color question again.

[JLeigh]

PICS! I GOT PICS! Really, Peeps, all you had to do was ask

. Anyway, I'm putting up seven because it seems a lot of people (myself included) like to have a comparison from one color to another, and also to have them graciously ID'd by Peeps. My "White" isn't really a white due to his pearling, and I think he's a very light Buff, but I'm still not sure. So, here's my small flock. I hope it clarifies some of the "what's a Blonde, Buff and Chocolate" question.

#1 - A comparison: Starting from bottom left, Chocolate (f), Pearl Gray (m), Buff (f), Light Buff (m), Chocolate (f), Chocolate (f)



#2 My Female Buff

#3 Another comparison: You can see the Buff in between two chocolates, with the Very Light Buff sorta "glowing" (lol) to the left of the Pearl Gray


#4 This is a good comparison of the Buff next to a Chocolate - there's a big difference.



#5 Very Light Buff (I think)


#6 Another of my Light Buff


#7 Light Buff again


Peeps, I hope you can confirm for me that the Buff female is in fact still a Buff and not a Blonde (not that it matters to me), and can also confirm that the Light Buff (male) is a Light Buff. I just thought the colors next to each other would help in ID'ing these guys.

THANKS!

 

[PeepsCA]

Wow, your birds are all grown up and beautiful now JL!!! (And har har har, I've been asking for new pics since they still had some fuzz of their heads, so zip it).

Your Buff Hen looks like a Buff to me, her splotches will most likely come and go with sun fade and molts.

Love love love your Chocolates, especially the darkest looking one. I see bustles that are starting to get big on a couple of them... that typically means eggs are soon to come with my Guinea pullets

Mr Whitey is fully pearled, ... and from what I can see in the pics he appears to be a super light creamy tan color under all those pearls.... which would make him an extra light Buff Dundotte. But if he has a real pale light grey base color then he's a Porcelain (I'm leaning towards Buff Dundotte tho). If you want to know for sure grab a handful of his flank feathers, yank them out and mail them to me, lol (J/K!).

Can't wait to see what he produces with all of your girls. I have one just like him, he's a full-time free ranger that has figured out how to dodge the great horned owls and my dogs in the back yard for the last 5 yrs in a row, lol. Tuff ol' bird, his name is Tuff Dundotte cuz he's earned it. he is also a bully and taunts my breeding flocks thru the wire every chance he gets.

The Pearl Grey (if it's male) should give you some Royal Purple keets from any of your girls, so you may want to keep him for a while and see how the hatches go.

Thanks for the pics, FINALLY!

 

[JLeigh]

I have looked and looked and looked and looked, ad infinitum, and I DON'T SEE FULLY PEARLED. But I trust you, I believe you and I obey the ID master (you) - he's an Extra Light Buff Dundotte. I sort of like that. "Extra Light".

He is one beautiful guinea, eh? At least I think so. Oh, and he's definitely male - I've separated him, listened, watched...he's DEFINITELY male. The other male Pearl Gray, who is a little older, harasses him so I have to give him his treats up on the perch where I took some of his pictures today. Don't worry, I have two feed and two water stations so he doesn't go hungry. . And the harassment is just chasing, so it's nothing to worry about - - yet.

He has no pale, light gray hue to him, so he's not a Porcelain. He does have that "creamy" look to him, though.

I'm very happy with them. The Chocolates are beautiful, and the Buff is my favorite I think, and the genetic mix will produce some beautiful keets. Can't wait. Are you saying I could find an egg any day now? Woohoo! I hope so.

 

[PeepsCA]

Well maybe not eggs any day.. but soon. I'll try to get some pics of my extra bustly girls tomorrow after they lay and I let them out to free range. I can always tell who is laying and who isn't, based on their bustle prevalence (especially this early in the season when day time temps are still cool, and not blistering hot yet which makes ALL the poor birds drop their wings and carry them more loosely against their body for better air flow/cooling).

And on your Buff Dundotte... I see pearling everywhere but his neck, chest and upper back area... (same shaped bib of non-pearled area that your Pearl Grey has). I guess I maybe have an extra trained eye, but I swear I see full pearling on him, lol. If he was just partially-pearled he'd more resemble your Buff Hen, minus the dark splotches. Hopefully he is also carrying the partially pearled gene in there somewhere, that way your hatches will be extra varied... and even give you some Blondes.

You may want to cage the Pearl Grey guy up for a few days at a time once the girls start laying, that way you will know for sure Mr Whitey is able to pass on his genes without competition, plus give him a bit of an ego/confidence boost. Otherwise the Pearl Grey's genes and bully attitude may dominate the hatches and the Buff Dundotte may only get to breed 1 Hen, on the sneak if he is lucky. You're going to need another coop/pen anyway to use as a grow-out pen... better get building, lol. (Sorry, snickering over here, but I know what's in store for you with your new flock, lol).

 

[kfacres]

Your hatches will definitely be interesting. Hope you have a great hatching season and hatch some new to you colors (that's my favorite part about hatching season!).

Isn't that the main reason we all raise guineas? Thrill of the unknown?

My lady tells me she's going to give me a 'chocolate' male to breed my two hens, we'll see. I've got the pen space.

These colors are all new to me, growing up it was white, lavender, pearl, and pied- that's it... I do remember a pied buff colored one once upon a time...

Thanks for the help with identity. Not that it really matters to me, but sure is nice to know.

