First attempt at incubating

[Sydney65]

I shouldn't wade into this w/a migraine,...but doesn't every guinea have gray heritage? Whether I had Blue(RP-semi dotted) and Bella(Br full) or Bella (Br) and Nug(lav-full) - the keets all came out gray. Whichever hen laid her (gray or Lavender, he was BD-full) were pied, she was fully dotted. I used to have pics of her parents but think I deleted.

 

[R2elk]

Using this genetic system, chocolate would be two semipearled genes and two dark dun genes. Also, it sounds like you are talking about codominance at the semi-pearling allele, but this would be following simple Mendelian genetics, so they would need to be homozygous for semi-Pearling to appear semi-pearled. So, Chocolate would have two dark dun genes and two semipearl genes. Coral blue would have two lavender genes and two semipearl genes. If all other genes were wild type, resulting progeny would be homozygous for semi-pearl, heterozygous for dark dun, and heterozygous for lavender. Because dun and lavender are recessive to wild type (Pearl Gray), phenotypically, they would have the Pearl Gray base color and be semipearled, which would show as Royal Purple. I did find one paper that reports on test breeding for some of this, but it’s older and lacking light dun, attenuate, bronze, pinto, etc. I’ve tried to attach the paper, but am also including a link:

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article-pdf/87/2/138/6452301/87-2-138.pdf

Again you are paying attention to things that are not true.

For full dotting (pearling), only one full dotting gene is necessary. The second gene can be either full dotting, semi-dotting or no dotting.

For partial dotting, there cannot be a full dotting gene. There must be one semi-dotting gene. The second gene can be either a semi-dotting gene or a no dotting gene.

For no dotting, there cannot be a full dotting gene or a semi-dotting gene. It has to be homozygous for no dotting.

To my knowledge there is no "lavender gene". Lavenders are homozygous for the blue gene as are Coral Blues.

My Lavender hen due to her unique known parentage is heterozygous for the full dotting gene and the semi-dotting gene. My Coral Blues due to their unique known parentage are heterozygous for the semi-dotting gene and the no dotting gene.

The previous known information that I have seen is that Chocolate males are homozygous for the buff gene and the DSV (dark shade variance) gene. If this were true, I have the genetics to make a number of different colors that are caused by a combination blue and buff genes. None of those combinations have ever shown up in my flock making me disbelieve the claims about what color gene Chocolates actually have. I have not seen any actual DNA results done on the Chocolate and its color genes.

The gray gene is dominant to the recessive genes. All it takes is one gray gene for the gray color to be displayed. Simple genetics says that it cannot be present if it is not displayed.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I shouldn't wade into this w/a migraine,...but doesn't every guinea have gray heritage? Whether I had Blue(RP-semi dotted) and Bella(Br full) or Bella (Br) and Nug(lav-full) - the keets all came out gray. Whichever hen laid her (gray or Lavender, he was BD-full) were pied, she was fully dotted. I used to have pics of her parents but think I deleted.

Well, the original wild guineas that our domesticated birds are from were Pearl Gray and fully pearled or dotted. I think that there a lot of different genes that can impact color of guinea fowl. From what I can tell, most of these genes are recessive though, so you need two copies of the gene to be able to “see” it’s effects. So if Bella was Brown and had two dark dun genes, she needed to breed with a male with dun genes to get keets that are brown. Her keets would have had one dark dun gene and one Pearl Grey. Pearl Gray is dominant so that’s what you see.

 

[R2elk]

Well, the original wild guineas that our domesticated birds are from were Pearl Gray and fully pearled or dotted. I think that there a lot of different genes that can impact color of guinea fowl. From what I can tell, most of these genes are recessive though, so you need two copies of the gene to be able to “see” it’s effects. So if Bella was Brown and had two dark dun genes, she needed to breed with a male with dun genes to get keets that are brown. Her keets would have had one dark dun gene and one Pearl Grey. Pearl Gray is dominant so that’s what you see.

The Browns are said to have the buff gene. The buff gene is said to be sex linked. This means that a hen only needs one copy of the buff gene to display the buff/brown/chocolate color but that males need two copies of the gene to display the color.

The first Chocolate keets that I produced were females and they only had one copy of whatever gene the Chocolate actually has.

 

[Sydney65]

Well, the original wild guineas that our domesticated birds are from were Pearl Gray and fully pearled or dotted. I think that there a lot of different genes that can impact color of guinea fowl. From what I can tell, most of these genes are recessive though, so you need two copies of the gene to be able to “see” it’s effects. So if Bella was Brown and had two dark dun genes, she needed to breed with a male with dun genes to get keets that are brown. Her keets would have had one dark dun gene and one Pearl Grey. Pearl Gray is dominant so that’s what you see..

She was supposed to be BD, but my understanding is she was flawed with brown markings so "brown".:,,,.looking at her daddy, he was the same. (That causes a lot of confusuon bc many advertise BD with the brown bleeding through). Adding to that, African breeders classify the coloring to environment, darker were more dominant & suitable to one part of continent than others.

 

[Sydney65]

The Browns are said to have the buff gene. The buff gene is said to be sex linked. This means that a hen only needs one copy of the buff gene to display the buff/brown/chocolate color but that males need two copies of the gene to display the color.

The first Chocolate keets that I produced were females and they only had one copy of whatever gene the Chocolate actually has.

So what did your choc keets look like? The current group look the same to me except some are much bigger. But as their feathers come in, some look black/gray, some look dark brown. But I have to be really looking to see that distinction so have let it go as a play on light.

 

[R2elk]

So what did your choc keets look like? The current group look the same to me except some are much bigger. But as their feathers come in, some look black/gray, some look dark brown. But I have to be really looking to see that distinction so have let it go as a play on light.

This is from 2015 which would have been the first Chocolate that I hatched so it could have only had one color gene from it's Chocolate father and one color gene from it's Coral Blue mother.

 

[Sydney65]

This is from 2015 which would have been the first Chocolate that I hatched so it could have only had one color gene from it's Chocolate father and one color gene from it's Coral Blue mother.
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I shldnt have asked that. I was thinking chovolate when I meant brown. But your choc has squiggly as opposed to the solid, and this was a pied?

 

[R2elk]

I shldnt have asked that. I was thinking chovolate when I meant brown. But your choc has squiggly as opposed to the solid, and this was a pied?

Not a pied. Chocolate keets have lots of white on them. A Pied Chocolate would have a very narrow strip on the top of its head.

I do not and never have had any Browns.

@red horse ranch has had Browns.