wing.
I tried putting the box in a few quiet locations, but the distress of being separated from its mother (who was calling for it) seemed to be heightening the frantic little thing's exhaustion rather than calming it.
It became apparent that more than anything both the chick and the mother wanted to be together. I took the box into the aviary and all the birds followed me in. I expelled Mr Tumnus and the other peahen and lay the limp sorry looking chick on the ground next to its mother hen. It was unable to move itself to go underneath her wings and just cheeped. The cheeping was calmer and less than when it was in the box though. I put the small tray of crumb and the water close to the limp chick. I went to make myself a cup of tea and wondered what would become of it. Sad to lose a chick on the first day, and to what? Had the male intentionally attacked its own chick to try and kill it and perhaps broken its leg? Had it been trampled on accidentally by its own mother? Was the male just trying to "fix" it - like kind of "hey, it's not safe to just lay on the ground! Get up little thing and run to your mother!" Was it's leg definitely broken? What about its wing?
Recovery. I checked up on the chick an hour later and found it wasn't yet dead. It had perked up a little.
I made sure they remained isolated in the aviary with plenty of food and water and checked on them every few hours.
By the end of the day the chick had gone from presumed dead, to hobbling precariously, to looking in with a chance.
After two days the chick was perfectly fine. I came to the conclusion that it had never had a broken leg or broken wing. It had just been flat out exhausted and dehydrated. It has been so exhausted and dehydrated that it didn't have the strength and coordination to tuck its own legs under itself and hold its posture normally and had laid with one leg sprawled out - but not broken. After a little rest in the shade and some water it had been able to just about stand and walk very wobbly towards its mother. After a full night sleep and digestion it began the road to normal function and so on.
Continue to keep them separate? No.
At night time I had to let the adult birds in to roost. Also after a few days I had to decide whether to reintroduce them again or continue to keep them separate. Once the little guy was showing enough strength and fitness to run about I decided to let them follow their instincts and no longer keep them separated. After all there are plenty of shrubs, logs, and obstacles in the aviary and run for the chicks to duck under if being chased by an adult. And I hadn't witnessed any prolonged chasing.
I didn't witness any further incidents. Certainly no more flinging them around. The usual pecking was quite common from the adults but mother hen didn't seem at all bothered - if she had been concerned she might have lead them to the far end of the run to keep them out of danger - but she didn't. She lead them to be with the other adults. She wasn't bothered by them getting pecked.
Good cop, bad cop?
I have come to the conclusion that most pecking looks worse than it is. I've never witnessed any pecking that drew blood. Ever. I've never witnessed prolonged chasing or hunting. Pecking definitely increases during feeding times. When I reflect on the first day or so of the hatchlings lives I have the following theory: Mother is good cop and Father is bad cop. This routine maximises survival of the chicks. Mother constantly leads and calls them. Father rounds and herds any stragglers and actively chases them or pecks at them to encourage them to learn to run to Mother, to run fast and to learn fast. I think this is why it "attacked" the dehydrated chick. It was doing the "you need to run to mother!. get up! .. run!" routine but unfortunately the chick was dehydrated and totally exhausted.
Time for a nap.
Frequently in the first few days, mother hen would decide it was nap time. Often she would scrape or find a small depression to sit in and other times like in this video she'd just sit on the flat ground and the chicks would race to dive in and snooze. Sometimes naps would be as short as just five minutes at a time.
Roosting for chicks.
From memory I think it took around two weeks before the chicks could fly up to the perch and roost in the safety of the high branch. For the first week the mother roosted on the ground with the chicks under her. For the second week the mother roosted on top of the rabbit hutch and the littlest chick at first struggled to fly up to it and were quite distressed. The mother capitulated for the first day or so and relocated back to the ground. After the rabbit hutch the mother roosted up on the high branch and the chicks almost exhausted themselves trying to fly up and join her. The little guy didn't make it and after repeated failure it was clear he was getting exhausted and failing by further and further margins so I lifted him up to join them. He tottered on the branch and got shoved off by one of the others whilst trying to get under the mother's wing. I had to help him out a good few times and for a couple of days before he was strong enough.
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