Can you sex my Peas please

[lorrir]

]

Here are my three Peafowl that I have raised since chicks, I recently caught the gray one fanning his feathers. I think the are all males but would like confirmation. I you could also add the proper name for their coloring. I think I have one spalding, one gray shoulder and one white?????

 

[Kev]

"Gray" one is a Black shoulder female. The one in first picture is a Blue Pied female. Whites are harder to sex, having to wait until they are fully grown(in body size).. white males are simply bigger/taller with longer and thicker legs and toes. If the white one is exactly same age as the other two(within a week), due to size it might be a female. But best to wait until they are 6-8 months(or up to a year if you really are not sure) and see if it stays the same size as the other or finally gets much bigger if male. Also look at legs and toes.. if the toes seem as skinny or as short as your other two hens.... could be a female.

Fanning has nothing to with sex, both boys and girls do it. Does not matter if one seems to do it a lot, or one does it rarely.. some girls fan a lot, some boys rarely fan.. etc.

The good news for having all three girls is you will have a much easier time getting a single male than trying to get females.

 

[lorrir]

Thanks, I have been reading the posts on the Peafowl forum, can you tell me what makes a blue pied peafowl. Is it the blue around the neck. I heard the blues were not cold hardy, I live in area that rarely gets more than a couple of weeks of freezing temperatures.

 

[Kev]

It's the Greens that are not cold hardy. Yours will do fine as they look either pure Blue blooded, and if they have spalding blood, they only have a little bit of it.

In Indians there is two main patterns- Blue or Black shoulder. Some people like to use "barred wing" or "solid wing" respectively.. but it is the same thing, just some people trying to be more descriptive. Blue hens have a solid colored body with some green on neck. Black shoulder hens are mostly white with varying degrees of gray/black- just like your "Gray" girl.

So for example an Indian that is Pied can be either Pied in the Blue pattern OR Pied in the Black shoulder pattern. Your Pied is a Blue because she shows the solid color pattern in her colored areas. If she were a Black shoulder, she would look like your Gray, except with distinct patches of solid white over this pattern.

For another way of visualization.. look at a picture of a Blue hen. Now imagine spray painting patches of solid white on her. The areas that didn't get sprayed still shows the same color as any Blue hen. That's "why" she is a Blue Pied.... the Pied gene essentially does exactly the same thing- it simply prevents various areas on body from showing color, so these areas come out white.

For a Black shoulder Pied.. do the same, except look at a picture of a Black shoulder and spray patches of solid white on them... presto, Pied Black shoulder. (your Black shoulder doesn't show any of the Pied patterning though)

The two patterns can be combined with the various color genes.

 

[deerman]

Agree with the sex, two hens. Blue pied , and Blue Blackshoulder. Colors are name for the color of the male. Blue hen will have green neck.

Blackshoulder is a pattern, and do come in many colors same with pieds.

Reason people are wanting to call Blackshoulder ,soild wing. Blues have soild blackshoulders(first color in this pattern). Other color will not, like Purple Blackshoulders have soild brown shoulder, opal and charcoal blackshoulder will have soild silver grey shoulders.

So all blackshoulder do have soild color shoulder, but not all are black.