Update on Penelope the Peahen

About a month ago we reported that Penelope, the peahen that wandered to our homestead and adopted us, was sitting on a clutch of eggs in a nest that she had made on top of our goat barn.  Peahen eggs take between 27 - 30 days to hatch.  We were pretty excited; however, we tempered that excitement due to the fact that we've never seen a peacock in the area.  Obviously, if there is no peacock, the eggs would not be fertilized and would not hatch.  We marked the days, realizing that we were probably about a week off, but we kept an eye on her.

She dutifully sat on her eggs, only getting up off them on rare occasions to eat or drink water.  I had gotten into the habit of throwing some rice on top of the barn for the old girl to eat.

Penelope's nest

Her four eggs were larger than a chicken's eggs, but were the same brown color as a Rhode Island Red or a Barred Rock lays.  As you can see, peahens don't go to any great effort in constructing an elaborate nest. They pretty much just lay them on the ground.

Not a fancy nest for her four eggs

Yesterday I noticed Penelope the peahen roaming around with the chickens.  That was not a good sign.  I climbed the gate to the goat barn so that I might have a closer look at her clutch of eggs.  Just as we were suspecting, the eggs must not have been fertilized.  There were a bunch of flies swarming around the nest and one of them was broken.  There was no development in the egg.  Just a stinky goo of rotten peahen egg.  I wasn't going to break the other three.  A stick had fallen on top of the nest and had not been cleared away. It would have been a nice experience to have her hatch out some pea chicks, but that's not going to happen.

Penelope's abandoned nest

So what will Penelope do?  Well, she likes hanging out with the chickens for one thing.  I think due to her size, she's assumed the top of the pecking order in the barnyard.  She asserts her regal position by 'lording' over her "subjects."  She likes to fly to the top of the hen house to have a good vantage point from which to observe all the happenings in the barnyard.

Penelope's favorite spot

Here's a closer look:

Penelope looking sharp!

Maybe, however, she's jealous of the fowl that sits atop the barn right adjacent to her and is auditioning for his job!  If so, she'd better swing around, because the wind was blowing gently from the south...

The rooster atop the barn

Get yer directions straight, Penelope!