Chocolote.... Choco.... And everything choco.

[tiktilaok]

Hello! I hope all is well..
As I have always been fascinated with colors, during my free time, i always browse the web for various and rare colors of animals. Until i saw these beautiful and stunning CHOCOLATE SILVER/GOLD LACED ORPS. I am not a fan of either silver or gold laced feathers, but everything flipped when i came across these Chocolate laced orps.
I absolutely love the chocolate colors in animals, be it in chickens, guinea fowls, or in dogs.
To cut the story short, i am definitely wanting to create/produce these chickens. In one article i read, they bred a choco rooster to a silver laced hen. They were able to produce both chocolate silver laced & chocolate gold laced. And if i remember it right, everything was just briefly explained. I know there are always secrets to the trade, but if anyone could help me on how to start, which individuals to later breed from each generation/breeding after how many generations can i say that they will breed true, etc. I am desperate to learn the zigs and zags to breeding these 2 colors.
I have choco orp roosters and hens, and i can always loan silver laced orps from a good friend. However, i dont want to carelessly start breeding unless i am confident that i am equipped with the knowledge to breed these chickens.
Desperate much.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Sally PB]

Pictures...?

 

[tiktilaok]

Pictures...?

Hi. All i have are photos of my chocos. But with the chocolate silver laced and chocolate gold laced, i just saw then here in BYC and in some other sites

 

[NatJ]

In one article i read, they bred a choco rooster to a silver laced hen. They were able to produce both chocolate silver laced & chocolate gold laced. And if i remember it right, everything was just briefly explained. I know there are always secrets to the trade, but if anyone could help me on how to start, which individuals to later breed from each generation/breeding after how many generations can i say that they will breed true, etc.

You'll be working with two sex-linked genes here (on the Z sex chromosome.)
Chocolate is on that chromosome, and so is gold/silver.

A hen has only one Z chromosome. She inherits it from her father, and passes it on to her sons. She also has a W chromosome from her mother, that she passes to her own daughters (it has no effect on these genes.)

A rooster has two Z chromosomes. He gets one from each parent, and he passes one to every chick he sires, no matter what their gender.

Chocolate and gold are both recessive. This means that when a rooster has chocolate and not-chocolate, he looks not-chocolate. And when a rooster has gold and silver, he looks silver. But because a hen only has one Z chromosome, she shows whatever it has: including chocolate or gold (or both).


I would start by crossing a chocolate to a silver laced, either direction for the first generation.

I would then keep a son from that cross (will carry chocolate but not show it), and breed him back to a silver laced hen.
That mating should give:
--50% solid chicks (blacks and some chocolates), which I would not use for breeding
--50% not-solid chicks, from which you should pick your next breeders
Many of these chicks will be silver with black patterning.
Some females might be gold with black patterning.
Some females will be silver with chocolate patterning (use for breeding).
Some females might be gold with chocolate patterning (use for breeding).

If you don't find any females with gold in this generation, you probably never will (unless you cross in a gold bird at a later time.) Either the chocolates have the gold gene, or they have the silver gene, and this is the generation that will tell which it was.

Repeat this sequence until you get birds with good lacing:
Choose females with chocolate patterning on silver (or on gold), and breed them back to a silver laced rooster.

From that cross, pick a son (he must carry chocolate, because his mother had chocolate. If his mother had gold, he must carry that as well).

Breed this son to silver laced hens, and pick females with chocolate patterning on silver (or on gold.)
(This is where the repeating sequence wraps around. You're keeping females in one generation, males in the next, and always crossing back to the silver laced birds.)

Once you have good lacing on your birds, you can choose a male, and breed him to his chocolate-laced mother and his chocolate-laced daughters to get both males and females with chocolate lacing. (The same thing works for gold, since it inherits the same way chocolate does.)

Once you have a rooster with chocolate lacing, you can breed him to hens with black lacing and have ALL of his daughters be chocolate laced (easy way to bring in new genes, to reduce inbreeding.) Again, gold works the same way: gold rooster to silver hens produces gold daughters, who will pass only gold to their own offspring.

