Dun gene in English Orpingtons

[kwarren6271]

I have recently bought two chocolate English Orpingtons, mother and son. The breeder, very prominent, sold them to me because they were producing what she called Dun offspring. Does anyone have any experience with this? I also bought the offspring, which looked Mauve until they started winging out. What happens when you breed the offspring to different colors? And I'm no geneticist so please no answers that have all the crazy letters breaking down the genetics. Thanks y'all

 

[kwarren6271]

I have recently bought two chocolate English Orpingtons, mother and son. The breeder, very prominent, sold them to me because they were producing what she called Dun offspring. Does anyone have any experience with this? I also bought the offspring, which looked Mauve until they started winging out. What happens when you breed the offspring to different colors? And I'm no geneticist so please no answers that have all the crazy letters breaking down the genetics. Thanks y'all

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Bumping this up so that hopefully you get some answers. The birds you posted look Chocolate to me, and the chick looks like a recessive White in my opinion. Recessive white 'hides' underneath other color genes unless two copies are present, meaning the chick would have to inherit it from both parents. All that would mean is that your Chocolates both carry a copy of recessive White, so about a quarter of their chicks would be White instead of Chocolate when bred together. That said, I'm not as familiar with English Orpington varieties as some others, so I really don't know if that's also what Dun would look like in them.

@ColtHandorf might have more answers for you.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I responded in another thread to the recessive white question.