Chocolates

[PeepsCA]

Quote: Pics, FINALLY!!!! Healthy, beautiful flock, congrats

And hush you take fine pics! Guineas are not the most easiest of birds to get pics of. Believe me, I know, lol. Plus I agree, digital cameras make taking pics of Guineas extremely difficult, I struggle with it every time. I click, they move, and "the perfect shot" is missed, Grrrr. If your camera has the "burst" option that can help a lot, it takes multiple pictures with one press of the shutter button.

The Buff Hen looks really good to me, a real pretty girl with some darker feathers mixed in here and there (IMO, she's probably got some Chocolate in her). Can't tell that she was ever smaller than the others, so pat yourself on the back for such an excellent job getting her caught up and all healthy like the rest of the flock! The dark Chocolate Hens of course you know I love love love

Your White I'm sorry to say tho... is not a White

I see pearling on the lower chest area and all along the flanks, and faintly on the back and upper wings too. Pure Whites have zero pearling at all. From the pics I'm not sure if the bird is partially pearled or fully pearled, since the base color is so light and the pearling is harder to see, plus it is still so young and younger partially birds still have a lot of pearling until they molt out of their last set of juvenile feathers.

So if it's just partially pearled it could be an Opaline (which would be good, resulting in more colorful hatches since it carries both the tan/brown and blue color genes) or it could be a really light Buff (that would be ok too, but the hatches probably won't be quite as colorful).

If it turns out to be fully pearled then it could be a Porcelain or a really light Buff Dundotte. (I'm leaning towards one of these fully pearled colors just from what I can see of it in the pics, but I can't tell which one without seeing pics of the feathers in better light, or in person tho). If it does turn out to be fully pearled and it is positively a male then a lot of the keets from whatever Hen or Hens he breeds will be fully pearled, if not all of them. (It may or may not be carrying the recessive partially pearled gene). How colorful the hatches will be will again depend on what color the bird actually is, and which recessive hidden genes it's carrying.

Is your Pearl Grey a Hen or male? Did you see any other birds from the flocks those 2 came from? Just curious what other color and pearling genes may be floating around in their background.

 

[PeepsCA]

Peeps what happens when the blondes are bred to the bronze?

I can't say for sure, I don't have any experience with those 2 colors being paired up to breed. IMO, you'll most likely get a majority of Bronze keets in the hatches, but their base color may be diluted. I doubt many, if any Blonde keets will show up tho, since Bronze is the dominant color. But never say never, you may get Blondes, and they may be darker than the parent, or other colors may pop up in the hatches too (and possibly fully pearled keets as well)... all depending on what's in each parent bird's genetic background. Unless you are dealing with truly pure bred Guineas that are proven to always breed true you can't rule out the possibility that there may be some surprises in the hatches. Even with perfect pure bred breeding stock Mother Nature can still have an effect on naturally occurring mutations tho, resulting in random colors that weren't expected.

 

[JLeigh]

Pics, FINALLY!!!! Healthy, beautiful flock, congrats

And hush you take fine pics! Guineas are not the most easiest of birds to get pics of. Believe me, I know, lol. Plus I agree, digital cameras make taking pics of Guineas extremely difficult, I struggle with it every time. I click, they move, and "the perfect shot" is missed, Grrrr. If your camera has the "burst" option that can help a lot, it takes multiple pictures with one press of the shutter button.

The Buff Hen looks really good to me, a real pretty girl with some darker feathers mixed in here and there (IMO, she's probably got some Chocolate in her). Can't tell that she was ever smaller than the others, so pat yourself on the back for such an excellent job getting her caught up and all healthy like the rest of the flock! The dark Chocolate Hens of course you know I love love love

Your White I'm sorry to say tho... is not a White

I see pearling on the lower chest area and all along the flanks, and faintly on the back and upper wings too. Pure Whites have zero pearling at all. From the pics I'm not sure if the bird is partially pearled or fully pearled, since the base color is so light and the pearling is harder to see, plus it is still so young and younger partially birds still have a lot of pearling until they molt out of their last set of juvenile feathers.

So if it's just partially pearled it could be an Opaline (which would be good, resulting in more colorful hatches since it carries both the tan/brown and blue color genes) or it could be a really light Buff (that would be ok too, but the hatches probably won't be quite as colorful).

