Identifying Guinea colours

[rondspub]

While I have been raising guineas for a looong time, I have recently caught the bug for breeding different colours! I have been doing all sorts of research, but as I'm sure most of you know is not an easy task. Most of what I have learned came from this site. I come now to beg for help identifying these young birds. I need to learn!

So I bought some guineas that I was told were white. In the poorly lit pen they certainly did look white, but when I got them home they are not. I believe them to be buff (dundotte)? I also have a clutch mate of theirs that I think is buff, but it is so much darker. Are they both buff and the darker coloured one is a female, or are the lighter coloured ones buff dundotte while the darker is just buff? I'm so confused!

I bought from another person some, what she said were pied (father I think she said was white). There is so very little white on them (just a few feathers on the beast). She said there is a chance one may be a royal purple? Is anyone able to tell by my pictures? I can certainly get more pictures if needed. I apologize for the blurriness, I didn't want to stress the birds more than I needed too so I zoomed in.

Thank you in advance for any help. I'm a sponge and welcome any and all information.

 

[R2elk]

While I have been raising guineas for a looong time, I have recently caught the bug for breeding different colours! I have been doing all sorts of research, but as I'm sure most of you know is not an easy task. Most of what I have learned came from this site. I come now to beg for help identifying these young birds. I need to learn!

So I bought some guineas that I was told were white. In the poorly lit pen they certainly did look white, but when I got them home they are not. I believe them to be buff (dundotte)? I also have a clutch mate of theirs that I think is buff, but it is so much darker. Are they both buff and the darker coloured one is a female, or are the lighter coloured ones buff dundotte while the darker is just buff? I'm so confused!

I bought from another person some, what she said were pied (father I think she said was white). There is so very little white on them (just a few feathers on the beast). She said there is a chance one may be a royal purple? Is anyone able to tell by my pictures? I can certainly get more pictures if needed. I apologize for the blurriness, I didn't want to stress the birds more than I needed too so I zoomed in.

Thank you in advance for any help. I'm a sponge and welcome any and all information.View attachment 1929517 View attachment 1929518 View attachment 1929519 View attachment 1929520 View attachment 1929521 View attachment 1929522

Sorry, I can't really tell anything from those photos other than the dark one in the third picture is a Royal Purple.

The broad center stripe on the one in a hand indicates it will be a fully dotted bird as an adult. I can't tell if the color of the stripe is tan or grayish. If it is tan, it likely is a male Buff Dundotte. As keets and even as adults, male Buff Dundottes will be lighter colored than the females.

I am not sure but the one on the far right on the roost in the first two pictures might be a Brown.

Try to get better pictures. These seem to be on the over exposed side.

 

[rondspub]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I tried taking more pictures in the barn, but they still come out "overexposed" I want to take some individual pictures outside, but it has been raining.I will take them as soon as I get a nice day.

In the mean time, the stripe seems more grey than tan on the lightest coloured birds.

 

[R2elk]

View attachment 1932542 View attachment 1932543
Thank you so much for your reply!

I tried taking more pictures in the barn, but they still come out "overexposed" I want to take some individual pictures outside, but it has been raining.I will take them as soon as I get a nice day.

In the mean time, the stripe seems more grey than tan on the lightest coloured birds.

The one at the top in the first photo appears to be a Brown. The 3 dark ones in the second photo are Royal Purples.

The "white" ones could be Lite Lavenders or Porcelains. They seem to be too light colored to be Buff Dundottes.

 

[rondspub]

Thank you!

I had a feeling the dark ones might be royal purple because she said they were pied, but there is little to no white on them. From the pictures I have looked at, royal purple and pied look somewhat similar as babies. May I ask how you can tell? Is it to do with the thin squiggly lines on their heads, or that their plumage is darker? Those were two differences I noticed from my pearl greys at the same age.

Oh...you had also mentioned that the broad stripe in the centre of the head means a bird will be fully pearled. So does a narrow stripe mean they will be semi-pearled, and no stripe (like a white) would have no Pearling at all?

Thank you again, I really appreciate your time and help.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you!

I had a feeling the dark ones might be royal purple because she said they were pied, but there is little to no white on them. From the pictures I have looked at, royal purple and pied look somewhat similar as babies. May I ask how you can tell? Is it to do with the thin squiggly lines on their heads, or that their plumage is darker? Those were two differences I noticed from my pearl greys at the same age.

Oh...you had also mentioned that the broad stripe in the centre of the head means a bird will be fully pearled. So does a narrow stripe mean they will be semi-pearled, and no stripe (like a white) would have no Pearling at all?

Thank you again, I really appreciate your time and help.

