A few years ago we acquired from my father a male India Blue Peacock. He was awesome with his colorful plumage. We got the bright idea that he was lonesome with his boisterous calls. We went to the paper and found a white female so we purchased her and the rest is history.
After a couple of years we had eggs! Oh boy now what do we do? Do we let her set on them or incubate them? We also had some ducks laying so I gathered all the eggs and put them in the incubator.
We tended those eggs for several weeks making sure the water was just right and the heat was just right. Turning them twice a day. We even learned how to candle the eggs. We made a crude gadget out of an empty toilet paper roll and a flashlight. It was a miracle we could see life in the eggs.
One evening when I was at work my husband paged me and I returned the call on my break. He was so excited! He told me about the new baby duck and that he was taking it to bed with him. I could hardly wait to get home to see this new baby that we actually hatched out.
When I got home there he was in bed holding the baby and handing it to me. I took one look at it and laughed so hard. "This isn't a duck, it is a peachick" I said. Of course he couldn't stand the fact that he made a mistake. "I didn't think about looking at the feet, he said.
With all my expertise, (hahahahahaha) I decided that the baby was a female. We decided to call her April since she was born in that month. Since peachicks have to be taught how to eat and drink, I became mama and used my index finger to simulate a beak. I hard boiled eggs and crumbled them up with her crumbles along with cottage cheese and tomatoes. She loved food with color. When she got a little older I would take her outside and lift up rocks or boards to find bugs, when I picked at the dirt with my finger she would look and scarf up the bugs. Her favorite was the rolly polly bugs.
She spent most of her young life on my lap or my shoulder. Whenever I would put her in her cage she just cried (peep peep peep) so to get some sleep I let her sleep with me. She loved to sleep on my shoulder and snuggle under my hair. Needless to say I still didn't get much sleep because when I moved she would start peeping again. I had no idea that birds poop when they sleep! (YUK) so I had to wash sheets everyday. Finally when she was about 2 months old she decided she wanted to perch when she slept and has been sleeping on our dresser ever since. At last I got a full nights sleep.
I thought the gas station owners were going to die laughing when I would take April with me in my truck. She loved it when we took her to the Chuckwagon races in Clinton Arkansas she tried to perch on top of our tent, so I took my saddle rack and put it in the tent and she happily slept there with us.
You can't have her around anymore when you eat, she is right in your face trying to eat what you have. Her favorite food is cheese and her favorite drink is bourbon and coke or bourbon and water, go figure.
One day when she was sitting in the living room she threw up her tail feathers. To our amazement we discovered she was a he. So making that big mistake I thought it best if we changed her name to Al since it was similar to April and she knew her name. When he was about 8 months old I was comparing him to all the other birds and came to the conclusion that his tail feathers weren't near as long as the other males. After pondering for a few days I realized he truly was a she and began to call her April once again. Who would have thought a female raised their tail plumage like a male. She only does it now when she is trying to scare something, I can only assume it is to make her look bigger.
April has brought much joy and laughter to us. She loves to have her ears rubbed and her top notch feathers pulled on. It is so precious to see a usually untamable bird love you back!