Chocolate projects?

[smoothmule]

yea, edited the to a link so you can go and see them. I don't know how to post pics here. All the other sites I go to that works.

I can't make heads or tails of your links, they're all mixed together and I can't get them to open. Sorry.

 

[smoothmule]

The title is chocolate projects, so I thought I would add one more chocolate project....but they are not chickens.....however they are birds.

My Muscovy ducks. They do come in chocolate but the chocolates are sort of mixed up in most flocks and the SOP calls for a proper chocolate with white in only the wing area. I still have a lot of sorting to do in all the young chocolates I've bought this summer but it's interesting that the chocolate genes work the same as for chickens.

These are 3 month old hens.



These 2 drakes are also young and have a lot of maturing to do but very good sized already. The chocolate drake has the usual mix of sun faded and fresh feathers. His chest still has a lot of the pale baby feathers.

I'll have to keep any ducks I plan to show in a building out of the sun. The black drake carries a chocolate gene, his mother was chocolate.

 

[Gary H]

Yes, I Know. It won't even let me edit it again. I don't have any idea how to post pics here. Their from my photo hosting page. here is a link to the page: http://s525.photobucket.com/user/garyhern/library/Gold laced choc?sort=3&page=1

Yes, I hatched about 20 chicks from the GL (Gold Laced) cross with the chocolate hen. All were brown but there were 2 that were a different shade. I ended up keeping those two to let them grow out. Their about 10 weeks old now and have a dingy chocolate base with some goldish highlights on the ends of the feathers. Look like mutts but their still a shade of chocolate with nothing black there. I'm growing out a dozen chicks from the 1 roo and 2 hens and so far, all of them have brown legs (although it's a little lighter than my chocolates legs). Their nothing lke the coloration on the unrelated GL's I'm raising of which at least one of them is a blue based cockerel.

 

[smoothmule]

Yes, I Know. It won't even let me edit it again. I don't have any idea how to post pics here. Their from my photo hosting page. here is a link to the page: http://s525.photobucket.com/user/garyhern/library/Gold laced choc?sort=3&page=1

Yes, I hatched about 20 chicks from the GL (Gold Laced) cross with the chocolate hen. All were brown but there were 2 that were a different shade. I ended up keeping those two to let them grow out. Their about 10 weeks old now and have a dingy chocolate base with some goldish highlights on the ends of the feathers. Look like mutts but their still a shade of chocolate with nothing black there. I'm growing out a dozen chicks from the 1 roo and 2 hens and so far, all of them have brown legs (although it's a little lighter than my chocolates legs). Their nothing lke the coloration on the unrelated GL's I'm raising of which at least one of them is a blue based cockerel.

If they are recessive chocolate, you can't get chocolate chicks from a chocolate hen unless the rooster "is" chocolate or carries it. Who was the daddy to the chicks hatched from the chocolate hen?

 

[Gary H]

that was my gold laced rooster

 

[smoothmule]

that was my gold laced rooster

If the hen is truly chocolate, then all the cockerels by the GL rooster over the chocolate hens will be chocolate carriers. Breed them back to the chocolate hens to test breed for chocolate

 

[Gary H]

The reason for crossing them was to determine coloration of the gold laced I have right now. I was told that this was the tell to be able to determine my males base color

 

[Yowza Wowza]

My beautiful bantam rooster

 

[smoothmule]

My beautiful bantam rooster

He doesn't look chocolate, do you have any better photo's in natural lighting that actually show his color? Looks like his tail is black with green sheen? If it is then he is not chocolate.

 

[smoothmule]

The reason for crossing them was to determine coloration of the gold laced I have right now. I was told that this was the tell to be able to determine my males base color

Can you post photo's of the chocolate hens, the GL rooster and the chicks? Blue lacing can also produce sort of a dingy brown color lacing. Are the chocolate hens Orpingtons? or a cross?
What breed is the GL rooster? He would have to be a crossbreed to be chocolate laced.