Pumpkin / Chocolate Serama

[TheGoldenChicken]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share one of my current breeding projects and see if anyone else has noticed something similar in their lines. I’ve been working with a group of chocolate Seramas that I picked up from another breeder years back. The hens are exactly what you'd expect, solid, rich chocolate all over. But the roosters have something unexpected that I’ve really grown to love. In addition to the chocolate they sport a warm, pumpkin-orange color that stands out beautifully against their little brown bodies.


It’s not something I’d expect from a chocolate bird, and I’ll admit, I don’t have the full genetic background on this line. The breeder I got them from didn’t share the complete details, so I’ve been tracking traits and trying to figure it out through observation and breeding outcomes. I know that Seramas are known for having unreliable breeding outcomes but out of the 3 years I've been breeding this line, every single chick has hatched to look like the parents except for 1 chick that came out Khaki.

I’ve looked into DNA testing, but as far as I know, chocolate isn't currently available on the commercial poultry panels. Since it’s a sex-linked gene and not super common in testing databases, I'm relying on phenotype tracking for now while I try to piece it together.

If anyone here has seen similar orange hackle coloration in chocolate-based birds I’d really appreciate your insight! I’m not aiming for a standard variety here, just working on something visually striking and stable over time.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge, and I’d love to see pictures if you’ve got anything similar going on in your flocks!

 

[Amer]

Okay, so your chocolate Seramas are on the Extended Black genetic base. Solid black birds are Extended Black with some melanizers. However, Extended Black without the additional melanizing genes will have gold express in the hackles and saddles. The females will be solid black. Add the chocolate gene and there you have it. However, these roosters will not look like the rooster in the picture, which looks more like dun wheaten. They will never have the wing patch.

 

[TheGoldenChicken]

Okay, so your chocolate Seramas are on the Extended Black genetic base. Solid black birds are Extended Black with some melanizers. However, Extended Black without the additional melanizing genes will have gold express in the hackles and saddles. The females will be solid black. Add the chocolate gene and there you have it. However, these roosters will not look like the rooster in the picture, which looks more like dun wheaten. They will never have the wing patch.

I also breed bbs wheaten olive eggers. My wheaten hens always look the same no matter what diluter they have added to them cause they're a creamy tan color not black. Since chocolate only affects black then why would a wheaten hen be solid chocolate when you add the chocolate gene aka dun.

 

[Amer]

I also breed bbs wheaten olive eggers. My wheaten hens always look the same no matter what diluter they have added to them cause they're a creamy tan color not black. Since chocolate only affects black then why would a wheaten hen be solid chocolate when you add the chocolate gene aka dun.

I'm saying the rooster in the picture is not Extended Black based like yours must be, it's wheaten. I can tell based on the picture that it wouldn't be related to your birds.

 

[Amer]

Well you would be incorrect then cause he is related to my birds. I had both him and his brother starting out. They came from the same line. I know that much. In my opinion I believe they're a BB Red wild type base with chocolate added. I have 3 years worth of offspring from 2 brother roosters. The original hen I had was a half sister to one of the brothers. The brothers were technically half brothers.

Okay then, the males you are hatching out are probably carrying one copy of Duckwing or Wheaten and one copy of Extended Black. And some may be pure Wheaten or Duckwing like the picture. But they aren't all going to look like the picture because that one clearly has two copies of Duckwing or Wheaten. You will also get some that are Extended Black base with red hackles. Your females would all be solid color because in my experience the Extended Black base completely hides the Duckwing gene when it's heterozygous for Extended Black and Duckwing. Probably the same for Wheaten. You will eventually get pure Wheaten or Duckwing females from your stock but you haven't yet.

 

[Amer]

That male looks more wheaten than duckwing to me, but I could be wrong. Do you hatch out any yellow or chipmunk striped chicks?

 

[TheGoldenChicken]

That male looks more wheaten than duckwing to me, but I could be wrong. Do you hatch out any yellow or chipmunk striped chicks?

This is the most recent hatch, sorry for the lighting. The chicks are brown. Sometimes they have a few markings on the face. The chocolate color is so uniform that it's impossible to make out any patterns. This is consistent in every hatch over the past 3 years. I've only had one chick hatch out different and that one is a khaki chick. You can see it in this image as well.