 

[Sally PB]

Thanks for explaining that so well, @NatJ! Even though I'm not doing any breeding, I find it very interesting.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Papa's Poultry has the chocolate gold laced, just an FYI.
Chicken Ridge has the chocolate silver laced.
Good luck with your project. Sounds like fun. The laced English Orpingtons are stunning.

 

[tiktilaok]

You'll be working with two sex-linked genes here (on the Z sex chromosome.)
Chocolate is on that chromosome, and so is gold/silver.

A hen has only one Z chromosome. She inherits it from her father, and passes it on to her sons. She also has a W chromosome from her mother, that she passes to her own daughters (it has no effect on these genes.)

A rooster has two Z chromosomes. He gets one from each parent, and he passes one to every chick he sires, no matter what their gender.

Chocolate and gold are both recessive. This means that when a rooster has chocolate and not-chocolate, he looks not-chocolate. And when a rooster has gold and silver, he looks silver. But because a hen only has one Z chromosome, she shows whatever it has: including chocolate or gold (or both).


I would start by crossing a chocolate to a silver laced, either direction for the first generation.

I would then keep a son from that cross (will carry chocolate but not show it), and breed him back to a silver laced hen.
That mating should give:
--50% solid chicks (blacks and some chocolates), which I would not use for breeding
--50% not-solid chicks, from which you should pick your next breeders
Many of these chicks will be silver with black patterning.
Some females might be gold with black patterning.
Some females will be silver with chocolate patterning (use for breeding).
Some females might be gold with chocolate patterning (use for breeding).

If you don't find any females with gold in this generation, you probably never will (unless you cross in a gold bird at a later time.) Either the chocolates have the gold gene, or they have the silver gene, and this is the generation that will tell which it was.

Repeat this sequence until you get birds with good lacing:
Choose females with chocolate patterning on silver (or on gold), and breed them back to a silver laced rooster.

From that cross, pick a son (he must carry chocolate, because his mother had chocolate. If his mother had gold, he must carry that as well).

Breed this son to silver laced hens, and pick females with chocolate patterning on silver (or on gold.)
(This is where the repeating sequence wraps around. You're keeping females in one generation, males in the next, and always crossing back to the silver laced birds.)

Once you have good lacing on your birds, you can choose a male, and breed him to his chocolate-laced mother and his chocolate-laced daughters to get both males and females with chocolate lacing. (The same thing works for gold, since it inherits the same way chocolate does.)

Once you have a rooster with chocolate lacing, you can breed him to hens with black lacing and have ALL of his daughters be chocolate laced (easy way to bring in new genes, to reduce inbreeding.) Again, gold works the same way: gold rooster to silver hens produces gold daughters, who will pass only gold to their own offspring.

Weeeeeew!!! That was too much for me to digest....

No, but kidding aside, that was an i depth explanation! I cannot thank you more!!

Now, all i have to do is somehow internalize, and ponder on these processes before i really jump into breeding. Breeding per se is somewhat easy, but carrying on with the same dedication, patience, enthusiasm, and objective are the most important factors that i need to consider....

Again, i am eternally grateful to you, and everyone here in BYC..

Hopefully sooner, i could update you guys on the progress of this project of mine....

 

[NatJ]

Weeeeeew!!! That was too much for me to digest....

Sorry, I know it was a lot, but I couldn't think of an easier way to put it

If you have trouble with specific parts, I could try to explain them better (or at least differently), to see if that helps-- sometimes it's easier to take things a bit at a time.

At least the first step is easy: cross the two colors, and it doesn't even matter which parent is which color for that first time.

 

[nicalandia]

There is no much contrast On the Gold Chocolate Laced Orps, I would stick with the Silver/Lemon Chocolate Laced pattern for better contrast.

If anyone would like to play with the chicken calculator, the lacing on Orps is based on Birchen(ER) so you need to input, ER/ER, Co/Co, Db/Db, Pg/Pg, Ml/Ml

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thanks for posting the pics.
I'm actually liking the gold a lot more.