Those who need help in sexing peafowl

[MinxFox]

I started thinking that Thor probably has green blood which was causing all of the weird color issues.

Here is the thing about green blood...I got started with peafowl around 4 years ago. I went with what the seller told me their birds were. Now that I have learned more, I see that my pied peahen Damsel probably has some green blood in her. The person I bought her from had few peafowl, and they certainly did not have any green peafowl or obvious spaldings. What happens is people get sold these low % spaldings and you can hardly tell they are spalding, then they breed with those birds and they think they are just India blues and then they sell them as India blue varieties. Spalding peafowl do not breed true. The genotype and phenotype varies when you breed them. That is why it takes breeders so long to get a spalding bird that looks like a green peafowl. I think you can even breed an India blue to a pure green peafowl and not even get a high % looking spalding.

Here is an example of the weird things the spalding blood can do to peahens...A normal India blue black shoulder (my peahen Ice - even she has rust colored primaries):


When you throw the spalding blood into the mix, a black shoulder peahen starts looking like a young black shoulder peacock. (Photos below taken at Rocking BAB Ranch)
Spalding black shoulder peahen on left, spalding peach peacock on right.


Green peahens are very colorful, just as colorful as green peacocks, so spalding peahens get some of that color from the green blood.


Another spalding black shoulder peahen. Lots of color yet still a peahen.


If you don't believe me, check out Rocking BAB Ranch's photo gallery... on the gallery page 5 there is this photo of what looks like the peahen above or one similar to her, labeled as a spalding black shoulder hen.
http://www.rockingbabranch.us/images/spalding-black-shoulder-hen.jpg

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This is just an example of the weird things spalding blood can do. It can make even peahens larger or taller, have tighter crests, darker legs, yellow faces with even some blue skin too, it can make peahens more colorful, change feather shape, sometimes even change occelli shape, change their vocalizations, etc.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Blue Creek,your post #368 about my interesting IB hen with the frosted feather tips,,should I exploit her as something "New"? I'm just being sarcastic here,New Years Day humor,,,laugh with me here please. It just reminds me of a breeder that is working on exploiting a "one in a billion" genetic misfire that they,nor the original breeder could ever replicate.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Kathy did you see the hens pictures too on the website? They are nearly identical like it has been said. Here is the picture I took. Those feathers are from a few years ago when he Spaulding did not have such nice feathers, but on the left are high percentage Spaulding peacock neck feathers and on the right a India blue black shoulder neck feathers.

 

[casportpony]

So I can see that both feathers on the right are male and that would be obvious to me even if they were white, right? Now for the left most, it also looks male, but the one next to it looks female. Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you're willing to teach, I'm willing to learn!

-Kathy

 

[BYC-user-174785]

I think that is just a feather from when he was a year old, and he is now more green with more defined feathers. They are not white green peafowl, but a high percentage white spalding would have feathers like that. Also, that feather was titled on the side a bit, which may be why it had a bit more of a bluer shine to it. The bigger one is a better example.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Blue Creek,your post #368 about my interesting IB hen with the frosted feather tips,,should I exploit her as something "New"?  I'm just being sarcastic here,New Years Day humor,,,laugh with me here please. It just reminds me of a breeder  that is working on exploiting a "one in a billion" genetic misfire that they,nor the original breeder could ever replicate.

So it is just the result of white eye? I missed your post earlier, but happy new year to you too!

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Blue Creek,I'm betting this ib hen is carrying 2 copies of white,,and split either to pied,or black shoulder.I think she will be going in the breeding pen with my coming 3yr old bssp male that is an astounding looking ,,very pronounced loud pied. I do not know who this hens father is but her mom i know proof positive who she is,,she's contributing heavy to keeper bssp hens within my flock.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Okay. That makes sense now. So bssp hens could really go into any pen?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

BSSP birds offers the most genetic bang for the buck. I've saved enough hens back to put at least one bssp hen in every pen this year.Bronze,Opal,Taupe,Cameo,Midnights,Peach and Taupes all will have them in breeding pens this spring,plus still breed bssp true in one breeding pen. I learned the value of bssp genetics when I first started in peas and my goal was to be able to breed and raise my own in enough numbers to go in every colored breeding pen I have. My BSSP pen was the first hatchrate problem which I quickly addressed and corrected.

 

[MinxFox]

Quote:

So I can see that both feathers on the right are male and that would be obvious to me even if they were white, right? Now for the left most, it also looks male, but the one next to it looks female. Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you're willing to teach, I'm willing to learn!

-Kathy

Yes even if the feathers on the right were white they would be male feathers. The left feathers are shaped like peahen feathers, because ALL green peafowl have scale shaped neck feathers for both the males and females. Thus, if you breed a green to say an India Blue, you can get some birds that will have these scale shaped feathers even if they are a male, yet the scales might not be perfectly connected because of the presence of the India blue blood. Also, notice how on the left feathers, There is a triangle of dark blue. Green peafowl feathers have this dark blue triangle on their neck feathers and the end of the neck feather will be a brighter color. Here are some green peafowl feather close ups:
Notice how triangular the feathers are and how pronounced the triangle in the center is. This is why some spalding peacocks will have scale neck feathers. (Photos taken at Rocking BAB)