Guinea talk.

[R2elk]

I finally can tell the different calls for my royal purple guineas! But.... I can't keep track of who's making them lol. I only hear one girl at a time so maybe only 1 out of 5.... but my young grey and lavender both sound like girls. So if I have one purple, one lavender, and one grey females and all purple boys I'll get lots of lavenders? With some purples? I haven't looked into guinea genetics yet. I want one of every color someday!

The research on Royal Purples is too incomplete to really predict what you will get. The claim is that a Royal Purple is the same dominant gray gene as the Pearl Gray's dominant gray gene. The difference that is known between a Pearl Gray and a Royal Purple is the Pearl Gray has the dominant full dotting gene while the Royal Purple has the recessive to full dotting but dominant over no dotting, partial dotting gene. The Lavender has two recessive blue genes and at least one dominant full dotting gene.

I create Royal Purples by breeding a Coral Blue hen (two recessive blue genes and a partial dotting gene) with a Chocolate cock (two recessive buff genes, two dark shade variance genes and a partial dotting gene). Due to results from repeated breedings it has been shown that this particular Coral Blue hen has one partial dotting gene and one no dotting gene. Royal Purples produced in this manner have to either be due to a mutation or else the combination of one blue gene, one buff gene and the dark shade variance gene. This pairing produces Royal purples on too regular a basis for it to be due to a color mutation in my opinion.

Depending on what hidden recessive color and dotting genes your other guineas have it you might get mostly Pearl Gray keets and Royal Purple keets but it is not impossible to get colors that you are not expecting.

Good luck.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Ah okay. I thought royal purple and pearl grey made lavender. My buddy had some purples and greys and a hen hatched out eggs after he sold them. My lavender and pearl came from those eggs. I took them in because he was wasn't expecting them and was worried they'd get hurt with his chickens. So I figured that's was normal lol. I just woke up and will have to reread your posts again in a little bit when my head is functioning. He took the adults in when someone had to get rid of a flock so I have no idea what other birds they had or what other mixes there might be.

 

[R2elk]

Ah okay. I thought royal purple and pearl grey made lavender. My buddy had some purples and greys and a hen hatched out eggs after he sold them. My lavender and pearl came from those eggs. I took them in because he was wasn't expecting them and was worried they'd get hurt with his chickens. So I figured that's was normal lol. I just woke up and will have to reread your posts again in a little bit when my head is functioning. He took the adults in when someone had to get rid of a flock so I have no idea what other birds they had or what other mixes there might be.

For Royal Purple crossed with Pearl Gray to make Lavender would mean that both the Royal Purple (very likely) and the Pearl Gray (very possible) had to be carrying the recessive blue gene. It also means that a Lavender created that way would be carrying the fully dotted gene and probably a partial dotting although it would be possible for it to be carrying a no dotting gene depending on what the genetic make up of the Royal Purple was.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

So for guineas I need to learn about color genetics and dot genetics?

 

[R2elk]

So for guineas I need to learn about color genetics and dot genetics?

The dot genetics are easy. Fully dotted is dominant and only requires one copy of the gene to cause the presence of full dotting. Partially dotted is recessive to fully dotted and dominant over no dotting. It will not show in the presence of a full dotting gene but only needs one copy to show in the presence of a no dotting gene. No dotting is recessive to both other dotting genes and requires the presence of two no dotting genes to be displayed.

The colors are a different matter. Pearl Gray is the dominant color gene and only requires one gene to be displayed over any other colors except white. The white color gene is located in a different site than are the other color genes. Two copies of the white gene will cause white to be displayed and will hide all other color and dotting genes. A single copy of the white gene causes large amounts of white to be displayed normally on the bottom half of the guineas with the upper area's colors being controlled by the dominant color and dotting genes. Blue and buff are thought to be the only two other color genes and they are recessive to Pearl Gray but their reaction to the presence of each other can greatly vary.

One of the controlling factors in the results of all of the color genes is the DSV (dark shade variance) gene. I suspect its presence or lack thereof plays a great part in the various colors that can happen when there are both blue and buff genes present.

Here are some links that may be helpful.

http://guineas.com/articles/genetics.php

Guinea Plumage Color

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page8.html

How to Raise poultry - Chapter 6 Guinea Fowl

Unfortunately due to recent changes in the Internet, many valuable information sites are no longer available.

 

[Finge]

Hi, howp you don't mind if I hop in. I plan on getting some guinea keets this summer, when ill hopefully have an actual coop.

I'm just wondering, from reading the first few pages on this thread, do keets imprint on humans?

 

[R2elk]

Hi, howp you don't mind if I hop in. I plan on getting some guinea keets this summer, when ill hopefully have an actual coop.

I'm just wondering, from reading the first few pages on this thread, do keets imprint on humans?

All birds can imprint on people. It is not always a good thing. Look up what they had to do to save the Whooping Cranes when they discovered that their human imprinting was preventing them from breeding.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Thanks for the info!!!

I spent a lot of time with mine and even kept to on a half wall in kitchen and while they trust me the don't really like me lol. I did find it helpful raising them with friendlier birds. One batch had turkeys and the others had a porcelain d'uccle. Seems to keep them close to home.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for the info!!!

I spent a lot of time with mine and even kept to on a half wall in kitchen and while they trust me the don't really like me lol. I did find it helpful raising them with friendlier birds. One batch had turkeys and the others had a porcelain d'uccle. Seems to keep them close to home.

Guineas generally bond very quickly with turkeys but I still find it is best not to raise them together to avoid imprinting.

 

[yoopergirl1211]

Ah. I guess I never really thought about it. I was so worried about them roaming into road after reading on here about them that when I read raising them with turkeys might help I tried it. On the upside they have yet to travel anywhere outside of our property. I warned the neighbors just in case. The flock of Turkey's and guineas like to follow us back on our trails behind the house. Its kinda fun. Three dogs, three goats, and 18 birds all running along behind us.