Chocolate projects?

[GoldenFlight]

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[NathanZee]

Never kept the Khaki Campbells but they are suppose to be Dark-phase (Li"+"-so wild type; Jaap 1933) and Dusky Mallard mutation (m"d" - Jaap 1934) along with brown dilution mutation (d - Punnett 1930 & 1932).

Keep in mind...black and red are the only pigments in feathers...no pigment is white.

There are three feather dilution genes in ducks...comprised of blue, brown and buff.

To have something to dilute to say chocolate, you would want to start out with a black based duck, so Extended black (E is autosomal dominant to non-extended black - Philips 1915; and Japp & Milby 1944). Think duck breeds of Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) descent like East Indies, Cayugas, Black Orpingtons. We've had the Indies for plenty of years...

A small bevy of our East Indie Bantam ducks​

Note the beetle green sheen on our young male Mel taking Reserve in Breed​

​

Extended black may have an adverse affect on down (not adults or juvenile plumage)..."clubbing" as seen by Haws in his study 1965. No worries, adults are fine. You are gonna need black based ducks to start off if you want to play with chocolate, buff and brown feathered waterfowl.

​

You need to take a black Call like the one above...and dilute the eumelanin (black pigment) to shades of brown or chocolate or buff.

So remember what I just typed...there are THREE diluters in ducks; you got blue, buff and brown/chocolate.

This is a blue Call hen...she would be like the black hen above if not for the addition of a single allele of blue dilution (Bl)​

Blue is like brown or buff in that it has a black base that it dilutes into grey (think black with white and you finger paint those two colours all together to get...to get GREY!).

Black, splash and blue - lined up like on Duck Hunt (nfi)

I will mention Blue Dilution (no, not chocolate but...) because you require both blue dilution, brown dilution and buff dilution to make the Buff Orpington duck on the Dusky base. Some persons would consider BUFF to be a category of chocolate... The dilutions are compounding in that the more diluters you add to an otherwise BLACK based duck...the lighter the eumelanin or black becomes! Think of it like you added 1/2 a cup of vinegar to a black t-shirt in the wash...now add two more 1/2 cups of vinegar and you REALLY ruined your otherwise BLACK shirt, eh.

Two chocolate Calls and a...a yellow downed Call (WHITE duck which means NO PIGMENT!)​

Khaki Campbells are black ducks with the addition of brown dilution on the wild type dark phase base (Li"+"). Punnett investigated brown in 1930 & 1932. Walther et al. in 1932...both independently concluded that brown dilution was gender linked and recessive (well OK, the female duck can only HAVE one copy--she's a hemizygote, so her brown dilution acts dominant simply because that be all she has to express!).

Mrs. Adele Campbell of Uley, Gloucestershire, England made the Campbell breed of ducks in the latter part of the 1800's. Supposedly she bred her original creations back to Pencilled Runners to create the Khakis.

Chocolate is one of the rarest colours in Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) descended ducks. The dark brown most often has the beetle green sheen on the head, neck, and back. Males have more green sheen and may have some on their butts. According to Holderread, there is another kind of chocolate which is less dark and lacks this green sheen--I don't have this kind in my Calls. Because the chocolate is based on black, juvenile white feathering faults may occur in some strains--some old chocolate ducks turn white feathered over time...recall no pigment = white, so like a dog's greying muzzle as they age--white feathers become more prolific indicating pigment is not being laid down in the keratin (protein) of the feathers. Sunlight also can fade this diluter even further. Chocolate is gender linked and recessive...it will obscure the wing speculum. If you add blue dilution to brown dilution (ah ha...why I mentioned the BOO, eh), the affect is compounding and results in a paler coloured bird. Think in terms of the Buff Orpington duck...blue AND chocolate AND buff ALL further diluting the black base. Kewl

So let's not forget to look at the other diluter in duck ducks (goose?). Buff...also gender linked. This dilutes black pigment to a medium dark brown. Yeh, I know...why call the Orpington just BUFF when it has both brown and the buff PLUS BLUE in their genetic make up...grrrr.... Lancaster played with matings of Buff Opringtons (dusky pattern with brown, buff and two blue dilutions) and Khaki Campbells in 1963.

