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

[barkerg]

Pics or it didnt happen,

.

Gerald Barker

 

[Dany12]

Here two birds .... The next moult they were white!

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

This one had 4 or 5 dark feathers at least, all these birds are gone now.

 

[Garden Peas]

This one had 4 or 5 dark feathers at least, all these birds are gone now.

What was the breeding on the bird with the dark feathers?

 

[bdfive]

Want to thank you all for chiming in and helping me understand this is fairly common. Has anyone every had some that molted and became darker rather then all white?

I'm off on another problem now. My 1502 GQF fans quit working. Moved eggs to Hova's and removed top. Ordered new fan assembly. Will be 110 instead of 12 volt. Always something, isn't it?

 

[Birdrain92]

Want to thank you all for chiming in and helping me understand this is fairly common. Has anyone every had some that molted and became darker rather then all white?

I'm off on another problem now. My 1502 GQF fans quit working. Moved eggs to Hova's and removed top. Ordered new fan assembly. Will be 110 instead of 12 volt. Always something, isn't it?

The only peafowl that go from White to color are Black Shoulders peacocks.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

What was the breeding on the bird with the dark feathers?

Both were whites.

 

[bdfive]

The only peafowl that go from White to color are Black Shoulders peacocks.

I don't have any Black Shoulder. Could there be Black Shoulder blood that caused it in my Whites? I used to have BS and loved the way the chicks changed colors as they grew but didn't have a lot of buyers for the babies. This is a hobby and would love to keep them all but know better, LOL!! Sell off all my offspring and if want some new I purchase new chicks. I'm waiting for friends Silver Pied to hatch....will be buying a couple of them. Love the Silver Pied.

 

[Garden Peas]

Just speculating here, but seems to me more likely that it just happened, maybe for that molt. White is a gene that suppresses the deposition of color, so a little irregularity could let the color show up. Once in awhile, birds week have a funny feather - I've seen an odd juvenile marked feather tip on an adult once or twice, and sometimes juveniles just seem to not quite be all finished yet, lol.

 

[Garden Peas]

Remember, white is a pattern, not a color, so there's still all those color genes lurking underneath, being suppressed. We know there are different white genes (ie, white, pied, we) that act currently in terms if how much color they suppress, and where on the bird they suppress it. There's speculation that there may be some variant versions of these white-causing (leucistic) pattern genes, for example, there may be more than one version of the white eye gene. A white bird could also have we gene(s) but not give any visual clue (it's already white, right?). So I guess a grayish feather isn't shocking...


(Edited for spelling error)