Birchen Chocolate Orpingtons

[nicalandia]

I breed my Birchens to Columbian every few years. It seems to really improve the Birchen pattern in my birds.

That will largely depend on what the SOP calls for, as for Pattern, the Birchen phenotype is just a crow wing phenotype, some SOP calls for a lot of pattern on the breast(for example Modern Game Bantams and Silver Sussex)

But for example, the Black Copper Marans(gold based birchen) don't have any.

What does the SOP calls for Birchen Orps? What type of Birchen do you have?

 

[Gray Farms]

Sadly Birchen Orpingtons aren't APA accepted yet. Mine are clean breasted. And I breed for clean breasts as that is the pattern I personally prefer.

 

[nicalandia]

Sadly Birchen Orpingtons aren't APA accepted yet. Mine are clean breasted. And I breed for clean breasts as that is the pattern I personally prefer.

If you breed for clean breast, I fail to see the need for a powerful Columbian restrictor like Co added to the mix? Would you mind sharing your thoughts on how exactly will Co helps on an otherwise simple pattern like Birchen?

I would like to post pics of what Columbian does to a heterozygous black hen(Black Sex Link hen, the product of a Columbian restricted rooster RIR and an Extended Black hen BR)

she is genetically E/eWh s+/- Co/co+ and due to Co she has a somewhat of a gold birchen pattern, but her breast is also affected and not clean.

 

[Gray Farms]

When I first started with my Birchens I was getting a lot of solid black offspring. It was recommend to me to breed to Columbian to improve the pattern. So I did. Now I am getting a majority of Birchens. I'd say 90% or more are Birchens. But as the Columbian percentage gets lower with farther generations I get less silver in the neck, especially in the females. I never use these for breeding mind you, I just sell them for layers. And breeding to Columbian every 4-5 years seems to fix it. So your saying I don't need to breed to Columbian? That would be ok with me as Columbian males are hard to find. I don't claim to be an expert in genetics nor do I want to be lol. I do have some knowledge though so I'm not totally ignorant.

 

[nicalandia]

When I first started with my Birchens I was getting a lot of solid black offspring. It was recommend to me to breed to Columbian to improve the pattern. So I did. Now I am getting a majority of Birchens. I'd say 90% or more are Birchens. But as the Columbian percentage gets lower with farther generations I get less silver in the neck, especially in the females. I never use these for breeding mind you, I just sell them for layers. And breeding to Columbian every 4-5 years seems to fix it. So your saying I don't need to breed to Columbian? That would be ok with me as Columbian males are hard to find. I don't claim to be an expert in genetics nor do I want to be lol. I do have some knowledge though so I'm not totally ignorant.

Thanks for clarifying this for me. Your Birchen line is not based on the Birchen allele(ER/ER) but on the Extended Black(E/E) allele,

The Extended Black is responsible for the self-black birds and while some lines of self-blacks(Black Leghorns, Black Plymouth Rocks) are based on ER/ER(to keep the bright yellow shanks). I believe this is done because of the ER/ER birchen allele is missing from most of the Large European Fowl, so far the only line of large ER/ER based birds I know of are the Black Copper Marans.

In this case, I also believe Orps don't have or lack the ER/ER birchen allele and will require the Columbian restrictor to help them produce the pattern, do your birds always show bright yellow legs? Extended black lines tend to deposit melanin on the epidermis making their shank darker than ER/ER

 

[Gray Farms]

No they have white legs, I've never had yellow legs show up in my Orpingtons.

 

[nicalandia]

No they have white legs, I've never had yellow legs show up in my Orpingtons.

Pics of your birds would be nice thanks

 

[Gray Farms]

Pics of your birds would be nice thanks

I will as soon as I can. I suppose to warm up a little in the next couple days. Right now I just check em and chore and get back in the house lol. Thanks so much for the info so far.