Post Your Chocolates, Dun ,Khaki , Platinum Bird Pics

[smoothmule]

Just finally getting started hatching this year. My chocolate (recessive/sex linked chocolate) Araucana project flock should grow in numbers this year. I have 3 split chocolate cocks, 2 older chocolate hens, 1 younger chocolate hen, 2 chocolate pullets and a chocolate cockerel.

This is the first chocolate chick hatched so far this year and it's a lighter chocolate than the others have been. I also have 3 black Araucana hens in this pen and I think this one may belong to one of those because it has yellow skin. The chocolate project birds, so far, have had all white skin. If this is correct, then this chick is a pullet. I can breed her back to one of my tufted Araucana cocks and all the cockerels will be splits and will have better type than the last.....although that will be hard to beat. Other than the white legs, it's hard to tell them from a pure Araucana

 

[jeremy]

Just finally getting started hatching this year. My chocolate (recessive/sex linked chocolate) Araucana project flock should grow in numbers this year. I have 3 split chocolate cocks, 2 older chocolate hens, 1 younger chocolate hen, 2 chocolate pullets and a chocolate cockerel.

This is the first chocolate chick hatched so far this year and it's a lighter chocolate than the others have been. I also have 3 black Araucana hens in this pen and I think this one may belong to one of those because it has yellow skin. The chocolate project birds, so far, have had all white skin. If this is correct, then this chick is a pullet. I can breed her back to one of my tufted Araucana cocks and all the cockerels will be splits and will have better type than the last.....although that will be hard to beat. Other than the white legs, it's hard to tell them from a pure Araucana

Congrats on your project coming to fruition!

How is the size on your adult birds? Are they larger because of the Orp influence? Any pictures?

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

Do duns come in with chocolate beaks? I'm asking because I have both chocolate and dun in my pens and so far, only my chocolates have come in with brown beaks and legs. the duns have yellow legs and beaks.

 

[smoothmule]

Congrats on your project coming to fruition!

How is the size on your adult birds? Are they larger because of the Orp influence? Any pictures?

Jeremy,
Thanks. Yes, some are larger and some average as I would expect when crossing the first times. In the chocolate project pen, I had been very careful to mark every egg and band the chicks at hatching because you can't tell them from the Araucana's other than white legs. Those first crosses were the 2 chocolate hens to my black Araucana cock and I kept only the cockerels because the "mixed" breed pullets would all be black and they don't carry chocolate. Well, one of those pullets slipped by me till she was matured and laying. Her eggs are bluer than some of the Araucana hens and she is "very" large, rumpless and double tufted. She's going back into the chocolate project pen, she's too nice for type and size not to use her. I expect some tailed chicks are possible but the rumpless ones will be very useful. At this time though, she's keeping my only OShamo stag company. The first crosses were fairly easy to pick out with the very white skin/legs

I forgot to add the pullet pictures, these two are both rumpless, both double tufted although they have tiny tufts. They have white skin but I'm going to breed them to their sires for a better chocolate cockerel. I have one now that is nearing breeding age but he is clean faced and has a partial tail. I'll use him a little later, when he's more mature and to the chocolate hens, all will be chocolate and some Araucana hens with tufts.

Here are the 2 pullets, one has just come into lay. Neither are extra large pullets but they're just 7 months.




And the other



Not so great lighting but here are the 2 together. These pics were all taken a couple of months ago.



My ultimate goal is an excellent chocolate Cock to breed back to the black Araucana hens. I think, I might attempt to work on yellow legs and see if I can't put that together. Most, not everyone, of my Araucana hens have decent to very good depth of yellow skin color and have green or black over that on the legs but a couple have clean yellow legs. Incorrect for Araucana's but would look beautiful on a deep chocolate bird. Then I remember how difficult it is to make, lol. So, black or green legs with yellow skin may work easier and there are enough difficult things to overcome when crossbreeding.
I sure won't complain if I hatch any though and may work on it if it throws itself out there at me.

At some point, I will work with 4 other breeders who have excellent blacks and see if we can't bring this color up for APA approval but I want them perfected long before I go there. At this time, even if I hatched a perfect looking Araucana in chocolate, it can't be shown because there is no such color in large fowl so I don't think it can be shown AOV. There is the dun chocolate in the ABA so if mine were bantams, I could go there.....fooey

 

[smoothmule]

Taken today

 

[alohachickens]

Popping in here to say I think I just hatched the first Dun chick that I've bred? I got eggs from Ebay, umm, can't remember if it was last year or the year before? From a person who was working on creating a Light Sussex with Dun neck feather instead of Black. Hatched out a pair, both are very pretty! I'm working on a Mottled project bird, and I'm really excited to see what a Speckled Sussex would look like if the Black was replaced with Dun or Khaki.

But first, I have to breed out the "Silver" from the Light Sussex color. So this is my first chick hatched, and it looks like Dun on the wing to me. What do you guys think?




I wanted to go with Dun because I'm working on Mottled birds, and Blue creates Splash, and Splash can "mimic" Mottled. I don't want to get "false mottled" chickens, that just appear to be Mottled because of Splash but actually are not. I thought using Dun would be fun, because it would not create Splash, but you would have the option of two different "looks" to the chicks, later, depending on if they were Dun Mottled or Khaki Mottled. Just taking a "regular" Speckled Sussex and adding Dun or Khaki will be interesting!

But I've had issues this winter with kids breaking into my property and stealing chicks (!) so we'll see if I can get him/her to full adult size and breeding the next generation!

Edited to add: I culled all my blue-gened birds from the breeding pens. So if it's not Dun not sure what it is! LOL.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

This is what a Dun Speckled Sussez might look like...


(my bad...that a "spangled") edited 4/14

 

[jeremy]

How do you figure?

A Dun Speckled Sussex would look just like a regular Speckled Sussex, except brown hues would replace the Black speckling...

It would look like this, with a mahogany ground color instead of gold.

 

[jeremy]

@smoothmule , your pullets look fantastic!

 

[alohachickens]

How do you figure?

A Dun Speckled Sussex would look just like a regular Speckled Sussex, except brown hues would replace the Black speckling...

It would look like this, with a mahogany ground color instead of gold.

Thanks for posting this photo! It was the only one I could find with Dun and Mottling. Won't it be egg-citing to see what Dun and Khaki will do with Speckled Sussex? I can't wait!

Also, I hear that "Mahogany" is actually genetically a red color with a faint black overlay. (Kind of like black stain over red wood.) Don't you wonder what the effect will be with Dun replacing the black? I can't wait to see if I can make it work . . . though it will probably be a year or so. Ugh, the waiting!