If it turns out to be fully pearled then it could be a Porcelain or a really light Buff Dundotte. (I'm leaning towards one of these fully pearled colors just from what I can see of it in the pics, but I can't tell which one without seeing pics of the feathers in better light, or in person tho). If it does turn out to be fully pearled and it is positively a male then a lot of the keets from whatever Hen or Hens he breeds will be fully pearled, if not all of them. (It may or may not be carrying the recessive partially pearled gene). How colorful the hatches will be will again depend on what color the bird actually is, and which recessive hidden genes it's carrying.

Is your Pearl Grey a Hen or male? Did you see any other birds from the flocks those 2 came from? Just curious what other color and pearling genes may be floating around in their background.

I'm actually not that broken up if the White isn't a white, so you can safely come out from under the chair LOL. Because my understanding of genetics/colors is so limited (and I'm talkin' LIMITED) I didn't know when I wanted a white that a white would always breed pieds. I don't really want pieds, so it's good that I didn't get what I thought I wanted, because I ended up getting more of what I wanted without knowing it. Got it?

There's nothing wrong with pieds, and I've seen some pieds I'd love to have, but I don't want a lot of pieds in my keets. So - all is well. I simply like the very very light to white coloring, and I have that. Yea!!!! I would rather keets be more or less one color or another rather than pieds. I'll look at the white more closely and look for the pearling, and try to get some pictures closer up-er...er. . Please don't hold your breath . Are Chocolates still Chocolates if they're fully pearled? Hmmmm.....

I think the Buff will breed some beautiful keets with "W".

Seriously, though, I have what I have and they'll breed what they breed and I'll be happy. That's what counts, right? I'm not a pro and will never claim to be, and if anyone asks what the colors of the keets are I'll say, "I think it's a [fill in the blank]." Honesty is the best policy.

I'm almost 100% sure the pearl is a male and am 85% the "White" is a male. I've watched them all often, and in the midst of the Alarm Fests that the females like to organize, the PG and "W" never use the two syllable. I'm going to separate them tomorrow or Tuesday (Christmas Fun!) to see if I can back that up. The flock they both came from were all in the same pen, and I don't think any of them were hatched on the property. The owner wasn't sure how old they were. The "W" is younger by about two weeks I suspect, judging from the size and the casques. I'm thinking they're about 12 weeks old-ish. Hard for me to tell.

What was in their mixed flock were mostly PGs with some pieds. I don't recall seeing any lighter colors like Lavenders....but all their guineas looked healthy.

I'm off to scrutinize pictures! Happy Holidays, Peeps, and everyone reading this.

 

[JLeigh]

i am take it adding the black gene is not ideal

I'm jonesing for some Bronze guineas now, guineaguy. Look at that red! Just beautiful. I'm the one who is jealous!

 

[guineaguy]

well peeps the bronziest one is a rooster I'm almost sure the darker bronze is for sure a hen she started calling and doesn't shut up he is tight lipped doesn't utter a sound except ratatat scream. I asked because my blonde hen and the bronze hen follow him everywhere like puppies.

 

[guineaguy]

Fully pearled chocolate would be a brown that has amazing color!

 

[guineaguy]

Would like to do something with this bronze roo and bred for no black in him but keep the red and bronze color any ideas peeps? And also two semi pearled can produce full pearled?

 

[PeepsCA]

Fully pearled chocolate would be a brown that has amazing color!

Here's one of my Brown Hens, I have 5 more just like her (from the same clutch).

 

[PeepsCA]

Would like to do something with this bronze roo and bred for no black in him but keep the red and bronze color any ideas peeps? And also two semi pearled can produce full pearled?

Not sure what you mean, a Bronze with no black would basically be a dark Chocolate (like I breed), lol. Bronzes are a black/charcoal grey based bird... so I don't see how you can breed that out and have the bird still be considered a Bronze

Ralph Winter, or Dana Manchester would be the ones to ask about anything Bronze related.

And yes 2 partially pearled birds can produce fully pearled keets... of course there's fully pearled genes swimming around in their genetic make ups, but IMO the partially pearled genes have more probability of pairing up (more of the keets will be getting a copy of the partially pearled gene from each parent).

 

[guineaguy]

Guess In my observation in pics chocolates don't have the same Color on their back or necks as the bronze or the more red color they are two different colors even if their in the brown/buff color. Dana say spontaneous mutation is only way for rp's to come solid black so guess ill assume same in bronze.