This week's peafowl hatch consisted of 4 eggs, 3 from the India Blue Pen and 1 from the White Pen. The first 3 are all India Blue chicks...the 4th hatched today...an India Blue Silver Pied! Now, I know, some don't think this is exciting...but I do. I am a fanatic about genetics and am facinated by the differences in all the birds that mom is hatching this summer. In the pen that this egg comes from is a white peacock, white peahen, midnight peahen and a silver pied peahen. Genetically, there is somewhere around a 25% chance that the silver pied will hatch a silver pied chick when bred to a white peacock. Honestly, I didn't think it would happen this year since out of the 47 chicks hatched...only 14 even came from that pen and the 13 hatched before were all solid white birds. What's so special? This chick will be mostly white except for a dot of color on its head, tail and a tiny patch on its back. If it turns out to be a male, it's entire tail will be white except for a very few colored feathers. I'm guessing he would turn a few heads....he will be a beautiful bird. However, with our luck, it will be a hen...still beautiful...but we already have one of those!
Still damp from hatching...
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