What colors do you think I should get.

[SuperPeacockman]

I have had pearl guinea's for years but I want to order some new stock this year because I am afraid mine are rather inbred now. I think I am going to order from the Guinea Farm. So what colors do you think I should get. I am leaning toward, pearl, white, lavender, chocolate, violet, pewter, and pied. Possibly jumbo's as well.

 

[BAMACK2]

What area are you in

 

[SunflowerChicks]

I love my pearl pieds!

 

[BAMACK2]

I like those pintos but don't need 30 of them lol

 

[AquaEyes]

If your concern is to avoid inbreeding, I'd suggest getting as many different colors as possible. The Guinea Farm has their breeders penned separately by color, so that they breed true. Thus each color will come from a different pen, and won't be related to those from other pens. I was thinking about this for my "someday" when I get guineas and came up with this idea for myself. You'll probably get a lot of pearl offspring in the first generation, but they'll be split to whatever their parents' colors were. So if you were free-ranging them, you'll get some interesting surprises in the second generation.

Also keep in mind that if you get whites, you'll get pieds in the first generation if the whites breed to non-whites. I don't know how "pinto" works genetically, but to my eyes, it looks just like a pied.

 

[PrinceSandwich]

I really like the look of the Lavenders, but there are so many options it's crazy!

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Quote:
I am concerned in my current flock I think it is the 6th or 7th generation from the same original stock

 

[shelleyd2008]

Pearl is dominant over every color so no matter what colors you get the young from the birds will mostly be pearl grey. Personally, I've not lost any of my 'light but not white' (the jury is still out on what color they actually are) guineas to predators except the occasional broody hen.
Picture coming as soon as I get them loaded

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I am concerned in my current flock I think it is the 6th or 7th generation from the same original stock

If you ordered the original flock from a hatchery (not a breeder) most likely they were not related at all or were not very closely related. If you aren't having any hatching problems (low hatch rates, birth defects, early deaths) then they are not inbred.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
White does not make pied, pied makes pied. There is some suggestion that guineas, like peafowl, need 1 gene of white and 1 gene of pied to look pied. A 'pinto' is just a pied bird that has come from a long line of pied-to-pied breeding resulting in an overly pied bird. It happens with tuxedo coturnix as well. When breeding tux-to-tux eventually you end up with an almost completely white bird.