Those who need help in sexing peafowl

[frenchblackcopper]

Birdrain92, I came home a bit early tonight to get some pics you may find interesting or possibly not. The two pics of the hen below is of a India Blue coming 2 year old Phenotype hen(for the most part) You will see she has white edges around the feathers on her back right behind her neck.Notice she does not have a distinctive white throat patch,or any visible white flight feathers on her wings(at least the side you can see,but there is none on either wing) But her mom is a 100% black shoulder silver pied hen. I bought 4 bssp birds in May of 2012 that was in an overflow pen.This was an egg that was laid within a day or so after I got these birds home so the father is unknown but a good guess is he was an IB. The Genotype this hen has is black shoulder,and pied,and one copy of white eye.Phenotype she only slightly hints she has at least 1 white copy,but genotype she is hiding her pied and black shoulder genes. Many pied carriers do not show the white throat patch,I have several other hens that carry pied but don't express it,thus they are "splits". Same with black shoulder here,several birds carry it,but was not born yellow and do not look b/s now.My Opal pen this year is another good example,the Peacock Opie is an Opal b/s in with 4 hens,one of those hens is an Opal pied,the other is a plain opal hen so even tho the Opal-gray chicks I hatched this summer looks 100% Opal,they carry the black shoulder gene.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Here is another "fluke" in peafowl breeding. The two pics of this hen makes her appear to be "frosted" in color,which is another indication of carrying one copy of white. But if this hen has a white copy in her genes,it's hidden,because both her parents are pheno and geno correct.Father is a Bronze,mother is an IB Split to Bronze.I have no idea where the white misting is coming from in her back,but another interesting thing about this hen,is she has both brown-tan bronze feathers,and the normal dark dunn colored ib feathers.She's actually showing two colors of feathers,with "frosting" on both colors of them.The breeding pen she comes from has a regular Bronze male,with 2 bronze hens,and one India Blue hen split to Bronze. I witnessed the IB/split bronze hen lay this egg and it was marked accordingly,so I know exactly who the mother was.I cannot explain both feather colors across her back.But indications are this hen somehow has one copy of white possibly going back several generations before it now surfaced.You will also notice she has some last barring towards the end of her tail and wing feathers and she is not yet 2 years old.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

One last pic,,this is an Opal b/s hen which I posted earlier to you about sexing at an early age.Opal change color very,very slowly and with the exception of the males going from yellow to a very lite tan,then very gradually to gray over 6 months time,they are a project to sex.Opal B/S hens are much more white in color,with not much if any "flecking" on their feathers as with India Blue or Silver Pied Black shouldered hens. You may not be able to see it,but her giveaway is the one lone gray tail feather she has.Plus she was wingbanded at hatchtime.Now if you really want a project,I know one that one of the TOP breeders in the USA has told me that noone is capable of,,and that is telling apart fully grown Midnight b/s hens,from IB Black shoulder hens.Phenotypically they look 100% identical. Here is the Opal b/s hen

 

[AugeredIn]

I had both midnight bs and IB bs and there is NO way to tell the difference as adults. They are identical.

 

[AugeredIn]

FBC, based upon my recents conversations per my PM, the hen in post 361 is "split" white eye carrying only one copy of white eye and is split pied but NOT split white. The hen in post 362 probably has one copy of white eye only that has been passed from the female side that may or may not express as "frosted". Although it is possible the male had one copy of white eye and did not express it. I have a bronze from Sid that carries one copy of white eye and didi not have any white eyes last year.

Of course, in complete disclosure, I have been wrong many times before.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Quote: They are all male.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

I don't know if those bronze is spalding or not one might be since you mentioned some came from the spalding bronze cage. Probably will have to keep saying it until Thor is like a year old.

She is actually bronze spalding split b/s. Her dad was a bronze b/s, and the mom was probably one of two bronze spalding hens, probably the lower percentage one since the other higher percentage one's daughter looks very spalding.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Birdrain92, I came home a bit early tonight to get some pics you may find interesting or possibly not. The two pics of the hen below is of a India Blue coming 2 year old Phenotype hen(for the most part) You will see she has white edges around the feathers on her back right behind her neck.Notice she does not have a distinctive white throat patch,or any visible white flight feathers on her wings(at least the side you can see,but there is none on either wing) But her mom is a 100% black shoulder silver pied hen. I bought 4 bssp birds in May of 2012 that was in an overflow pen.This was an egg that was laid within a day or so after I got these birds home so the father is unknown but a good guess is he was an IB. The Genotype this hen has is black shoulder,and pied,and one copy of white eye.Phenotype she only slightly hints she has at least 1 white copy,but genotype she is hiding her pied and black shoulder genes. Many pied carriers do not show the white throat patch,I have several other hens that carry pied but don't express it,thus they are "splits". Same with black shoulder here,several birds carry it,but was not born yellow and do not look b/s now.My Opal pen this year is another good example,the Peacock Opie is an Opal b/s in with 4 hens,one of those hens is an Opal pied,the other is a plain opal hen so even tho the Opal-gray chicks I hatched this summer looks 100% Opal,they carry the black shoulder gene.

This hen is very odd looking, in a cool way. I never had any IB hens with that type of back. But that is probably due to her genetics.

 

[casportpony]

They are all male.

Okay, I guess my eyes aren't good enough, lol.

Or is there something I'm not seeing?

-Kathy

 

[BYC-user-174785]

 
They are all male.

Okay, I guess my eyes aren't good enough, lol.  Or is there something I'm not seeing?

-Kathy

Just as the feathers were labeled, that is what peacock they came from. It shows the different degrees of green blood versus a feather from a blue and a green peacock.