Fresh duck eggs...all 28 days fresh ​

So uh, like yah...anyone else looking tres forward to EASTER and perhaps getting some chocolate ducks of the munching kind? Quack quack...already got two Call eggs laid yesterday...four Oz Black Swan eggs...spring, in January?? Never say never...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

Sorry, I accidentally posted as my brother the first time.

Thank you so much! That really helped me understand! I had noticed that Buff's had blue in them, when I crossed them with mallards they had blue offspring.

 

[terrip824]

I'm glad I found this thread . I am new to Chocolate breeding so I have a newbie ?. I just set eggs from my sex-linked Choc Orp rooster and a Blue Orpington hen. Should I expect "mauve" chicks? Do the "Blue" rules apply ? I read in an earlier post that they don't when crossed with chocolate. Could you explain this? What would any cockerels be? Thanks for the help.

 

[KYTinpusher]

I'm glad I found this thread . I am new to Chocolate breeding so I have a newbie ?. I just set eggs from my sex-linked Choc Orp rooster and a Blue Orpington hen. Should I expect "mauve" chicks? Do the "Blue" rules apply ? I read in an earlier post that they don't when crossed with chocolate. Could you explain this? What would any cockerels be? Thanks for the help.

Yes, the blue rules do apply. Chocolate added to black is chocolate; added to blue is mauve (I call it mocha - seems more accurate to me); added to splash is a mauve splash (I call it Latte). From your cross, you will hatch chocolate and mauve (mocha) pullets, and black and blue cockerels that are split to chocolate. Hens only require one copy of the chocolate to express it, while cockerels require 2 copies (one from each parent). Hens will only pass the chocolate gene to cockerels, not pullets, but cocks can pass it to both sexes. Since your rooster is chocolate, he has 2 copies and will pass it to all of his offspring, hence the sex-links. Split to chocolate means the cockerel carries 1 copy of the chocolate gene, so does not express the color, and will pass the chocolate gene to half of his offspring.

 

[terrip824]

Yes, the blue rules do apply. Chocolate added to black is chocolate; added to blue is mauve (I call it mocha - seems more accurate to me); added to splash is a mauve splash (I call it Latte). From your cross, you will hatch chocolate and mauve (mocha) pullets, and black and blue cockerels that are split to chocolate. Hens only require one copy of the chocolate to express it, while cockerels require 2 copies (one from each parent). Hens will only pass the chocolate gene to cockerels, not pullets, but cocks can pass it to both sexes. Since your rooster is chocolate, he has 2 copies and will pass it to all of his offspring, hence the sex-links. Split to chocolate means the cockerel carries 1 copy of the chocolate gene, so does not express the color, and will pass the chocolate gene to half of his offspring.

Ty for the help. You also answered my ? about her sister who was sold as a Blue but is now somewhere between Splash & Mottled, we think. But she is pretty either way.

 

[pioneerchick816]

Subscribing. I love chocolate!

 

[NoelleK]

Subscribing. I love chocolate!

Me too!

 

[KYTinpusher]

Some updated pictures of one of my projects


The center egg is hers. The egg on the left is a porous Ameraucana egg for comparison, but the spots on the center egg are speckles.

I have some of her eggs in the incubator now.

 

[terrip824]

I just hatched these little fluffy ones. Their father is a sex linked Chocolate Orpington & mother is a Blue possibly Mottled Orpington. Any one have an opinion on their colors? The first chick is the one I'm wondering about. Possible chocolate female? It isn't black or blue. The second chick I believe is mauve. There is a light brown to her down.

 

[pioneerchick816]

Verynice