When Crossing domestic chickens with Jungle Fowl to create the hybrid Bekisar only the male offspring are fertile. The females are infertile. The fertile male hybrids had to then be bred to the female domestic chickens again for about 3 generations before beginning to get fertile female crosses. Each generation that concentrates more of the domestic chicken genes has a higher possibility of producing fertile hybrids with a trace of the jungle fowl genes that can then be passed on by the females. I am betting that a similar procedure would be necessary to get a fertile hybrid going between turkeys and peacocks. Look up the Jungle fowl history and how the Bekisar was formed and how the Green and Gray jungle fowl added genes into the makeup of Pacific and South American chickens to get an idea of how you would have to proceed and if you wanted to take such a long term task on.
One of the main reasons it was ever achieved in the first place is that the people of Micronesia were fascinated by the call of the birds and they used them on their boats because their unique "crowing" cut through the sounds of the waves and worked like fog horns on the ocean to keep the small boats together in a group. Chieftains' prestige was measured in these birds. Breeding these chickens was not just measured in the generations of chickens but the generations of the breeders. Not to say it isn't a worth an attempt. If it were my birds I would at least have to give it a try. There is a fellow that is selling some quail/bantam americana eggs on ebay this last month. He had 2 bantam Am. cockrels that were getting the crap beat out of them and he put them in his girl quail pen till he could build them their own pen. Well when he hatched some of the quail eggs they came out multicolored. They are hybrids and if the pattern holds true(it should because of the way the bird genes work,mk, i.e. the male has the matching pair of chromosomes and the females are different) only the males have any chance of being fertile. but they are interesting and if I had my incubator ready to go I would just have to get some just to see.
One of the main reasons it was ever achieved in the first place is that the people of Micronesia were fascinated by the call of the birds and they used them on their boats because their unique "crowing" cut through the sounds of the waves and worked like fog horns on the ocean to keep the small boats together in a group. Chieftains' prestige was measured in these birds. Breeding these chickens was not just measured in the generations of chickens but the generations of the breeders. Not to say it isn't a worth an attempt. If it were my birds I would at least have to give it a try. There is a fellow that is selling some quail/bantam americana eggs on ebay this last month. He had 2 bantam Am. cockrels that were getting the crap beat out of them and he put them in his girl quail pen till he could build them their own pen. Well when he hatched some of the quail eggs they came out multicolored. They are hybrids and if the pattern holds true(it should because of the way the bird genes work,mk, i.e. the male has the matching pair of chromosomes and the females are different) only the males have any chance of being fertile. but they are interesting and if I had my incubator ready to go I would just have to get some just to see.
I would like to know the answer to this. Why? Because we had some peacock (no idea where he came from) fly down from the skies to woo our turkey girl Lucy (bourbon red turkey). I was wondering if those two would actually pair up and create fertile eggs (we have no tom turkey).
