Letting Guineas Raise Their Young

[irisshiller]

Ok I managed to get some pictures! It was kind of hard to get close enough, they don't like it if I get to close :/

This is what I got! One of the babies:

 

[irisshiller]

And one of the older ones! At first I thought they were pure white, but now I realize you can actually see some pearling on their feathers.

 

[MTerry]

My new babies that are white have darker wings and heads. I look forward to seeing how they turn out. I found a nest of eggs just in time last September, it was a cool wet weekend and they were starting to hatch. I got them in the incubator and 13 hatched out of 17 eggs. This photo is of some of those babies in October, I still have no idea who is male or who is female because too many of them look alike! I have sixteen adult guineas, 3 different hatches, and the father of the new babies, Fred, is the only one I can name, because he is lavender.

 

[irisshiller]

Very pretty youngsters! I wonder what colour they are. Is Fred the grey one in your first picture or the brownish one in the second?

 

[R2elk]

Ok I managed to get some pictures! It was kind of hard to get close enough, they don't like it if I get to close

This is what I got! One of the babies:

I don't see any lines or stripes on top of the head and with the white wings, I still think it is a Sky Blue.

 

[R2elk]

And one of the older ones! At first I thought they were pure white, but now I realize you can actually see some pearling on their feathers.

The central white looking guinea in these photos looks like it is partially pearled so I believe it is an Opaline. If it was fully pearled then it would be a Porcelain.

 

[MTerry]

Fred is the grey in the very first picture with the babies.

 

[irisshiller]

@R2elk - thanks very much! Nice to know I might have special, rare colours of guineas (according to the link with the colour chart).
@MTerry - what colour is the mother - is she the one in your profile picture?

Until recently, I was under the impression that there were two shades of guineas - grey and white

It's like a new world to realise how many colours there actually are!

 

[MTerry]

The mother is the tan in the very first pictures of this post. I don't know her official color, she was lighter than she is now.

 

[R2elk]

The mother is the tan in the very first pictures of this post. I don't know her official color, she was lighter than she is now.

As near as I can tell she looks like she is partially pearled and my guess without seeing her in person is that she is either a blonde or a chocolate with an outside chance of being a buff.