Need help ID'ing the color of a BS hen

[DylansMom]

I went to see a hen today that was supposed to be a Peach BS, however she was definitely not a Peach. I am not sure if she was a Purple BS or a Midnight BS, I was unable to get pictures or a good look at her tail feathers. I did get a good look at the color on the back of her neck/head and it was a dark teal green. Her feathers seemed to have a lot more tan/light brown speckles than my normal IB BS hens have( they have darker speckles), but I have never seen a Midnight BS hen so I don't know what they look like. I am leaning toward this being a Purple, but the back of the neck did not seem to have that purplish tint that I see on my regular Purple hens. Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

 

[AugeredIn]

Thats not much to go on! Cant say without a picture.

 

[DylansMom]

Thats not much to go on! Cant say without a picture.

I know, sorry! Is there any difference in the color that will show on the back of the neck on those 2 colors of BS hen? This is the mom of those birds we talked about, I drove 6 hours to see them and it was 23 degrees and 30mph winds, freezing my butt off trying to get a good look at birds that kept running away from us in a large aviary. You are so lucky to live in a warmer climate.

 

[connerhills]

There is not a lot of difference in a black shoulder hen and a midnight BS. You can breed for years and not get one if it is not a midnight.. If the bird has produced midnight offspring I would get it, but if it has not I would ask for a guarantee . Not very many will sell and guarantee it is a Midnight. If you don't have a midnight male it could take a long time.. just me offering my thoughts. George @ connerhills

 

[DylansMom]

There is not a lot of difference in a black shoulder hen and a midnight BS. You can breed for years and not get one if it is not a midnight.. If the bird has produced midnight offspring I would get it, but if it has not I would ask for a guarantee . Not very many will sell and guarantee it is a Midnight. If you don't have a midnight male it could take a long time.. just me offering my thoughts. George @ connerhills

Thank you.

 

[new 2 pfowl]

I'm not sure if you already looked at these pictures from Hopkins' website, but they might be helpful?

Midnight BS: http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/Midnight Black Shoulder.htm
Purple BS: http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/Purple Black Shoulder.htm

 

[Garden Peas]

I went to see a hen today that was supposed to be a Peach BS, however she was definitely not a Peach. I am not sure if she was a Purple BS or a Midnight BS, I was unable to get pictures or a good look at her tail feathers. I did get a good look at the color on the back of her neck/head and it was a dark teal green. Her feathers seemed to have a lot more tan/light brown speckles than my normal IB BS hens have( they have darker speckles), but I have never seen a Midnight BS hen so I don't know what they look like. I am leaning toward this being a Purple, but the back of the neck did not seem to have that purplish tint that I see on my regular Purple hens. Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Maybe just a question?

Were you able to see any of the chicks in question?

 

[Garden Peas]

Also, if I am remembering correctly, the original brain-teaser involved a hen that was purportedly peach from Leggs, and believed to be BS since she was light-colored, and the male was supposedly purple split midnight.

So if mom has one or more midnight genes, and dad is split midnight, there should definitely have been midnight chicks popping out periodically.

On the other hand, if the owner's state of confusion was such that "midnight was in there somewhere," then maybe the hen was the one that had some midnight connection, and dad was just purple, and the owner was just confuzzled. (It can happen

)


Or maybe there have been sub rosa midnight connections and who knows what they were and what the busy peas have been producing???

Or should we call those "moonlight" connections instead of "midnight" connections?

 

[DylansMom]

Also, if I am remembering correctly, the original brain-teaser involved a hen that was purportedly peach from Leggs, and believed to be BS since she was light-colored, and the male was supposedly purple split midnight.

So if mom has one or more midnight genes, and dad is split midnight, there should definitely have been midnight chicks popping out periodically.

On the other hand, if the owner's state of confusion was such that "midnight was in there somewhere," then maybe the hen was the one that had some midnight connection, and dad was just purple, and the owner was just confuzzled. (It can happen

)


Or maybe there have been sub rosa midnight connections and who knows what they were and what the busy peas have been producing???

Or should we call those "moonlight" connections instead of "midnight" connections?

You do remember correctly, and I came home with 3 chicks, because at the very least they are Purple BS Pied and are quite pretty. The Mom was soooo NOT Peach it was almost funny, however I have never had a Purple BS hen or a Midnight BS hen so I was unsure which she was. There was one chick there that "was not like the others" he was similarly marked but a lot darker, of course he was not for sale, having been promised to a friend. It was a 12 hour drive roundtrip and we left at 3am, got home with just enough daylight to get them settled in a pen w/ food and water, no time or daylight left for pics. I will get some soon. I have 2 purple hens I hatched from snowshoe's eggs in 2013 and I came home with a male who is coming 2 or 3 and is out of the same pair, he is def. a Purple BS Pied, and the Purple was much more obvious on him than it was on the father, Dad was just darker blue/purple( perhaps a midnight influence there?) The trains were just growing back in so I couldn't even get a close look at the eyes in them. So bottom line I have a breeding age(probably) Purple BS Pied, to put with my Purple hens who are both split BS and one has a couple white feathers on 1 wing, so an unknown split there, but all Purple.

whether or not they are carrying Midnight seems to be a mystery that will only be solved by breeding to a Midnight hen and seeing what develops?

The owner has the birds as pets she is not in the habit of breeding them and tries to get the eggs collected, but once in a while she misses some and she said once the hen starts sitting she doesn't have the heart to steal the eggs from her. I believe she is repeating what she was told, not embellishing on her own, when I told her the hen was not peach, her face just fell. She was told Purple & Midnight for the male by the same person, so probably quite unreliable, except the bird is a bit different looking visually. Being that I am not very familiar with Purple or Midnight I can't say for sure, I have never seen a Purple male this soon after the new plumage has started to come in, perhaps they all look this dark, but the 2-3 year old didn't..... he was an obviously bright purple color.

 

[DylansMom]

I'm not sure if you already looked at these pictures from Hopkins' website, but they might be helpful?

Midnight BS: http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/Midnight Black Shoulder.htm
Purple BS: http://www.hopkinslivestock.com/Purple Black Shoulder.htm

Thanks, but yeah I did look at those as well as pics from Legg's site and Texas Peafowl. She didn't look exactly like any of them, but the Purple BS was the closest, and the fact that Purple is one of those colors that fades out, makes going by pics really iffy. The same Purple can look vastly different at different times of year. I am leaning toward thinking she is a Purple BS though, and she must be carrying either pied or white because they produced 3 obviously Pied offspring.