Chocolate Ermine Ameraucanas

[Hentherapy]

I've seen a lot of discussions around the ermine projects happening but haven't found a thread for chocolates! I'd love to hear from others who are working on this, see pictures and hear how the genetics work. I've tried to study chocolates quite a few times but it doesn't stick!

 

[Chocoboko]

What's confusing about chocolate is that there's two different genes referred to as chocolate. They look similar but act differently and are located on different alleles. If you're referring to sex-linked chocolate, it works the same way as lavender. If you're referring to dun (which is also sometimes called chocolate), that works similar to BBS. Having two copies of the gene dilutes to khaki. Here's handy charts for both. Replace lavender with sex-linked chocolate, blue with dun, and splash with khaki.
The dun/khaki version affects the same allele as dominant white, so I'm not sure how they mix or if they even can present at the same time. If attempting to make chocolate ermine it may have to be using sex linked chocolate, but I haven't seen anyone working on this yet. Hopefully someone with actual experience can clarify more for you, but I hope this helped!

 

[The Moonshiner]

What's confusing about chocolate is that there's two different genes referred to as chocolate. They look similar but act differently and are located on different alleles. If you're referring to sex-linked chocolate, it works the same way as lavender. If you're referring to dun (which is also sometimes called chocolate), that works similar to BBS. Having two copies of the gene dilutes to khaki. Here's handy charts for both. Replace lavender with sex-linked chocolate, blue with dun, and splash with khaki.
The dun/khaki version affects the same allele as dominant white, so I'm not sure how they mix or if they even can present at the same time. If attempting to make chocolate ermine it may have to be using sex linked chocolate, but I haven't seen anyone working on this yet. Hopefully someone with actual experience can clarify more for you, but I hope this helped!

Sex linked chocolate works nothing like Lavender.

 

[Chocoboko]

Sex linked chocolate works nothing like Lavender.

In terms of its effects on black it does. Of course there is the difference with it being sex-linked. So males can pass off two copies of the gene and females can only pass one. Guess barring would have been a better comparison?

 

[NatJ]

In terms of its effects on black it does. Of course there is the difference with it being sex-linked. So males can pass off two copies of the gene and females can only pass one. Guess barring would have been a better comparison?

Yes, barring would be a better choice (sex-linked, barring is dominant, not-barred is recessive.)

Or gold/silver (sex-linked, gold is recessive, Silver is dominant.) So gold would be an almost perfect model for the inheritance of chocolate: recessive on the Z chromosome.

The lavender chart is not a good model for chocolate, because sex-linked genes do inherit differently than autosomal genes (the ones on other chromosomes.)

 

[The Moonshiner]

In terms of its effects on black it does. Of course there is the difference with it being sex-linked. So males can pass off two copies of the gene and females can only pass one. Guess barring would have been a better comparison?

The only thing in common is that they're both dilute gene.
I wouldn't necessarily use barring either. Barring is also sex linked but it's a dominant sex linked gene. Chocolate is a recessive one so if someone is trying to use barring as an example for breeding chocolate they're gonna notice differences right away.
Chocolate isn't hard to understand so I'd just explain Chocolate as is, no examples of anything else.

 

[Chocoboko]

The only thing in common is that they're both dilute gene.

Yeah that's why it always sticks in my head as similar. Both recessive and dilute black.

Or gold/silver (sex-linked, gold is recessive, Silver is dominant.) So gold would be an almost perfect model for the inheritance of chocolate: recessive on the Z chromosome.

Oh that's a way better comparison. Brain probably didn't think of it because there's an in between color throwing me off . Reason why I was trying to do comparisons was because OP said they struggled with remembering how chocolate works.

Well that's what I get for posting while tired. Is it preferred that I go back and correct my post or should I just leave it as is since y'all technically corrected it?

 

[Hentherapy]

Yeah that's why it always sticks in my head as similar. Both recessive and dilute black.

Oh that's a way better comparison. Brain probably didn't think of it because there's an in between color throwing me off . Reason why I was trying to do comparisons was because OP said they struggled with remembering how chocolate works.

Well that's what I get for posting while tired. Is it preferred that I go back and correct my post or should I just leave it as is since y'all technically corrected it?

Please leave it! This is all helpful!

 

[NatJ]

Well that's what I get for posting while tired. Is it preferred that I go back and correct my post or should I just leave it as is since y'all technically corrected it?

When things like that happen to me, I sometimes go back and put a line across the parts that are wrong, with a note that says something like "I was wrong about lavender, see later posts."

That way it's still there so the rest of the thread makes sense, but it's also clear that something isn't right about it.

(Drawing a line through the words is the option "strike-through," located near italics and underline.)

As regards lavender and chocolate: they are both recessives that dilute black, but lavender also dilutes red, and lavender is not sexlinked. Chocolate dilutes black but apparently not red/gold shades, and is sexlinked.

Because chocolate just dilutes black, it can make colors like Chocolate Laced Gold. Some are pictured on this page:
https://www.lockwoodfeatherfarm.com/chocolate-laced-1

Lavender dilutes both black and red/gold, so a chicken that would be gold with [something] lacing becomes Isabel Laced when it has lavender: light gray lacing, yellow or cream in the middle of the feathers. Example: https://papaspoultry.com/products/orpington-lavender-laced-chick