Chocolate Serama Breeders - dun and blue can be included here as well

[smoothmule]

Update on what I thought was a chocolate chick. Remember the black chick he was next to in to picture? This one



Well, I hatched out some real black chicks and now that black chick looks so Smutty next to the others. Guess I might have been looking at the wrong chick for color! Here's the difference now. The chick on the far left was what I thought was black.

You'll still have to wait till it feathers out. If it's a cockerel, then it's not chocolate. If it's a pullet, you may be fairly sure but you won't know absolutely until it's produced and all the cockerels from it should carry chocolate. I went' through this with a bunch of mine that looked chocolate. There are so many gene combinations that can appear chocolate, from the chocolate looking down to chocolate looking feathering but I found, for me, that the only rock solid way to verify it is through breeding and unfortunately, so many breeders are selling Serama's as chocolate or chocolate carriers that you can't depend on that for yourself.

To me, if you simply want chocolate in appearance, none of this matters. A pretty color on a chicken is a pretty color. But, to be able to build a reliably chocolate flock, to work on the color and know you won't be getting any surprises, you have to do the homework and breed them a couple of generations to know they breed as a recessive/sex linked chocolate will always breed and produce. You'll know more as time progresses. could be chocolate but photo's with poor lighting are often misleading. Take some photo's outside in natural lighting as the chick matures. Hatching with black looking down is not a typical chocolate. In that top photo, the lighting looks pretty good and the black chick in that photo doesn't look like any of the chocolate chicks I've hatched. The lighting in the bottom photo is not a clear. You'll figure it out and you'll learn a lot from the photo's you have taken here. Make sure and mark the chicks that you want to follow with colored wire ties or those little leg bands that stretch as they grow.


I have a small chocolate hen that is a bantam that I have in with my large fowl Araucana's. I don't really have a better place for her. There is no question whether or not she is chocolate, she is from a bantam chocolate Orpington and a bantam black Ameraucana cross. I bought 4 pullets, this one ended up bantam but the other 3 were large fowl. She isn't tiny but she's nice and small. I paid $50 each for them last summer and she will be laying soon. I would sell her to anyone here wanting a chocolate for a project pen for what I paid for her, plus shipping.
Anyone interested in this pullet can PM me. I do ship and next week will be excellent temps for shipping. I would ship on Monday. I am off work a couple of weeks, I had a rather unexpected surgery yesterday so I have a lot of sold birds to ship so I would need to know soon while the weather is nice. We have been swaying between temps around 13 degrees a few days then 60's......typical crazy weather here in Missouri

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

Thanks, Smoothmule, I really appreciate your input. I'm hoping it's not a cockeral, cause then I'll know for sure he's not chocolate. In the incubator is another chick hatching and the only thing I see is a chocolate beak! So my fingers are crossed for another little girl chocolate. Of course, it may just be a very very dark smutty gray. At least my other hatches are coming out with fantastic coloring. I only wish I knew what genes were at play to create this color. this was one of my pale mauve color chick downs, and it's feathering out like this...



Any guesses? I do have silver and blue diluters in my flock.

(The silver is a new addition as, other than my lemon blue silkie, this is the first real lemon I've hatched. there's another diluter floating around in there to lighten my buffs a shade, and now there's a pumpkin diluter in there as well, because I've got some extremely bright orange coming out in the chicks. I'm just waiting for more feathers to come in to showcase that.) )

 

[smoothmule]

Thanks, Smoothmule, I really appreciate your input. I'm hoping it's not a cockeral, cause then I'll know for sure he's not chocolate. In the incubator is another chick hatching and the only thing I see is a chocolate beak! So my fingers are crossed for another little girl chocolate. Of course, it may just be a very very dark smutty gray. At least my other hatches are coming out with fantastic coloring. I only wish I knew what genes were at play to create this color. this was one of my pale mauve color chick downs, and it's feathering out like this...



Any guesses? I do have silver and blue diluters in my flock.

(The silver is a new addition as, other than my lemon blue silkie, this is the first real lemon I've hatched. there's another diluter floating around in there to lighten my buffs a shade, and now there's a pumpkin diluter in there as well, because I've got some extremely bright orange coming out in the chicks. I'm just waiting for more feathers to come in to showcase that.) )

Just enjoy them and learn as you go.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

It's looking like the suspected chocolate is a baby roo, still not sure, but leaning 60% toward roo. Darn! Still not chocolate in my flock. At least I have some dun OEGB on the way from Ideal.

 

[smoothmule]

It's looking like the suspected chocolate is a baby roo, still not sure, but leaning 60% toward roo. Darn! Still not chocolate in my flock. At least I have some dun OEGB on the way from Ideal.

I was going to tell you that I didn't think there was any chocolate, not recessive type anyway, that I saw. I've hatched too many, I guess, and I have hatched many look a likes that were not and I've learned to spot them. I still have that real chocolate hen that I offered. She's the real deal. They are rare still so they are not cheap and they don't just pop up. I see a LOT more chocolate wannbe's offered to sell than real chocolates.
I bit the bullet and paid for mine for my Araucana project but did get lucky with my Serama's. I have a chocolate Serama hen with a little red leakage I would sell you too. I have 6 chocolate hens so I'm feeling I can let one go. I know what it's like to be looking and can't find what you want or not sure if you're getting the real thing.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

Thanks, I do have those duns coming and used all my extra to purchase them. (My family is going to sh*t a brick that I'm getting more chickens!) Plus, I'm still hatching everything my bantams throw me and will be culling shortly. At least my lemon project is coming on strong and accomplishing citron mille fleur d'uccles would be a feather in my cap. Appreciate the offer and I'll keep you advised when I do want to add the chocolate. I'm used to the way dun works like andalusian blue.

 

[smoothmule]

No problem and no need to let me know when you're ready, I got an offer to sell her but wanted to hear from you first since I offered so I'll go ahead and sell her then. I just hope you know what you're getting with the duns.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

I like the variation of the dun coloring. I will bring in chocolate at some point, but to get the most bang for my buck, I can get a lot of nice quality chicks for the cost of one chocolate. If they (hatcheries) start offering the chocolate gene in bantams, I'll be happy.

 

[smoothmule]

I like the variation of the dun coloring. I will bring in chocolate at some point, but to get the most bang for my buck, I can get a lot of nice quality chicks for the cost of one chocolate. If they (hatcheries) start offering the chocolate gene in bantams, I'll be happy.

There will eventually be chocolates in several breeds but it will probably be a few years. There will always be culls though so check back with me. Just remember that the best and quickest route for you to "see" chocolates will be a true, chocolate rooster.
I sold the little chocolate bantam I offered you, she was snapped up by a bantam Ameraucana breeder so she will be perfect for that project. I may have some of her eggs in the bator now so check with me in another month or so. She's been in the pen with my black Araucana's and 2 large fowl chocolates bred like her. ALL of the cockerels with white legs from this pen will be from those chocolate girls so All of the cockerels will carry chocolate and I will be culling, especially for size. A chocolate carrier crossed to any other color will produce some more chocolate carriers (half of them will carry) and half of the pullets will be chocolate patterned or solid depending on what she's crossed to but betting on solid chocolate with leakage that can be bred back to the patterned again and start seeing a few chocolate patterned chicks.

I am planning to add Dun to my projects too. I have not worked with Dun yet so I'm excited to have the opportunity.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

You're probably like me and holding on to your eggs so you can pick and choose what you cull. Some of my babies are coming out extraordinary! In your opinion, what gene do you think created this chick? I have blue and silver, no porcelain, plus whatever I have in the 3 serama roosters. Here's the chick, you;ve seen it before. It's such a pale, soft gray.