Supposed chocolate orpingtons?????

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Ummmm, they do???

Yeah... Orps have white legs.

How funny... I have nearly 30 BOs at various ages - and I never noticed til now!! Crazy.
 
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That depends on whether you are talking about the variety named chocolate, which is usually created with the dun gene in hte US, or the chocolate gene, which can create also create the chocolate variety.

Dun is incompletely dominant and does indeed work like the blue gene: one copy gives chocolate; two copies give khaki.

choc, however is a sex-linked recessive gene and never produces khaki. Genetically it works like lavender: choc/choc gives a chocolate cock or cockerel, choc/- gives a chocolate hen or pullet. Choc+/choc, Choc/- & Choc+/Choc+ all yield undiluted black pigment.
 
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I don't think that is correct. I am sure the choc. the OP is talking about is the sex-linked chocolate. I haven't read up on it for awhile, but I am fairly positive it breeds true. Choc. to choc. should be 100% choc. offspring.

Editing to add- Okay, I went to verify my information. The choc. gene is a sex-linked recessive. In a choc. to choc. breeding, all of the offspring should be choc. Even the dun gene, which is sometimes called "chocolate" in the US (the OP is in the UK anyway), is an incompletely dominant gene so you should never end up with black offspring. Even when heterozygous, you should see that in the offspring.

If we're talking dun gene, a chocolate to chocolate breeding would yield 25% blacks. (I^D/i+ X I^D/i+ = 25% I^D/I^D (khaki), 50% I^D/i+ (chocolate), 25% i+/i+ (black))
 
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Ummmm, they do???

Yeah... Orps have white legs.

To me they have always looked pink, which is similar to what I see in the photo. However, computer screens and colouration definitely differ. But you raiased a valid point.
 
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I don't think that is correct. I am sure the choc. the OP is talking about is the sex-linked chocolate. I haven't read up on it for awhile, but I am fairly positive it breeds true. Choc. to choc. should be 100% choc. offspring.

Editing to add- Okay, I went to verify my information. The choc. gene is a sex-linked recessive. In a choc. to choc. breeding, all of the offspring should be choc. Even the dun gene, which is sometimes called "chocolate" in the US (the OP is in the UK anyway), is an incompletely dominant gene so you should never end up with black offspring. Even when heterozygous, you should see that in the offspring.

If we're talking dun gene, a chocolate to chocolate breeding would yield 25% blacks. (I^D/i+ X I^D/i+ = 25% I^D/I^D (khaki), 50% I^D/i+ (chocolate), 25% i+/i+ (black))

Yeah, so the birds that are "Dun" then are heterozygous and the homozygous I^D are "Khaki"? That would make sense then. In that case, you could breed Dun to Dun and get 25% Black. (I don't breed any Dun birds though, that is just how I am understanding it from what you are saying and I think what I remember from previous reading). Still though, a bird then should not carry the dun gene and have it not show in its phenotype, correct? You will get a certain percentage of "not dun" when breeding dun to dun, but all that are even heterozygous should show it in their phenotype if I am understanding correctly.

Anyway, I think all the Chocolate Orps are "choc." anyway, so it is neither here nor there anyway I guess, but it's interesting nonetheless. Thank you for the information. I would be curious to see how much differently Dun Orps would look. It might be a good project!
 
I would wait until the first feathers come in, and then contact the seller (with pic.s). I have has yellow chicks have unexpected feather colors..... and since you'll only have a week to wait you might as well be sure. Then contact the seller and ask for replacement eggs. I can't imagine that someone would refuse to replace eggs when you had such a poor hatch rate and then get the wrong chicks.

btw- Excellent photo's... just beautiful. The seller should send you eggs just so she can get some of your pictures of her chicks to advertise with! They would move chicks and eggs easily!!!
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Dun is an allele of dominant white--if a more dominant allele (such as smokey (I^S) or dominant white (I)) is also present, dun would not show. Also, other diluters and red enhancers alter the colouration. Like the blue gene, there can be significant variation in expression.

I^D/i+ = dun/chocolate/fawn

I^D/I^D = khaki/fawn

(fawn seems to be used for both het and hom in OEGB; not sure why)

In the US, choc is very limited; not as much so in other countries. In general, for a US bird it is safe to expect that "chocolate" variety refers to the dun gene unless specifically mentioned as being choc, regardless of breed. If you are referring to an European or Austrailian bird, choc seems to be more prevalent.

edited to add that I went back and checked the OP--location mentioned is England, so choc is probably the gene.
 
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Yeah... Orps have white legs.

To me they have always looked pink, which is similar to what I see in the photo. However, computer screens and colouration definitely differ. But you raiased a valid point.

Thanks.
 

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