Question on breeding age

[shelleyd2008]

I have 1 pair of India Blues who will be 1 year old in June or July (can't remember). I know they probably won't breed this year, but should they next year? I'd like to get another hen or two to add to my group but I'd rather wait and get adult hens to add to my 'adult' pair preferably the fall before mine are old enough to reproduce.

So this time next year mine will be about 20 or 21 months old, so should the male breed next season?


Also, Spectrum Ranch listed different colored peafowl on Facebook and I was wondering which would be the best to cross? Assuming he would have the same colors this/next fall.

--India Blues (same as mine)
--Black Shouldered
--White
--Blue pied

Thanks

 

[TerriLaChicks]

They will begin breeding at 2 years of age.
As to the best cross, I'll leave that up to the genetics experts here!

 

[shelleyd2008]

So then they should breed next season? They will be almost 2 years old

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
I'm not as familiar with the whites/pieds/white-eyeds/silver-pieds (Deerman would be the one to ask), but from my understanding, a lot of the whites result from breeding for pied and silver-pied, so there's a good chance that the white birds from Spectrum will come from this background. If you got a white hen from a pied or silver-pied background, you might get some pied and/or white-eyed offspring when paired to your IB male. Again, Deerman would know better how the genes for those patterns work, but that's what I'd go for (if I liked whites or pieds, anyway...I personally prefer the solid-colored birds). Also, white is a color-masking gene. If you were to remove the white gene, underneath may be a bird that's anything else. White birds could be genetically Cameo, but the white gene prevents any color from showing. So buying a white hen would have more of a chance of "surprise" offspring. That might be more fun for you.

Black Shouldered (BS) is recessive, so buying a BS hen and pairing it to your IB male will result in IB offspring that are split-to-BS. According to Deerman's pics, apparently split-to-BS peacocks have some dark markings on their wings, being somewhat intermediate to BS and Barred-wing, so check and see if your IB male is split to BS. If he is, then half of the offspring from a mating to a BS hen will be BS, and the other half will be split-to-BS.

Again, I'm not very familiar with the genetics of pied, but from what I understand, breeding a pied to an IB will result only in dark-pied offspring (that is, they will have some pied markings, but that might be only a few feathers as opposed to a 50% white pattern....once again, ask Deerman).



~Chris

 

[deerman]

Yes they will breed 2012 spring, the male will not have a full train.

Any of those colors or patterns, with your peacock(unless he is split) will produce all blue chicks that will be split to the color of the hen,

Ready depend on what color you like, myself pieds or silver pied in place of a white. With pieds you will get some white from them, now thats pied X pieds.


I have a few 2010 hatch chicks, if you would like to add them to your flock.......as im selling all my birds, main thing they get a good home.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I don't have the funds right now to get anything, I was mainly planning on getting another hen or two this fall (when I have money)

 

[deerman]

check your male, if he has white flights could be split white or pied.

 

[AquaEyes]

See? Deerman knows.

 

[C&Rman]

So I am planning on getting a 2010 hatch. When will they be able to breed 2012 too?

 

[deerman]

YES, but not the greens they need to be 3 yr, in most cases.