Pearl + White = ???

[racuda]

If I added some whites to my flock of pearls would the result be pied?

 

[peacockfarmer1]

ive never done it but ive heard that the pearls X white you hatch would be split white

 

[racuda]

So does that mean that the offspring would be pearl, but breeding the splits together the result would be 50% pearl and 50% white?

 

[PeepsCA]

You will most likely get 100% pieds.... of the pairs that are a pearl paired with a white. You will of course still get lots of pearl keets from your pearl pairs, and any hidden recessive colors they carry may pop out in their hatches.

White X Colored will produce 100% Pied keets
White X Pied will produce 50% White keets and 50% Pied keets
White X White will produce 100% White keets

 

[cracking up]

My original adults were four of each white, pearl, and lavender. I got almost all pied off spring.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
White works a little differently in Guineas, they don't carry it as a split. The offspring either show it as being a pied, or a pure white... it's never hidden, unless by maybe having only a few white flight feathers.

A white Guinea is basically a pied over pied bird.

 

[PrinceSandwich]

Quote:
Not necessarily, this is from Guinea Fowl Internationa:

"How pied birds appear is still open to debate. One current opinion is that you need one white gene to produce a pied bird, and two to produce a white bird. But I have discussed this with several good friends of mine who happen to be genetics professors at my local university, and between us we think that this is probably not the case. Their reasoning is, very simply, that pied birds have random splashes of white across them. You would almost certainly need two genes for this to happen: one which controlled the white, and one which controlled the random splashes. Two copies of the same gene could not control two completely different factors.

My opinion is also backed up by how pied birds happen in peafowl. You might want to go back to that peafowl genetics page that I referred you to earlier, where it explained much better than I have room for here.

In essence: until quite recently, it used to be thought that with peafowl, one white gene (T) led to a pied bird, whilst two (TT) gave a white bird. However, it is now apparent that you need both a pied and a white gene (PT) to get a pied peafowl, or two whites (TT) for a white bird. Peafowl with two pied genes (PP) are known as "dark pieds" and signal this effect by appearing to be a "normal" non-pied bird but with a few white flight feathers; birds with just one white gene (T) again look like a normal bird with white flight feathers (usually fewer in number than in the dark pied). If you have a pea with white flight feathers, but don't know whether it is a dark pied or a white cross, there is a foolproof way to find out: mate it with a pure white pea. You will get either 100% pied chicks (in the dark pied/white cross) or 50% white, 50% white cross (in the white/white cross mating).

Now, whether guineafowl use this same mechanism to produce their pied birds has not yet been confirmed and won't be until we do some selective breeding to test all the theories out. But at present I am betting on the "one white, one pied" formula and promise to let you know if this changes."

 

[PeepsCA]

Yah, I am familiar with that article, how old it is and who wrote it... and also how much of an assumption it is

(Also that article has a copyright, lol so watch out). There just aren't any in depth studies published on Guinea Fowl color genetics, so they've been compared to Peafowl studies. Some of which do pertain to Guinea Fowl, some of which do not.

My info came from a breeder that specializes in Guinea Fowl color genetics, he is not affiliated at all with the website you copied the article from.

I've also personally bred enough white, pied and solid Guinea Fowl to agree with his info, not the Peafowl comparison.

FYI... those percentages are based on ALL of the eggs being fertile and hatching out in a clutch (which doesn't always happen).

 

[PrinceSandwich]

He does say in the article that he is making alot of assumptions because of the lack of Guinea gentic information out there, but if you have proved that some of his theories are wrong you should contact the writer as I think he would want to know.

 

[jcatblum]

I personally let all my guineas run together. I had pearl, lavender, lavender pied & coral. I am about to set a few dozen eggs & was wondering what the color results would be. I did several searches but was unable to find any solid answers for offspring colors. I know 1 of my pearl girls is pair with coral boy & a lavender pied is paired with a pearl. Plus every other combination you could imagine (I have 14 total). Fingers crossed for a good hatch & in a month I can post pics & hopefully someone can help me figure out what colors hatch out!