Anybody have any pics of chocolate or dun colored chickens,dun sumatra

[Tony]

Henk,
The camera did not catch their color well enough. None of these birds have any blue feathers. They are dark brown colored.
Heres an older pic of a hen while she was molting last year:

This hen pictured below is not mine, but this is what color mine are:

 

[smoothmule]

I don't think that chocolate chick down color is black.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
nope, those chicks will be black birds, dun or chocolate chicks have a very distinct dark greyish brown fuz to them, similar to those blue looking birds in the first set of pics.

I would darn to say your birds are dun, not chocolate for a couple reasons, those 2 in back look like khakis to me in the last pic. And your brown hen has bleached out feathers in her, something I see a lot in my duns when they get ready to molt. The sun , or something, fades the dun birds over a feather cycle and when they start to molt, the new feathers are a totally different color.
From what I have been told, true chocolate birds dont do this

 

[Tony]

Quote:
You`re right, the chicks down color is not black, its a dark brown when they`re hatched. Like I said earlier, the camera didn`t catch the color well. These chicks are dark brown.
All 3 of my Brown hens were born dark brown, molt brown and grow back dark brown feathers.


Dun is an allele of the Dominant White gene, acts like Blue , heterozygous Dunn gives a darker Khaki colour, homozygous Dunn gives a Splash ,varing from white with dun markings to a very light milk chocolate colour.
Chocolate is sex-link Recessive gene that is basically a dilution of black pigment. This means that out of a pair of genes, the female will be visually chocolate with just one copy of the gene but the male requires two copies of the choc gene to look chocolate. This also means that black males can look black, but be carrying the chocolate gene. My 3 are visually chocolate colored, unfortunately I have never hatched a male out of these, so I can`t test the "black" roo theory.

The 2 other birds in the pic with the brown molting hen, are actually blues, not khaki`s

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

Quote:
You`re right, the chicks down color is not black, its a dark brown when they`re hatched. Like I said earlier, the camera didn`t catch the color well. These chicks are dark brown.
All 3 of my Brown hens were born dark brown, molt brown and grow back dark brown feathers.


Dun is an allele of the Dominant White gene, acts like Blue , heterozygous Dunn gives a darker Khaki colour, homozygous Dunn gives a Splash ,varing from white with dun markings to a very light milk chocolate colour.
Chocolate is sex-link Recessive gene that is basically a dilution of black pigment. This means that out of a pair of genes, the female will be visually chocolate with just one copy of the gene but the male requires two copies of the choc gene to look chocolate. This also means that black males can look black, but be carrying the chocolate gene. My 3 are visually chocolate colored, unfortunately I have never hatched a male out of these, so I can`t test the "black" roo theory.

The 2 other birds in the pic with the brown molting hen, are actually blues, not khaki`s

where did you get them from???

 

[storminstaffs]

My chocolate orpington pair, i'm hoping they'll multiply some as have some of my hens eggs in the bator

 

[smoothmule]

Tony, Since it's spring (nearly) I thought I'd bump up this thread to see how last summers hatches went from your brown hens?
These last photo's look absolutely Blue to me. The rooster has a bit of red leakage. I've had Araucana's that color. Did you mate that hen and rooster? I would expect to see splash colored chicks if you did but I'd love to see what you did get.

I have a blue Araucana hen that I bought in the summer last year. I would have bet money that she was dun, not a hint to me of blue. Then in the late fall/early winter, she moulted and the feathers came back in obviously blue but they faded within a week (really! a week!) to the same dun appearing color. If I had not been paying attention, and had not taken photo's of her as soon as her new feathers came in, I would have missed it.


On another side, I've been hatching chocolate (true recessive chocolate) Serama chicks in solid and mottled. I was also able to identify one of my cockerels as another chocolate carrier (his sire is my chocolate carrier). I have 5 chocolate hens now and 2 chocolate split roosters so I am hoping to find that I have hatched or will hatch a good chocolate rooster this spring.

I recently bought 3 young cockerels from a woman and the colors were so pretty. They lack in type but carried themselves correctly and looked pretty decent in the pens there but they're wild child's here. I will pair them so I know exactly the hen and roo the chicks are out of and band them. I want to be sure I can see improvement in type before I keep them. The colors are so pretty, I hope they do well. One is blue wheaten, one blue birchen (gorgeous!) and the last is a dun with gold dilution.

Staying on topic, here is the dun with gold dilution. He has poor type but something to work with.



I don't have chicks hatched yet, but I have another chocolate project here. Chocolate Araucana's
I have a split for chocolate cockerel (choc orpington rooster over a black ameraucana hen) and he's got the pea comb but it still leaves me with things to correct like skin color, rumpless, tufts etc but I have it figured out how to do it and it should take 2 to 3 breeding seasons. I have 3 dozen eggs in the incubator. Half of the pullets will be chocolate, half black (these will be sold as mixed breed layers locally) and the cockerels will all be black but half should be carriers. I'll keep and evaluate them all for type and characteristics that are what feel will be beneficial then the others will go to the stewpot. I'll have to test mate each of them so I'll be culling hard for type so I don't keep anything that I wouldn't want to really use. I'll post photo's when I get some chicks hatched from this pen. I'm so excited about these. The first couple that finally ended up fertile are due to hatch tomorrow. The cockerel was young when I got him so there were quite a few fed to the dogs when they candled infertile to start off. His eggs since then have been 100% fertile so I'm hatching all I can this spring and hope to have a good number of chocolate pullets. These will all be out of my 2 best hens, both rumpless/double tufted. I plan to swap out these hens for a couple others from my black pen next week so I'll have a good number that are not all from just 2 hens.


Here are a couple of my chocolate Serama hens



This hen above is a recessive/sex linked chocolate. This is the color I am aiming for in my Serama's as well as my large fowl Araucana's

 

[lildinkem]

This my duo I want to use this coming season. I hope to make a few solid DUN Orpy type of birds with them.
This cockerel is a Dun Birchen. I like his type. And am open to making some more DUN Birchens



This pullet was given to me by a good friend in exchange for some eggs or DUN birds down the road from my pair. REALLY like her!!!

 

[nicalandia]

nice birds.. the hen has spangling in her chest, this means she has the genetic make up for it but at this stage they are in heterozygous form, would be nice to make a Silver Spangled Orp...

 

[lildinkem]

nice birds.. the hen has spangling in her chest, this means she has the genetic make up for it but at this stage they are in heterozygous form, would be nice to make a Silver Spangled Orp...

That spangled gene MAYBE in this cockerel. He has the silver too.