 

[JLeigh]

PeepsCA wrote:

"You may want to cage the Pearl Grey guy up for a few days at a time once the girls start laying, that way you will know for sure Mr Whitey is able to pass on his genes without competition, plus give him a bit of an ego/confidence boost. Otherwise the Pearl Grey's genes and bully attitude may dominate the hatches and the Buff Dundotte may only get to breed 1 Hen, on the sneak if he is lucky. You're going to need another coop/pen anyway to use as a grow-out pen... better get building, lol. (Sorry, snickering over here, but I know what's in store for you with your new flock, lol)."

I already thought of the extra pen/coop as a grow-out.

LOL. Really - I did. I can also use it to brood up a bunch of keets at one time (in warmer weather) - - like 20 or 30 comfortably this time. I'll get a picture (bwahahahahahaha) of the brooder and show you what hubby has done. It's collapsible. It goes indoors and out, and doubles as a mini-coop in the grow-out pen. Did I tell everyone this already? If I need to pen the chickens, I can put keets in the chicken coop and the chickens in the pen. But my goal isn't to expand my flock . That I don't have the space for. I'll sell the keets.

I can easily put Mr. Gray in another area with a Chocolate female until Mr. White has his romantic opportunities with the other females. Or, after Mr. Gray has his opportunities, he can go to Leigh's Freezer Camp. Actually, after I get my first or second hatch from these two males, I'm going to re-home him. He's a good boy - just bossy. Mr. Whitey, on the other hand, is a love bubble - the underdog, and I've always loved the underdog.

I'm really excited about his hatching season.

 

[kfacres]

In general, how do the colors of the guineas tend to breed, as in dominate and recessive.

It's my understanding the grey is dominate, as is fully pearled, and pied is codominate. So, does that put everything else as recessive? Meaning, who knows what I'll get from my melting pot flock this year?

 

[JLeigh]

Isn't that the main reason we all raise guineas? Thrill of the unknown?

My lady tells me she's going to give me a 'chocolate' male to breed my two hens, we'll see. I've got the pen space.

These colors are all new to me, growing up it was white, lavender, pearl, and pied- that's it... I do remember a pied buff colored one once upon a time...

Thanks for the help with identity. Not that it really matters to me, but sure is nice to know.

I'm like you kfacres - I have the colors I like, and they'll do what they do, and I'll be happy about it. But the color variations I've learned about in the past year is incredible - there are so many. I thought there was Pearl Gray, Royal Purple and Lavendar. LOL. I've learned a lot from PeepsCA and looking at online pictures. Now I have Chocolates, Buff Dundotte, Buff and a Pearl Gray. Can't wait to see what keet colors I get.

 

[PeepsCA]

In general, how do the colors of the guineas tend to breed, as in dominate and recessive.

It's my understanding the grey is dominate, as is fully pearled, and pied is codominate. So, does that put everything else as recessive? Meaning, who knows what I'll get from my melting pot flock this year?

Yes, the base color of Pearl Greys (and Royal Purples and Violets) is dominant over all other base colors. Typically other darker colors are always dominant over the lighter colors. And yes the fully-pearled gene is dominant over the partially-pearled and non-pearled genes.

The Pied gene is incomplete dominant, it only takes 1 copy to produce a % of Pied keets. So a Pied Guinea bred to a non-Pied Guinea will produce 50% Pied keets and 50% non-Pied keets (if all the eggs hatch in the clutch), and if you breed 2 Pieds together you get 50% Pied keets, 25% non-Pied keets, and 25% pure White keets (again, if all the eggs hatch). I have too many Pieds and Whites that are allowed to breed with each other I have never proven this with my hatches. I do hatch a LOT of Pieds and quite a few pure Whites tho.

Guineas can be carrying lots of hidden recessives genes (both color and pearling), so surprises can show up in the hatches. And dark, fully pearled Guineas can hatch any assortment of keets, depending on which particular genes they are carrying. (I started with all Pearl Greys 7 years ago, and they hatched out Pearl Grey and Royal Purple keets, then a few Buff Dundottes the next year and a couple Lavenders have shown up out of the hatches too, from a flock of only Pearl Greys and Royal Purples). Unless you have started from scratch and bred the birds yourself/know their lineage then you just never really know what the typical back yard flock of Guineas is carrying in their background, but their hatches can clue you in.

 

[kfacres]

Guineas can be carrying lots of hidden recessives genes (both color and pearling), so surprises can show up in the hatches. And dark, fully pearled Guineas can hatch any assortment of keets, depending on which particular genes they are carrying. (I started with all Pearl Greys 7 years ago, and they hatched out Pearl Grey and Royal Purple keets, then a few Buff Dundottes the next year and a couple Lavenders have shown up out of the hatches too, from a flock of only Pearl Greys and Royal Purples). Unless you have started from scratch and bred the birds yourself/know their lineage then you just never really know what the typical back yard flock of Guineas is carrying in their background, but their hatches can clue you in.

That I have found, with my either Violet, or slate colored female-- coming from a buff dundottle and pearl pair...

So, really-- I can expect about anything from these birds-- awesome...

I think that is what fasicnates me most about guineas-- all the colors-- and when they are chasing-- they just blend together. They're so easy to raise-- too.

We;ve had guineas around here for close to 20 years now probably...

One more question, with your more recessive colored birds, do you find that they tend to breed their colors on truer, especially when backcrossed to a parent known to carry that hidden trait?

I'm wondering if my Violet or slate female, if bred back to her sire-- would make more of the same color on a larger scale than if not... Would she, if bred to a slate male-- make pretty much all slate colored offspring?