Peafowl Genetics for Dummies (in other words us)

[AugeredIn]

And one more question George, what does a bird that is pied with one white eye mutation gene and one silver pied mutation gene look like?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Ok, I'm jumping ahead into you next topic, so is there a possibility of two sex-linked traits being passed on to the offspring at the same time without crossover? It's been suggested and discussed before that the peach colour is the result of a crossover in the genes of a male split to purple and cameo, is this the same case with cinnamon-pearl in cockatiels?

On a separate note, it has also been suggested that taupe is a combination of Opal and purple. If this is the case, this would mean that it's a partial sex-linked combination, meaning you should be able to hatch out more taupe hens by breeding a taupe male to any hen that carries at least one Opal gene. I challenge anyone with the colour to attempt this. The best hen choice would be an opal hen, which should produce all taupe hens. I think that it is very important to keep the facts in the open, as it will help create a more genetically diversified population if it's a combined effort between more than one breeder. I understand many peoples views on "how the first breeder had put in a lot of time and done a lot of work to achieve this", but to prevent inbreeding problems, after the first couple years, getting others to repeat the same thing with separate lines is only beneficial. I'm currently working on at least 1/2 dozen combinations not yet available in the market. Info on breeding will be available as soon as I manage to produce adult birds in these combinations, reason being is I need to make sure that they are going to be different enough to make it worth the while for others to do the same. My only fear is that many combinations will look like washed out versions of their parents (or each other), and not different enough for most people to care. Sorry to veer this...

Arbor,,I have an abundance of both Opal and Purple,,I may make a pen of them this spring just to see. And I have the Taupe male,and Taupe hen

 

[Arbor]

Apparently Clifton has a purple-opal male. I managed to get two purple hens that are split to Opal. The male chick I hatched this year was from my now passed on Opal BS male and a purple sp hen. Unfortunately, like father, like son...he's dead too. About a month ago, he couldn't open his foot, and shortly after he was dead, no cut, no infection, just couldn't open the foot. He even tried walking on the curled foot, and got around ok, but he suddenly died one day...too bad, now I gotta wait at least two more years to put the two purple hens to good use.

If you got a spare opal hen, I'd put her in with the taupe pair. If it works, that's great, if not, at least you have some splits that could be bred back to the hen for further diversity? Any female offspring from her would be taupe (if the theory is correct). Males should all be opal split purple. I wonder if they would show any sign of the purple? I have a male (that isn't blue) split to charcoal, and you can see that he's got some greyish hues around his wings that seem to give the impression he's carrying charcoal.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I have 3-3 year old purple hens,2 are all purple,one a nice purple pied hen.This year was my first year with 2 Opal hens that became 2 years old this past spring. One is Opal pied,the other is straight Opal.I hatched many purples and purple pied peachicks this year and compared to some other colors,the two young opal hens did a great job also,giving me several Opal pieds and 2-3 straight looking Opals which I hope one turns out to be a male. I can experiment some.My Taupe male is rather agressive so he's getting a bigger pen with more hens,and I was considering taking the taupe hen out of his pen,opting to put her in with my coming 3yr old loud bssp peacock.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Quote: I have been following this thread, and it has great information. I do hope to have my hands on taupes in 2015 or 2016, depending if fertile eggs are produced in 2015. I would certainly try what you suggested Arbor. AugeredIn, here is an India Blue Pied White Eye peacock that does not have a silver saddle:

This peacock was dracoe19's peacock. More pictures here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/...-virginia-fauquier-county/sort/display_order/ Sadly, he has not been found yet.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Not to stray from the topic here,but in post#39 Rosa,You say genes are instructions for assembling proteins.Is this replication? If so,overtime this replication can get shortchanged,or not reproduced in an exact double,correct? My daughters going to be a genetic therapist and I get bits and pieces from her,and she says the reason we age is because DNA is not replicated 100% exact as we age,,,which makes me wonder if peafowl also has these issues,thus once in a million causing a new color,or mutation?

 

[Arbor]

Not to stray from the topic here,but in post#39 Rosa,You say genes are instructions for assembling proteins.Is this replication? If so,overtime this replication can get shortchanged,or not reproduced in an exact double,correct? My daughters going to be a genetic therapist and I get bits and pieces from her,and she says the reason we age is because DNA is not replicated 100% exact as we age,,,which makes me wonder if peafowl also has these issues,thus once in a million causing a new color,or mutation?

Maybe this could also be applied to the "cameo death gene" and perhaps "progressive pied"? Maybe the incomplete replication process is speeding up deterioration? A breeder in NY had a bronze male (the likely source of Loudens progressive pied bronze) that carried the trait, however, when the bird reached the state of being 99.5% white, he was blind. This bird was only a generation or two away from the original bronze male held by Clifton.

 

[Yoda]

Maybe this could also be applied to the "cameo death gene" and perhaps "progressive pied"? Maybe the incomplete replication process is speeding up deterioration? A breeder in NY had a bronze male (the likely source of Loudens progressive pied bronze) that carried the trait, however, when the bird reached the state of being 99.5% white, he was blind. This bird was only a generation or two away from the original bronze male held by Clifton.

My Jackson is a Cameo and he was blind before he turned 1 year old. Granted he is the healthiest bird in the group but he is blind and I pick him up every night and put him on a perch to sleep. I keep his food and water in the same spot so he knows where it is

 

[Arbor]

Wow, that's dedication from a breeder Yoda

Back to my little rant about laying out the genetics of a bird, check out porterturkeys.com. If you click on any of the breeds, he tells you the genetics of each breed, therefore letting all interested what genetics they would need to replicate (though I'm with many of you when you say it's easier just to buy them). I really like how he's given all that info.

 

[Rosa moschata]

Not to stray from the topic here,but in post#39 Rosa,You say genes are instructions for assembling proteins.Is this replication? If so,overtime this replication can get shortchanged,or not reproduced in an exact double,correct? My daughters going to be a genetic therapist and I get bits and pieces from her,and she says the reason we age is because DNA is not replicated 100% exact as we age,,,which makes me wonder if peafowl also has these issues,thus once in a million causing a new color,or mutation?

Replication is "making copies" of the DNA. Making proteins from DNA involves transcription and translation. When there are errors in replication, the result is changes in the DNA sequence. When there are errors in transcription, the result is changes in the messenger RNA, which is then used in translation. When there are errors in translation, the "wrong" sequence of amino acids can result, giving a "wrong" protein.