Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[R2elk]

Sooo adorable!! Don't you just love when they're little babies!!

Oh yeah, they are already getting a good start by running around trying to eat each other's toes.

Violet keet


Sky Blue keet


Royal Purple keet


Chocolate keet


Coral Blue keet in the middle

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

 

[Pyxis]

Well color me confused. I hatched some keets from my pair of guineas and I got colors that I was NOT expecting. The mother is lavender, the father is pearl, so the babies should have been all pearl split to lavender. Nope! Got one pearl, three lavenders, and two that I have no clue of. The father must be split to lavender and something else because that's all I can think of. The mystery keets are a soft brown, cinnamon type color. Here's a picture but the color isn't very clearly represented here:

The one in question is in the middle. The one on the right is of course a pearl and on the left is a lavender. I'll have to try to get better pictures tomorrow. Just really curious what color they are.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well color me confused. I hatched some keets from my pair of guineas and I got colors that I was NOT expecting. The mother is lavender, the father is pearl, so the babies should have been all pearl split to lavender. Nope! Got one pearl, three lavenders, and two that I have no clue of. The father must be split to lavender and something else because that's all I can think of. The mystery keets are a soft brown, cinnamon type color. Here's a picture but the color isn't very clearly represented here:



The one in question is in the middle. The one on the right is of course a pearl and on the left is a lavender. I'll have to try to get better pictures tomorrow. Just really curious what color they are.

Precious!
Good question, I am terrible about genetics. Hope someone can help you better. Whats the parentage coloring that produced your parent birds? that will help. Color goes back generations. Its also how we have so many interesting hybrid colors today.

 

[Pyxis]

Precious!
Good question, I am terrible about genetics. Hope someone can help you better. Whats the parentage coloring that produced your parent birds? that will help. Color goes back generations. Its also how we have so many interesting hybrid colors today.

Lol, part of the problem is I have zero clue what's behind my adult birds. I did hatch the lavender female myself, and she was from a breeder who keeps separate pen colors and she came from a lavender pen but that's all I can say for sure about her. The male I bought from someone who hatched him from an egg assortment they got from a hatchery so the jury's completely out on him.

Hopefully I can get some good pictures of the mystery keets tomorrow, I gave them to a broody hen. They look almost buff dundotte but I'm not sure if that's possible from the parent cross.

 

[harley587]

Well color me confused. I hatched some keets from my pair of guineas and I got colors that I was NOT expecting. The mother is lavender, the father is pearl, so the babies should have been all pearl split to lavender. Nope! Got one pearl, three lavenders, and two that I have no clue of. The father must be split to lavender and something else because that's all I can think of. The mystery keets are a soft brown, cinnamon type color. Here's a picture but the color isn't very clearly represented here:



The one in question is in the middle. The one on the right is of course a pearl and on the left is a lavender. I'll have to try to get better pictures tomorrow. Just really curious what color they are.

I don't know about bird genetics, but I do know that cats can have a litter with multiple fathers in the litter AND cats can be evil, so maybe there's a similarity there!!! I quack myself up!!

 

[R2elk]

Well color me confused. I hatched some keets from my pair of guineas and I got colors that I was NOT expecting. The mother is lavender, the father is pearl, so the babies should have been all pearl split to lavender. Nope! Got one pearl, three lavenders, and two that I have no clue of. The father must be split to lavender and something else because that's all I can think of. The mystery keets are a soft brown, cinnamon type color. Here's a picture but the color isn't very clearly represented here:



The one in question is in the middle. The one on the right is of course a pearl and on the left is a lavender. I'll have to try to get better pictures tomorrow. Just really curious what color they are.

From what I am seeing in the photo, the one on the left looks more like a Lite Lavender than a Lavender. The one on the right is a Pearl and the one in the middle looks like a Brown to me.

To get this mix, the Pearl father would have to be carrying a recessive buff gene. There are some strange things that go on when the recessive buff and blue genes get mixed. They don't always work out to the same colors. Neither is dominant over the other and can produce unexpected results.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Gotto love thenm littel JackBooters.... thundering back and forth from place to place and woe to the one who doesnt pay attentintion....

Love them shrug sweaters too....


deb

 

[Pyxis]

I don't know about bird genetics, but I do know that cats can have a litter with multiple fathers in the litter AND cats can be evil, so maybe there's a similarity there!!!  I quack myself up!!

Lol! Well, I only have the one male and female, so they're definitely the parents

From what I am seeing in the photo, the one on the left looks more like a Lite Lavender than a Lavender.  The one on the right is aPearl and the one in the middle looks like a Brown to me.

To get this mix, the Pearl father would have to be carrying a recessive buff gene.  There are some strange things that go on when the recessive buff and blue genes get mixed.  They don't always work out to the same colors.  Neither is dominant over the other and can produce unexpected results.

Thank you! I guess I might have to wait until they feather out to know for sure, but a brown would be neat, not to mention totally unexpected!

Edit: If it helps any, these are the parents:

 

[MeepBeep]

Guinea color morph genes are not fully documented, so unless you have proven breeding stock with proven breeding outcomes, it's very hard to predict the outcome of the keets when you have carriers of a color morph...

I wish I had more diversity, I ordered in some mixed ones trying to get some color diversity in my flock and have pearl, gray, pied, lavender, chocolate, white and cream adults, but all the keets I have hatched are plain jane pearls...