It's Official...

[TarheelBirdy]

 

[Colourful]

x 2

 

[mjanderson437]

Awww! They are so adorable.

 

[JLeigh]

x3 (you guys are funny! I love it)

I put 13 eggs in lockdown this a.m. - 12 Brabanter chickens and 1 mutt. I have everything cleaned, set up and ready: Hatcher, Brooder, Parade, Marching band...

Chickens are as much fun to hatch as guineas - - - A hatch is a hatch is a hatch.

 

[JLeigh]

It's that time of year for me again. My 1st Hatch for 2013

Of the 5 pieds - two have thinner head markings than the other three, and there is a darker strip down the center. I had a few of those; does that mean they are different colors altogether, or they'll just have different pearling patterns? One of the Pearl Grays has a grayer body than the other. Does that mean anything? It's time for me to grow up, wear a big girl hat, and start ID'ing keets properly. I've looked at the charts on the internet, and haven't found one that really shows the markings like your pictures do.

 

[PeepsCA]

Of the 5 pieds - two have thinner head markings than the other three, and there is a darker strip down the center. I had a few of those; does that mean they are different colors altogether, or they'll just have different pearling patterns? One of the Pearl Grays has a grayer body than the other. Does that mean anything? It's time for me to grow up, wear a big girl hat, and start ID'ing keets properly. I've looked at the charts on the internet, and haven't found one that really shows the markings like your pictures do.

The thinner the center head stripe the keet has, the more Pied they will be as they mature. Usually a really thin head stripe goes hand in hand with wings that are white all the way to the shoulders (or just about)... resulting in a bird with a lot of white on the neck, chest and wings (heavily Pied). The wider the head stripe, the less white on the neck, chest and wings the bird will have when it matures.

I have noticed the color for the center head stripe on Pied Pearl Grey keets can vary a little in my flocks. My flocks consist of birds from 1, 2 or 3 separate blood lines tho, which may be why... the gene pools are blending, creating variation in color shades. Just a guess, I'm not a geneticist, lol. Usually the center stripe is a dark walnut or black color tho.

Occasionally I will get 1 or 2 keets in a hatch that I'd swear are Pied Pearl Grey as keets, with a narrow and almost black center head stripe (and blended down)... and they turn out to be Pied Browns as they mature. I can't explain that tho, lol. Last season a friend and I hatch identical Pied keets with a dark narrow head stripe and the blended down on their body (from my eggs)... my keet matured Pied Pearl Grey, the friend's keet matured Pied Brown. No clue why, lol

Usually with the majority of my Pied Browns with blended down their center head stripe color is a noticeably lighter brown color and it's obvious they are gong to mature as Brown not Pearl Grey.

When I first got into Guineas the colors, markings and being able to ID keets and adults was all so cut and dried; this is that/that is this because the color charts says so... not the case any more, lol. It's hard enough just getting to know the basics of all the normal colors and markings... but now since I added Pieds 3 yrs ago this blended down variation really makes it tough to ID newly hatched keets sometimes. Knowing what genes the birds in the flock are carrying can help point me in the right direction, but isn't fail proof. Sometimes I misidentify keets

(AND I HATE DOING THAT, lol). I don't keep many fully pearled birds from my hatches, and I haven't bothered keeping detailed records on them as they mature, so the blended down variation still baffles me... with hatching and selling so many each season I never have time for detailed record keeping on every single bird that I keep. I should tho, lol.

Which Pied Pearl Grey keet in my pic are you talking about that has a grayer body? To me (seeing them on my monitor, and in my brooder) they all look like Pied Pearl Greys with blended down. Maybe the lighting/flash is making the color look different to you.

 

[JLeigh]

The pearl gray in the center-right to the other - sort of his head is pointing to 5:00 - seems to have a grayer body. Probably just my monitor though. Keeping all the squiggles and patterns of so many keets in your head has to be something you would practice to get right, and then the "sort of's" that genetics throws at you to make it that much harder - - - you're forgiven if you mis-ID one every once in a while. I gotta tell ya, I'm just so happy that I did so well on my self-test! I try really hard to pay attention and remember, and at my age that's saying something. Last season when I was selling my keets, people would ask me what color they were, and some were easy, but some were not. In the latter cases I'd say, "I have no idea, except that it's going to be a light gray" and people were okay with that. To most in my area, they just know they like the pieds, the lighter grays, or the darker grays. One nice lady said, "I want the ones that are the most unusual" and I had to reply, "You can't have my chocolates!" She was fine. I have an easy market.

 

[tomingreeneco]

The thinner the center head stripe the keet has, the more Pied they will be as they mature. Usually a really thin head stripe goes hand in hand with wings that are white all the way to the shoulders (or just about)... resulting in a bird with a lot of white on the neck, chest and wings (heavily Pied). The wider the head stripe, the less white on the neck, chest and wings the bird will have when it matures.

Do you happen to have any pics of mature pied guinea with the almost all white wings? These seem very interesting. and no I will not be putting up any more coops

, just not enough time to take care of any more birds.

 

[PeepsCA]

I don't own any that are that Pied (I have a few that are a little over half White on the wings). The Guinea Farm sells Pinto keets that are mostly White.

 

[perchie.girl]

It's that time of year for me again. My 1st Hatch for 2013

Mann your keets get prettier and prettier... Going to do another order this year of eggsies.

deb