Thanks for the Memories, Penelope...

Born: ?  Died 04/25/2016

We have some sad news to report today.  Just yesterday in a post we talked about eating 4 of Penelope the Peahen's eggs for breakfast.  This afternoon Benjamin was picking dewberries on the side of the road and came across Penelope.  She was dead - apparently the victim of a motor vehicle accident.  Benjamin came back to the house and told him mom.  We were sad.  Poor old gal.

She was just a big old bird, but she had been around for, I guess, about 3 years now and we had grown attached to her.  Her formal name was Penelope, but lots of times, I'd call her "P," for short. She was quirky and had a neat personality.  Penelope looked regal with her 'headdress.'  She'd fly over the fence and strut around the yard, walking like an Egyptian, we'd joke. As we drove to church yesterday morning, we looked out and she was strutting across the neighbor's side yard.  We made up a silly song about her and laughed at her wandering ways. 

She would come and go as she pleased.  We didn't purchase her - she kind of purchased us.  She just showed up one day and stayed around.  In the evenings she would fly to the very top of either a live oak tree or a pecan tree and roost for the night, safe from predators.  Although we live in what I would say is "the country," the blacktop road in front of the house is a busy road, with people coming and going and driving quite fast - too fast, to be honest.

Penelope got a little too brave for her own good and got out on the road.  Poor Penelope wasn't prepared for the vehicles that speed up and down the road and met her cruel ate.  We'll miss that big old goofy bird.  Thanks for the memories, P!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Can You Eat a Peacock Egg?

Of course not!  Peacocks don't lay eggs.  They are males.  If I correctly phrase the question to, "Can you eat the egg of a peahen?" well, then the answer is, "Of course you can!"  Penelope the Peahen lays between 4 - 8 eggs each year and because we don't have a peacock, they are not fertile.  In prior years she would set on them and it was a little futile watching her dutifully sit on her eggs when none were going to hatch.

Penelope the Peahen

This year we decided to go ahead and pick up her eggs.  They are noticeably larger than our chickens' eggs.

Here is a comparison that shows Penelope's egg on the left and one of our hens' eggs on the right.

In a week's time, Penelope laid four eggs and we picked each of them up.  She laid them in the grass, just out on the ground.  In prior years she laid her eggs on top of the flat roof of the goat barn.

Four peahen eggs

So, back to our original question, Can you eat them?  Yes, according to what I've read, they taste no different than chicken eggs, but we're going to find out this morning for breakfast.  I cracked her four eggs into a glass container to scramble them along with one chicken egg to show a comparison in size of the yolks.  You can see that a peahen's yolk in much larger.  I found in cracking her eggs, that the eggshell was harder than that of a chicken egg and the underlying membrane was harder to break. The yolk seemed to comprise a bigger percentage of the egg as opposed to a chicken egg.

Four peahen eggs and one chicken egg

Tricia sauteed some mushrooms, peppers and onions in a skillet.

And I scrambled the peahen eggs, adding some fresh ground pepper and kosher salt.

Scrambling up Penelope's eggs

When the vegetables were ready, we poured the peahen eggs in the skillet and cooked until done.

We were a little cautious at first in trying a new thing.  What would it taste like? Would it have a strong, wild taste?  We weren't sure, but we soon found out.  They were good!  We couldn't really distinguish a taste any different from our chicken's eggs.  We could get used to eating peahen eggs.  With the large size of them, it takes fewer of them to feed our family.  The only problem is that with Penelope only laying between 4-8 eggs a year, we'd best not count on Penelope to feed us.  We'll stick with chicken eggs.

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!

Penelope's Surprise

Penelope is the name that we have given to the peahen that adopted us.  She just showed up one day and has never left.  I was going to try to catch her and ask around the neighborhood to see if anyone's missing a bird, but I can't catch the old girl.  You oughtta see her fly!  She has a magnificent wingspan and can fly to the top of the tallest tree.

Usually when I throw the chickens rice to eat, Penelope swoops down from her treetop roost and dines with the hens.  They don't like her much, but she is twice their size, so they can't do much about it.  The other day when I didn't see Penelope, I thought she had moved back to her primary dwelling, wherever that may be. Russ told me, however, that she was on top of the goat barn.  You can see her looking regal below.  She's a very patriotic bird, just in time for the Fourth of July!  Maybe she things she's a Bald Eagle...

Patriotic Peahen

When she didn't come to eat with the hens and sat on top of the barn, I wondered what was going on and so I sneaked up to take a peak.  As skittish as she is, she let me get real close, for some reason and I was wondering if something was wrong.

Sitting in her spot atop the goat barn

She is a nice looking bird with a very fancy headdress.  One thing about her that is different from a hen is that she has long spurs on her legs just like a rooster.  I would think that she can protect herself with those things, but her first inclination is to fly.

Fancy hair-do

But then it hit me, I bet she's sitting on some eggs!  I read that it takes 28 days to hatch out baby peafowl. Do you know how many eggs a peacock lays in a year? None.  Peacocks are male and don't lay eggs. (Trick question)  I learned that a peahen will lay up to six eggs a year and only once during the mating season.  What a difference from chickens.  Hens lay upwards of 200 per year, but peahens only six. Those eggs are some expensive eggs!!

Penelope's nest egg?

Well, Penelope finally got up and revealed that she was indeed setting on four eggs! The information on peafowl said that peahens lay their eggs on the ground right out in the open and thus, the eggs are prone to be destroyed by predators.  At least she's on the top of the barn, but the nest is out in the weather.  Oh well.

Four peafowl eggs

What a surprise!  The only downside is this: I haven't seen a peacock in the area.  If there is no male these eggs will be infertile and won't hatch out any baby peafowl. What a waste.  Perhaps Penelope travels and has a mate somewhere that we just haven't seen, but I kind of doubt it.  We'll watch her and the nest for the next four weeks.  I read where peahens will sit on infertile or rotten eggs long after the 28 days have passed, so it is best to remove them if they don't hatch in 28 days.  We'll just have to wait and see.  Patience is, after all a virtue and we will report back on Penelope's progress.