Bearded guinea fowl ?

[averygeo]

Back in the early 80's I noticed a mutation in my guinea flock at the time. At least 8 birds in the flock of 30 had beards. By 'beard' I mean what had the appearance of a small bagworm dangling from under the chin on the mature birds. I knew turkeys had beards, although on their breasts, but had never heard of such a thing on guinea fowl. This was before the time of digital cameras, and easy web communication and unfortunately I never took any pictures of them. I am unsure if it was only the males or if both sexes had them and my regret to this day is that I was ignorant to what a unique bird I had. I purchased those eggs from a farmer in a neighboring town and those birds and any related to them have long ago passed away from old age and predation. In the years since I have not heard of nor seen this phenotype again in guinea fowl. I wonder if that farmers flock somehow crossed with another related bird species? It is an image I will never forget of those birds running about with little feathered beards swinging under their chins. My question is has anyone ever heard of this trait in guinea fowl?

 

[BarbaraNH]

I've never heard of a beard on a guinea fowl, although I do remember seeing a picture of a guinea from Africa that had some dotted feathering that seemed to be hanging from its lower beak/neck area. I have searched for that picture on the Internet, but I cannot find it again. I was hoping I could find the picture so you could compare it to what you had seen in your flock. If I do find it, I'll be sure to post a link in this thread.

 

[PeaChick C]

What color were the beards? Some of our guineas has bags of loose skin under their chin that are nearly electric neon blue. But I would not call them a beard... More like a droop.