Peafowl Genetics for Dummies (in other words us)

[Yoda]

Okay, I have read some of the Silver Pied debate and I am still fairly certain that the offspring I mentioned would qualify as Silver Pied not Pied White Eye, but how do you know for sure? Is the silvering of the colored plumage good enough, or are there other factors. I should have said that the pairing with the silver hen has produced many silver offspring(at least I thought them silver, but most were sold early, so I never saw adult plumage on them) the 2 that I kept back are 5 years now. Here are pics of the male from last spring (he has white mixed in with the barring on all those wing feathers and the gold feathers on his back also have a lot of white streaking on them)



, unfortunately the only decent pic I have of his sister is from about 4 months of age, but you can still see her silvered back compared to her dark pied sister(they are the 2 at the bottom of pic 3). Looking at these can you tell if they are indeed silver pied or might they still be pied WE?


Also, If you have a white gene do you also automatically have the gene for WE, I thought I had read somewhere that all whites also carry the WE? Is this true? Or can you have a white that will not pass on a gene for WE? If a white is crossed with say a pied bird that is not carrying any copies of WE, can you get offspring who also have no copies of WE or will all of them automatically get a single copy from the white parent?

In picture 1 and 2 if the birds eyes in the train are all white then I would call it a silver pied. My Zues looks like the bird in the first picture and Zues is a silver pied split to peach

 

[Yoda]

Both have been wrong when I first posted about combining colors -- claiming it's impossible -- and about how Peach came about, so the possibility for them to be wrong again exists. In other posts, Deerman said that split to Pied and split to White were the birds you couldn't tell apart -- not the ones homozygous for Pied.

And I can also be wrong. However, when I look at pictures of "Pied" peafowl from many sources on the internet, I keep seeing one type of presentation that seems rather consistent among some -- big throat patch, white wings, some white on the belly, and no white in random asymmetrical patches. The Dark Pied is described as having a white throat and some white on the wings. I took this to mean that birds split to Pied show very tiny white throat patches and perhaps a white feather or two on the wings, while birds homozygous for Pied have larger amounts of white in these areas (but not across the back or in the tail). It suggests that this symmetrical pattern of white found almost identically among different birds is the result of an identical genotype. The behavior of the incompletely dominant White mutation being random in its "erasing" of pigment would interfere with this consistent appearance, so it doesn't seem likely that the mutation is present among those birds.

If others claim that birds homozygous for Pied are the ones with the tiny amount of white on the throat and wings, then perhaps there are two versions of the Pied gene -- one more pronounced in expression than the other. This may account for differences between "Loud Pied" and "Regular Pied" -- the former have a copy of the "stronger" Pied and a copy of White, while the latter have a copy of the "weaker" Pied and a copy of White. The test would be looking at offspring from one of the birds I'm calling "Dark Pied" and assume to be homozygous for Pied (whether it's the one and only version, or a possible "stronger" version) bred with a White. If all the offspring come out Pied, then we know that the birds I call "Dark Pied" are homozygous for Pied. If any White offspring result, then we know that I was incorrect. If Zazouse hatches eggs from her White hens paired with what I'm calling a "Dark Pied" peacock, we'll find out.

I'm confused, have you been on this forum before under another name? Deerman said DARK pied and split to white NOT split to pied and split to white. I was told a loud pied looks like a silver pied but lacks the complete white eyes in the train, is this true? Like the picture posted a few post back.

 

[AugeredIn]

Gotta agree with Yoda here, Deerman was a big proponent that split pied birds very rarely if ever showed any white. He said dark pied and split white birds were easily confused. I have now had to agree with him as the definite split pied birds we have hatched are not distinguishable.

I would also note that to the best of my knowledge Brad Legg has never posted here thus cannot have been wrong about anything.

 

[AugeredIn]

......PS, I believe Rosa moschata is aka Aqua Eyes for those that already did not pick that up.

 

[zazouse]

......PS, I believe Rosa moschata is aka Aqua Eyes for those that already did not pick that up.

I didn't know that here i am conversing about my pieds/non pied/dark pieds and it is the same person

 

[casportpony]

......PS, I believe Rosa moschata is aka Aqua Eyes for those that already did not pick that up.

I was clueless, lol.

-Kathy

 

[AugeredIn]

I am certain they are one and the same. I recall the new "Christopher" mentioning he had problems using the old "Christopher" log in. That must be why the change. Not to mention they "sound" the same. I would say confirmation is in the post Yoda is referencing.

I don't think he was purposely using another name for any reason.

 

[casportpony]

It appears he can log on, but doesn't post.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/81585/aquaeyes

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, I do like reading the posts from Rosa moschata and hope they continue to post... just wish I had something intelligent to add, lol.

-Kathy

 

[Rosa moschata]

Yes, my former username was AquaEyes, but I don't post on that anymore. Some people got cranky about what I posted in other areas, so that name is "retired." I made another one to post after seeing so many unanswered (or poorly answered) questions in the Cage Bird area a while back, and being a parrot owner, it bothered me enough to post again. When I used an old computer, I was auto-logged into the old account, and had to switch. Otherwise, I don't use that one anymore. Any messages sent there won't get read.