Royal Purples have squiggly head lines (semi-dotted) and white on the sides of their faces along with the white bellies and white patch on the wings. They are almost identical to Chocolates which are lighter colored and Bronzes which are slightly darker colored. If a Royal Purple is pied, the white will go up on the top of the head making the colored area much thinner. It can be difficult to tell a pied Royal Purple from a normal Royal Purple. My opinion is that your Royal Purples are not pied. As adults it is much easier to tell the difference since the white areas go away on adult Royal Purples but not on Pied Royal Purples.

Guinea keets with a broad center stripe on the top of their head will be fully dotted. Squiggly lines means that they will be semi-dotted as adults. No stripe at all, just a solid head color, means there will be no dotting as an adult. Examples of no dotting adults are Sky Blue, Powder, Blue, Violet, etc.

 

[rondspub]

Great! It seems like royal purple are actually quite easy to identify, if you know what to look for. I will still need more practice for some of the other colours though.

If it's not too much trouble, I have one more question. According to what I have read, buff dundotte are fully pearled and buff are semi pearled. Is that correct? I have a mature rooster who was sold to me as buff dundotte by someone who should know their colours, but he is only semi pearled. I'm wondering if what I have found online is possibly inaccurate? Is one colour more desirable than the other, or is it just personal preference?

I think that is the last of my questions. Too bad there isn't a Guinea fowl specific forum where others have already asked all these questions, and I could just read the answers rather than bothering you

 

[R2elk]

Great! It seems like royal purple are actually quite easy to identify, if you know what to look for. I will still need more practice for some of the other colours though.

If it's not too much trouble, I have one more question. According to what I have read, buff dundotte are fully pearled and buff are semi pearled. Is that correct? I have a mature rooster who was sold to me as buff dundotte by someone who should know their colours, but he is only semi pearled. I'm wondering if what I have found online is possibly inaccurate? Is one colour more desirable than the other, or is it just personal preference?

I think that is the last of my questions. Too bad there isn't a Guinea fowl specific forum where others have already asked all these questions, and I could just read the answers rather than bothering you

There are many people selling all kinds of poultry as something other than what they are. Many just assume because the parents are one kind that the offspring are automatically the same kind. They either are not aware of or just ignore the possibility that their original stock may have carried hidden recessive genes or their original source sold them a variety that was not what they were told it was.

You are correct that a buff colored guinea that is semi dotted is a Buff. A Buff Dundotte is fully dotted.

The choice of guinea colors is a mix of personal preference and what may be available to you. Personally, I like blue guineas and have or have had Coral Blue, Lite Blue, Powder Blue and Sky Blue. I like my Royal Purple, Chocolates and my Lavender too. I think Violets are a very pretty keet but never kept any of them because a plain black bird does not appeal to me.

On another note, Guinea males are referred to as cocks.

This thread is in the Guinea Fowl forum which is specifically for all things guineas. If you hover over the Search tab at the top, it will open a dialog box that allows you to enter a search term with a check box at the bottom to select to Search this forum only and another check box that will allow you to search this thread only.

 

[rondspub]

Oh the blues are so pretty. There do not seem to be any birds with those colours around here though, aside from the lavenders. I already have a couple lavenders that popped up out of the blue from my greys. That is what got me into all of these other colours. Until the lavenders showed up I had never thought about guineas coming in any other colour than grey. I think the lavenders are gorgeous, but I really fell in love with the royal purple so I'm super excited to have accidentally found some! Royal purple are actually incredibly difficult to find around here, most people who have them don't want to sell them for some reason.

Thank you for letting me know that the males are actually cocks. I've only ever heard them called roosters, so that's what I thought they were called.

 

[R2elk]

Oh the blues are so pretty. There do not seem to be any birds with those colours around here though, aside from the lavenders. I already have a couple lavenders that popped up out of the blue from my greys. That is what got me into all of these other colours. Until the lavenders showed up I had never thought about guineas coming in any other colour than grey. I think the lavenders are gorgeous, but I really fell in love with the royal purple so I'm super excited to have accidentally found some! Royal purple are actually incredibly difficult to find around here, most people who have them don't want to sell them for some reason.

Thank you for letting me know that the males are actually cocks. I've only ever heard them called roosters, so that's what I thought they were called.

Lavenders are homozygous for blue. My Royal Purples were created by a Coral Blue female mating with a Chocolate male. My Royal Purples are not the only Royal Purples that I have come across that carry the hidden recessive blue gene.

If your Royal Purples carry the blue gene, you could possibly make Coral Blues by breeding the Royal Purples to the Lavenders and then breeding the offspring back to the Royal Purples or breeding the offspring to each other. You wouldn't get any Coral Blues in the first generation because you need to eliminate the full dotting gene that only requires one copy to be displayed.