A lot of people ask; how often do peacocks lay eggs? First of all, peacocks are males - it’s peahens that lay eggs! Peahens do not lay eggs in their first year, after they reach maturity, during a breeding season they lay an egg every 2-3 days on average and around 20-30 in total.
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When Do Peafowl Start Laying Eggs?
Peahens reach maturity at around two years old. They will not lay eggs within the first 1-2 years until they are mature. Although, depending on the time of year some may start laying before they reach two years of age.
Peacocks, on the other hand, reach maturity a little later at around three years of age. You will be able to tell when a peacock is mature, as their tail feathers or train will be fully developed.
There’s no mistaking when a peacock has a fully developed set of tail feathers!
It’s a little more difficult to pinpoint the age of a female if you’ve not raised them yourself. They do develop their train of feathers too and by the age of two will have most of their tail feathers.
Breeding season typically starts in early spring. So, depending on where you live and when the weather starts turning into spring, that’s when a peahen is most likely to start laying.
Related - Here is a closer look at the differences between peacocks and peahens (with pictures).
What Month Do Peacocks Lay Eggs?
In the US, climates vary across the country but for most of us, spring typically starts in March.
Peahens will start laying eggs anywhere around March-April depending on the weather, and you should then start finding one egg every other day in their nest.
If you leave their eggs, they will build up a clutch of 6-8 eggs and go broody. Going broody means they’ll start to sit on their eggs to incubate and hatch them.
If you take their eggs each day, this will stop a peahen from going broody and keep a steady flow of fresh eggs coming.
Peahens will continue to lay eggs until the end of summer, so around August time for most of us. During this breeding season, they tend to lay in cycles. Typically 4-6 weeks at a time before taking a break for a week or so.
How Many Eggs Does a Peahen Lay in a Year?
Peahens are not prolific egg layers by any means. They only lay between March-August, and tend to go through 2-3 breeding cycles when they lay eggs.
If you keep on top of collecting their eggs so they do not go broody and stop, you can expect somewhere in the region of 20-30 eggs in a year.
It’s really hard to pinpoint a number though. There are a lot of other factors to take into account that will affect how many eggs they lay, such as living conditions, dynamics in their party, and so on.
What Do Peacock Eggs Look Like?
The most common species of peafowl, the Indian Blue Peafowl lays what’s called ‘buff white’ color eggs. Buff-white is more of a creme or off-white shade of white.
It’ll come as no surprise that they are visibly bigger than other eggs we commonly see, like chicken or duck eggs - because peafowls are much bigger birds!
The Green Peafowl’s eggs are more pure white in color. While the rarer of the three main species, the Congo Peafowl also lays buff-white eggs with brown freckles.
How Much Are Peacock Eggs Worth?
If you’re thinking about raising peafowl and selling their eggs for profit, you can make a lot of money if you’re able to find buyers.
First of all, it depends if you’re selling eggs to be eaten or hatching eggs for specific breeds. For general Indian Blue eggs to be consumed (one peahen egg makes a delicious omelet) I’ve seen prices ranging anywhere from $10-40.
For hatching eggs, I just took a look while researching this article and can see specific species like Indian Blue, Black Shouldered, White, Opal, etc all going for different prices ranging anywhere from $20-100+.
The most reliable and best price I found was on Cackle Hatchery. This is the online hatchery where I buy all of my poultry, so I’m always happy to recommend them.
They are a family-run business and stock hundreds of different varieties of poultry. Their staff are very knowledgeable and always happy to answer any questions, so I always tell people to reach out and speak to them if they’re uncertain about anything.
Related - Here’s a closer look at where peacocks sleep and how long they’re expected to live.
How Long Is Peacock Breeding Season?
When the breeding season starts for peafowl will differ slightly depending on the weather and climate where you are.
Generally speaking, however, you can expect peafowl to be in breeding season from around March to August spanning the spring and summertime.
During this period, peahens tend to go through 2-3 breeding cycles. This means they will lay for around a month, then take a break for 7-10 days, before starting to lay again.
I can tell you one thing for sure, finding a peahen egg during the winter months is pretty much unheard of.
You’ll notice they start laying less frequently towards the end of summer as they ‘wind down’ before stopping until the following spring.
Conclusion
Now you know, first of all, despite most people referring to peacocks as being the ones that lay eggs, peacocks are males and do not lay eggs.
It’s the females, which are called peahens that lay eggs.
As for how many and how often they lay eggs; you can expect a peahen to typically lay around 20-30 eggs between the months of March and August.
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Image credits - Image by UmmePhotos from Pixabay
