How does one make a chocolate bird?

[Debbie292d]

I picked up a choc Orpington rooster today in hopes of pairing him with my standard black Cochin hens. I understand their offspring would be sex linked- and give chocolate females but what should I do after that? Breed back to a black cochin to keep the “Cochin” look? Or breed to the split offspring cockerels from the first set of offspring? In hopes for both a chocolate roo & chocolate hen? So much to consider!

I have waited over a year for a chocolate rooster as my chocolate silkie Charlotte just kept putting out girls.

I finally grew one of Charlotte's chocolates out, and it turned into a rooster! Meet Mocha. Dumber than a box of rocks but now I have a chocolate pair.

It was hailing today, and all 30-some silkies ran for cover, but not him. He stood out in the middle of it looking around like, doh, what's this? He's going to be fun when it snows.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I picked up a choc Orpington rooster today in hopes of pairing him with my standard black Cochin hens. I understand their offspring would be sex linked- and give chocolate females but what should I do after that? Breed back to a black cochin to keep the “Cochin” look? Or breed to the split offspring cockerels from the first set of offspring? In hopes for both a chocolate roo & chocolate hen? So much to consider!

So no black cochin rooster?
The fastest would be to have both Cochin hens and a rooster. Use the chocolate rooster once then discard and continue with the offspring. Using offspring back to cochin every generation.
Color will be easy to carry forwards but type should be the focus for a while.
To keep the chocolate going but focus on type, ONLY ever use females that are chocolate and ONLY use males that had a chocolate mother.
Without a cochin rooster....
Breed your chocolate rooster to the cochin hens. Pick the best cockerel as far as having closest to cochin type. Breed him back to the cochin hens.
About half of the pullet offspring will be chocolate. Use only them and I'd try to use only those with yellow shanks. You should breed out the white skin and breed for yellow asap imo.
Breed back to their father. Your first cockerel offspring you kept. Or you could keep a couple cockerels from each generation and bred to the other one if close line breeding worries you.
That cross should produce some chocolate cockerels with yellow shanks. Pick the most cochin type one or two. Breed to cochin hens again.
Then repeat. Keep the most typey chocolate pullets and breed back to their father or the other hold back.
Get the idea?

 

[Kittenplay]

I finally have the sex link eggs in the incubator. I’m hoping the babies will be feathered out like their moms.

 

[lilwanderer]

I finally have the sex link eggs in the incubator. I’m hoping the babies will be feathered out like their moms.

Awesome! How exciting.
Currently growing out offspring from my chocolate mottled project pen.
I have a black cochin boy over a chocolate and a chocolate mottled hen- Will be keeping at least one roo from them and breeding back to the mottled split sisters and the mother. (Since the roo's will be both mottled and chocolate split. )
Hopefully i get some nice boys! The oldest offspring i have so far are like 7 weeks old.
Here are the parents for fun!
I chose a black roo because the mottled hen is hyper mottled- Hoping with a black roo that the mottled pattern will even out with the offspring.

 

[Kittenplay]

Beautiful! Are they LF? Would love to get some hatching eggs from you. I’m confused on my hatch. Out of all the eggs in my incubator only 2 hatched. One black one chocolate. (Apparently my girls tufts were too big). Anyway I gave away the black immediately thinking it was a roo and the chocolate was a pullet. But it looks like the chocolate is a roo. This came from the 2nd generation chocolate roo that had a chocolate mother and black father. It is a pretty chocolate and starting to get better feathering

 

[Feathergardens]

Chocolate is sex linked so a female only carries one gene. Either chocolate or not chocolate. She can't carry the gene unseen so if she has it it shows.
Males have two genes so they can have 2 not chocolate, 2 chocolate (those will show chocolate) or 1 chocolate and 1 not chocolate. Those will be "splits" they carry it and can pass it on but it won't show on them.
If you're starting out and only have one chocolate it's best to use black or black mottled when you get to that project.
If you're using a chocolate female and a black male the offspring will be split males and non chocolate females. So those females won't take you any further.
A chocolate male over black female will give you chocolate females and split males.
Ya if you can't find one chocolate cochin I'd cross a chocolate Orpington to black cochin. Then continue to breed chocolate pullets or split males back to black cochins until you get back to the cochin look.
It's faster to get back to cochin type by going back to pure cochins every time and bring the chocolate gene along. You can cross offspring together if you want chocolate males to work from of you can just use splits.
Of course using splits means half the offspring won't get a chocolate gene. More throw away chicks so you'll have to decide which you want. Getting back to pure cochin type or having chocolate of both sexes first.
I bred back to pures and flip flopped every generation. Using the male split then the next generation the chocolate pullet. It kept me in the know with which males had to carry chocolate since a carrier and a non chocolate looks the same.

Mottling is recessive so when you get to that point do the same but use a mottled bird instead of black. Those offspring will be split to mottled so you'll need to cross them together or back to a mottled bird to bring it out and breed pure.

I am also working on a similar project with brahma. I'm on my F3 year and am making progress although if you've done chocolate you know it's a time consuming project. My ultimate goal is to produce CSO? (BSO in chocolate) and I thought I'd chime in here to see if you had insight? With a sex link gene how do I get it to pass on covering black, but not silver? Or will it not cover silver? This will be my first year introducing the chocolate brahma project over a partridge based bird.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I am also working on a similar project with brahma. I'm on my F3 year and am making progress although if you've done chocolate you know it's a time consuming project. My ultimate goal is to produce CSO? (BSO in chocolate) and I thought I'd chime in here to see if you had insight? With a sex link gene how do I get it to pass on covering black, but not silver? Or will it not cover silver? This will be my first year introducing the chocolate brahma project over a partridge based bird.

Idk what CSO or BSO is so....
But anyways chocolate is a black dilute gene so it won't have any effect on silver.
If you cross a solid chocolate bird with a patterned bird with silver then ya you'll lose some silver because the extended black gene will cover it but chocolate won't be an issue.

 

[SkyAJK]

Awesome! How exciting.
Currently growing out offspring from my chocolate mottled project pen.
I have a black cochin boy over a chocolate and a chocolate mottled hen- Will be keeping at least one roo from them and breeding back to the mottled split sisters and the mother. (Since the roo's will be both mottled and chocolate split. )
Hopefully i get some nice boys! The oldest offspring i have so far are like 7 weeks old.
Here are the parents for fun!
I chose a black roo because the mottled hen is hyper mottled- Hoping with a black roo that the mottled pattern will even out with the offspring.
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These beauties make my day!