Peafowl 201: Further Genetics- Colors, Patterns, and More

[Helen in the Desert]

Worth keeping my Pied female then

 

[DylansMom]

You can also get silver pied from a pied x silver pied pairing. I have 2 pairs like this and both produce silver pied chicks.

 

[Dany12]

You can also get silver pied from a pied x silver pied pairing. I have 2 pairs like this and both produce silver pied chicks.

Silver pied ...with silver ????

 

[KsKingBee]

I have two pens that give me Silver Pied and one of them doesn't even have an SP in it. It has an IBBSWE and IBWE hens. the other is an IB Pied WE split Cameo, BS, and SP over four hens, IBSP, Cameo SP, Cameo Pied WE, an IB Pied, not sure which hen but I think I can rule out the IB Pied hen although I think she carries BS and that is where the IBBS Pied WE cocks came from. I also got one IBBSSP hen from that pen too.

 

[DylansMom]

Silver pied ...with silver ????

Yes...I get Silver Pied from 2 different pairings with a Pied male over a Silver Pied hen.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I have gotten silver pied from WE before, too. And the peacock was just a Bronze BS with absolutely no white on him whatsoever. It was fascinating. And confusing. But a great learning curve for me.

 

[KsKingBee]

Dany asks an interesting question, one that has probably been discussed here before, but here I go.

First here is an article from Brad Legg about the history of the Silver Pied mutation;

http://leggspeafowl.com/silverpied.htm

Not considering the Silver Pieds I have hatched as they are still quite young and haven't finished maturing, so far I have seven SP adult birds, five that came from Leggs. Only one IBSP hen has the actual color silver on her back, the one in my avatar, yet Brad called them all Silver Pieds.

It is a bit confusing by the description in the article, 'SP is 80 - 90% white' yet later he does comment on the silver color. Perhaps I will send him an e-mail, but I think I know what he will say.

So how do you all interpret what he wrote in his article? Is the color silver really necessary to be Silver Pied? He said the peacocks have it as they mature, yet his pic of the Cameo SP does not show it, or I just can not see it.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I will do my best to read that article again. I have read it in the past but do not remember all the details.

 

[Garden Peas]

There has been some change over time in what various folks have called silver pied -- several years ago, the definitions tended to focus only on the amount of white on the bird -- the 80 - 90% white. I think that article was originally written back then. It's a very good article, but perhaps may not completely reflect contemporary thinking on terminology. More recently, there has been discussion as to whether a bird must show silvering on the back in order to be properly called silver pied, and attempts to distinguish birds with silvering from birds without silvering.

Recently I saw that someone was describing some birds as "dark silver pied" which would have been a contradiction in terms under the old definition, but which was apparently an attempt to categorize a bird with (I assume) visible but not extensive white that perhaps also had the "silvering" effect on its colored feathers. I had to wonder if the bird was what other folks would call a pied white-eye (or perhaps dark pied white-eye)?

There has been a longstanding debate about the genetics of silver pied, as well as a certain amount of debate about the white-eye gene, its role in "silver pied" and possible variants of the white-eye gene.

Honestly, if there's not a solid consensus on what phenotype constitutes silver pied (i.e., what markings must a bird have to be a "silver pied" bird), then sorting out the genotype becomes impossible.

Individual breeders can perhaps figure out what genes their own birds are likely to be carrying... but when different folks call birds with different markings (caused by different gene combinations) by the same name -- as in the question of whether silvering is necessary or not necessary -- then things get really confusing really fast

 

[Helen in the Desert]

Just as a thought: The silvering my be a different genetic entirely, not related to WE or "Silver" Pied, that just cropped up in mutation with Silver Pied birds. Or it may be a dilute and related to the genetic that gives you all that white%

Can you get that much white on a regular Pied to Pied breeding? Or only when the WE is added? I am under the impression that SE have to carry WE.