In
spending every minute of every day for 15 years taking care of the
birds,
you can learn a lot. Working with the different colors (a lot of
them
new to all of us) it seems you are always having to use young males
to
hurry things along. By the time he is an adult, you don't need
him,
you
need his progeny. There have been several studies on how peahens
prefer
peacocks with more eyes. This I don't doubt. For this reason
hens
will refuse service from a 2 year old male, and will lie down next to a
fence
if there is an older cock in the next pen. I believe hens also
prefer
males with more iridescence. I have seen hens refuse service from
adult
Whites and Cameos, being attracted to Blue, Green, etc., in
adjacent
pens.
I have seen juvenile males breed as young as 4 mounts old, though I
doubt
they were fertile. The important thing is for a male to dominate
his
pen.
A lot of breeders put their birds in large flight pens in the off
season.
Some turn them loose altogether, and put them in their breeder
pens
just before breeding season. I have found it best to keep a 2 year
old
cock in the breeder pen all winter, with his hens, and to never have
him next
to
an adult male. Putting him in with a bunch of adult males does
nothing
for his ego. If you must put him next to an adult male, some
kind
of 'blind' or screen is helpful.
By using this method I have had great success. I have had pens
where every
egg
was fertile from a 2 year old male. Another thing I have done is
to
put
early hatch yearling hens in a pen with an appropriate male. I have
found that
about
one out of 10 or 12 will produce if she is fed a breeder feed. You
surely
can't count on yearlings, but it is a real surprise when you get
something
special from them. I'm referring to India Blue, and the
various
colors, not Javas. Javas take longer to mature, and you will be
lucky
if they do lay in 2 years.
Good luck with your hatching!
Kenneth Piercy
Von Russell Farm
02/10/07