Show off your Peas!

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Oh, they are so lovely! And I'm sure their feathers will go back with some TLC.

Blessings -

~ Aspen

 

[DylansMom]

I would say Cameo hens. The necks are much darker than my Cameo Black Shoulder hen, so I'm thinking barred wing pattern. Very nice!

 

[KsKingBee]

Got a call back from the seller this morning. His story is that his wife brought him a pair of cameos from Missouri years ago and that everything he has is descendant from them. He has cameos, IB, BS, and Pied. I saw two pied IB white eyed at the sale and he has one more at home, he calls it a 'spotted rooster' that I may go look at.

He doesn't have time for the peas anymore and is getting out, his plan is to take another load to auction the end of the month. Also said that he incubated all his peas under chickens.

I was wondering if the light brown feather on the BS wing is showing from the cameo blood in that bird?

 

[DylansMom]

Got a call back from the seller this morning. His story is that his wife brought him a pair of cameos from Missouri years ago and that everything he has is descendant from them. He has cameos, IB, BS, and Pied. I saw two pied IB white eyed at the sale and he has one more at home, he calls it a 'spotted rooster' that I may go look at.

He doesn't have time for the peas anymore and is getting out, his plan is to take another load to auction the end of the month. Also said that he incubated all his peas under chickens.

I was wondering if the light brown feather on the BS wing is showing from the cameo blood in that bird?

I wonder if his original cameo pair were brother & sister, I know it is not recommended to breed siblings, but it doesn't guarantee birth defects either. If they were siblings and carrying BS, as well as pied and we genes it would explain those patterns, but if both were cameo, I think he should have gotten all cameo offspring, unless he added new blood at some point. As for that light tan on the feather, I think that is more age related than cameo related. All my BS boys start with tan and black mottled wings, the older they get the more the tan fades away, the oldest males over 10, hardly have any now. Here are some wing feathers from my younger BS boys.

 

[furbabymum]

These pictures aren't that great but they were from this weekend. It's the first time the peacocks have ventured out this year so I know it's spring!

 

[margaret8]

I wish I could free range, but I will not go through waiting for them to come home after running off! They came home, but I will not let them out again until they are older! They are only 9 months old. They got a taste of the woods across the road so now I don't trust them!

 

[furbabymum]

I wish I could free range, but I will not go through waiting for them to come home after running off! They came home, but I will not let them out again until they are older! They are only 9 months old. They got a taste of the woods across the road so now I don't trust them!

I think the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing around helps. We have the most trees on our property and even they are small. Not much to encourage my peas to fly off really.

 

[KsKingBee]

I wonder if his original cameo pair were brother & sister, I know it is not recommended to breed siblings, but it doesn't guarantee birth defects either. If they were siblings and carrying BS, as well as pied and we genes it would explain those patterns, but if both were cameo, I think he should have gotten all cameo offspring, unless he added new blood at some point. As for that light tan on the feather, I think that is more age related than cameo related. All my BS boys start with tan and black mottled wings, the older they get the more the tan fades away, the oldest males over 10, hardly have any now. Here are some wing feathers from my younger BS boys.

Thank you, that helps. I need to catch the one hen with the bare neck and look at her right wing, it looks like it is missing something. When you mentioned the interbreeding were you thinking of the claws that are missing on two of the hens? I was told that all the peas he took to the sale were at least three years old, and he was not sure if one of the cameos was maybe male, I don't think so but I could be wrong.

I have a choice as to what I pen these hens with, either a three year IB or one of the three year old BS cocks, what would you do for a pairing? I think my pied and WE males are too young, they are only 2013 hatch. I may end up with his 'spotted' cock of breeding age.

 

[DylansMom]

Thank you, that helps. I need to catch the one hen with the bare neck and look at her right wing, it looks like it is missing something. When you mentioned the interbreeding were you thinking of the claws that are missing on two of the hens? I was told that all the peas he took to the sale were at least three years old, and he was not sure if one of the cameos was maybe male, I don't think so but I could be wrong.

I have a choice as to what I pen these hens with, either a three year IB or one of the three year old BS cocks, what would you do for a pairing? I think my pied and WE males are too young, they are only 2013 hatch. I may end up with his 'spotted' cock of breeding age.

When I mentioned inbreeding I was thinking about the seller saying all of these were descendants of the same pair of cameos. Depending on how long ago he got them and how many generations have been hatched, that's a lot of inbreeding if he didn't add new blood. If the original 2 were siblings that just makes it worse. If I am right and all offspring of 2 cameos would be cameo, then he had to add new blood, which would be a good thing in this situation. If it were me, I would not breed them to each other just in case. I would try to breed the new hens with one of your males and the new BS boys with your hens, that way you know it isn't going to be a 5th generation of inbreeding, if you know what I mean? Once inbreeding goes too far you can start to get some pretty bad birth defects (like no eyes), saw that on here somewhere. Whenever I hear a situation where someone starts with 1 pair and 20 years later they have a whole flock, descended from that pair, I get nervous. My DH's grandparents raised meat rabbits and they had inbred for many years, there were a lot of birth defects and malformed bunnies by the time I met them and saw the farm. Yikes!

 

[margaret8]

I think the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing around helps. We have the most trees on our property and even they are small. Not much to encourage my peas to fly off really.

We live on 60 acres with a several hundred acre wooded ares across the road from us. Our house sits on about 3 cleared acres surrounded by a large wooded area. We have big trees in the yard. We have seen bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, etc in the area. So really there is no reason for them to leave the yard! But they did! They came back to their pen about 4 days later. I have not let them out since! I let them out 2 at a time, 3, 4, 5, and finally all six. They stayed around for a couple of days even going back in their pen at night. Then on Saturday I let them out and they stayed around all day then they left! I saw the next morning. We walked behind them for about 3 hours then they went in another direction. We were exhausted by this time so we went home. As I said they showed up about 4 days later. All of them except 1 of the males. I'm still waiting on him!