Color Genetics in Guineas?

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JLeigh said:
PeepsCA, I read somewhere recently that you can tell the gender of a guinea by the width of their pelvic bones through an external examination. Is that true? (Not that I want to do that. I can't imagine the injuries I would get from that struggle LOL.)
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I don't know, I've never tried that method... I saw it mentioned a while back but I never have any major issues sexing my Guineas so I didn't read up on it.

I'm assuming the Hens would need to be at or near laying age to have the wider width between the pelvic bones? If that's the case, at that point/age I can usually already tell what sex they are just by posture/mannerisms, waddles and their calls.

If this method is used on keets of a certain age (like before the Hens start buck-wheating) I'm not sure how accurate it would be, because depending on the bloodline I have some birds that grow out at different rates than the others do and some that also have a different body build... so it may not be a reliable method
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With only the one Coral Blue male in that mix technically you should get Coral blues, Lavenders and Royal Purples in your hatches...(assuming you collect a mix of all their eggs).

The full pearling of the Lavender Hen will be dominant over the Coral Blue male's partial pearling, and the Royal Purple Hen's color will be dominant over the Coral Blue male's color, then of course the Coral Blue bred with the Coral Blue will result in Coral Blue keets.

But other colors can/may show up depending on what hidden recessive genes they all carry.
 
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That's what we were thinking. The females should only have chicks that are the same as they are. The coral blues carry two blue genes and two partial pearling genes. The lavender carries two blue genes and one or two partial pearling genes. The royal carries one or two pearl grey genes and two partial pearling genes. So the male Xs coral blue hen = one blue gene and one partial pearling gene from each so keets would be coral blue. Male Xs lavender hen = one blue gene from each so keets would be blue but if she carries two pearling genes then all keets would be lavenders that carry the partial pearling gene also. If she has one pearling gene and one partial pearling gene the she would produce both coral blues and lavenders. Male Xs royal purple hen = all keets being pearl grey that carry the blue gene unless she also carries another color gene other then pearl grey. If she carries blue she could produce blue keets If any other color then it would depend on what color. Her keets would all be partial pearled. Is all of that right? I do understand this is all in theory because sometimes mother nature throws us a curve ball just to remind us that when we have it all figured out that we still have more to learn. Thanks
 
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midwest said:
Quote: That sounds about right, except the Lavender has (or should have) 2 copies of the fully pearled gene. Assuming the bird is a purebred Lavender and that all the birds in her blood line for generations and generations back were as well... which may be the case for keets from the guinea farm, but this is rarely the case from any typical back yard flock. (Especially mine, lol).

Pearl Grey isn't one gene, a combo of the grey color genes and the fully pearled genes results in Pearl Grey... the pearling genes and the color genes are in separate places on the chromosome.

In the hatches from your hypothetical combo of purebred birds, the keets from the Coral Blue X Lavender won't have 2 copies of the partial pearled gene and Coral Blue X Royal Purple won't have 2 copies of the blue color gene... keets will get one color gene and one pearling gene from each parent, and the dominant genes in each case will determine their Phenotype.

And yes, Mother nature does throw some curve balls... genes can mutate and produce surprises in the hatches. I've had that happen twice (none of my birds are anywhere near being purebreds tho lol, which is fine because I breed/hatch hoping for variety and I do not separate by color)... but after 4 generations of a flock consisting of Pearl Greys, Royal Purples and Buff Dundottes hatching out only these 3 colors I had 2 Lavenders show up (out of 300+ keets). I've also had 2 non-pearled keets show up from a mixed flock of fully pearled and partially pearled (and Pied) birds out of 780+ keets I hatched last year... and 1 more this year out of 575+ keets I hatched. My birds tend to switch mates, or share mates all season, lol, so I believe the genes mutated on their own and weren't just buried somewhere deep... otherwise it seems like more of these surprises would have shown up in the hatches.
idunno.gif
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How do you know all this stuff Peeps? Now I've got to get out a dictionary...hmmm, how do I spell phenotype...? lol. Luckily for me, I just want some cute fluffy keets. I have colors that please me, and will get what I get when I get them. That said, I am looking forward to Buff Pieds. All signs point to Yes in my magic 8 ball.
 
LOL JLeigh, I don't even know half of what I need to know. What little I do know I have gleaned from doing tons of reading (and re-reading) whatever I could about Guineas over the years (most of which did not sink in, lol), luckily for me I've met several helpful people along my Guinea journey that have a complete grasp on/understanding of how genetics work and they've explained certain things in terms I could understand, plus just from making observations in my own flocks and of their hatches over the years has helped things slowly start to sink in for me. But I still don't fully get all of it, nor can I explain all of it... which frustrates me to no end cuz I should know/understand all this stuff. (Science was sooooo not my favorite subject in school tho - blah phooey booooooooring snore snore). Sometimes I can read something 50 times, written or explained 50 different ways, and it won't sink in for me, but after I see it just once with my own birds BAM! it finally clicks for me. Other days I get cross eyed and a migraine from trying to get a grasp on something that I just can't wrap my tired brain around
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Quote:
Ya I just miswrote about the Lavender and her pearling genes. Their genetics can make my head spin. Hard enough to keep it straight let alone write it out. Thanks again
 
Midwest, genetics just makes my head spin, period. It's math, and I'm not at one with math (I'm at twos). I suppose if I was really interested in breeding specific colors, I'd be able to learn, but I'm not, so I don't plan on putting that bean up my nose, ya know? I have the utmost respect for those of you who DO know - respect and admiration!
 

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