How to Hatch Peacocks in an Incubator

The term "peacock" refers to the male of one of two species of peafowl widely known for its lavish tail plumage. The female, or peahen, is brown and doesn't display the courtship feathers like her mate. These relatives of the pheasant are sometimes kept as companion animals and can be hatched artificially in an incubator. Read on to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Poultry incubator
• Thermometer
• Wet bulb or hydrometer

1. Ready your incubator. Be sure it's clean. Set the temperature to between 99 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 60 percent. Adjust these settings by opening or closing air vents and adding water pans. Try to maintain a constant temperature in the incubator for 2 days before setting the eggs.
2. Prepare the eggs for setting. Mark the date you put them in the incubator on one side of the eggs with a pencil or crayon. Number the eggs.
3. Set the eggs with the date side up and the narrow end pointed slightly down.
4. Turn the eggs 180 degrees at least three times daily. Be sure that they're all always date side up or date side down. Turn them an odd number of times each day to be sure they don't rest on the same side every night.
5. Candle the eggs (that is, shine a bright light through the shell) after one week and record any development. If after 10 days you see no growth in an egg, it probably isn't fertile. Remove it so that it doesn't spoil and contaminate the incubator.
6. Stop turning the eggs at 28 days and increase the humidity to 90 percent. Let the peachicks hatch on their own whenever possible.