I think the chocolate color is beautiful on birds and I love silkies, so I thought I would combine the two. Anyone know where to start? I heard they do it in Holland, but I can't find anything online. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!
You might try posting on the Genetics thread but I think the main problem with creating a chocolate Silkie is that the white in Silkies is recessive white. To get to chocolate, you need to add dominant white. I'd go to a feather legged breed with dominant white but right off the top of my head I can't think of one. I've mainly worked with Silkies.
If you want chocolate/dun and khaki, you need to cross in a Polish or other bird with that color. Dun is an allele of dominant white, and it works similar to the blue gene. Use either gender black Silkie and a dun or khaki bird of another breed. If you use a khaki, all offspring should be dun/choc. Only Seramas naturally carry the sex-link recessive chocolate. In this case, black Silkie hens with a choc roo will give you faster results; all pullets will be choc and all cockerels carry the gene.
