The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[lildinkem]

My second thought was Dun too, I hatched a lot of Platinum, Dun, Blue and Black Sumatra chicks this year and as day olds sometimes the Dun chicks and the Blue chicks looked almost identical. It wasn't until they started to feather out that I could easily tell them apart.

The only problem with that train of thought is that when you cross a Choc and a Dun bird you are supposed to get a "double dilution", turning the bird a beige color... Dun is like Blue, genetically it cannot be hidden (you can't have splits) so it always expresses itself if the gene is there.

I feel like it's very unlikely that the UK Chocolates are carrying Dun, so... I still have no idea.

Do you have any pictures of the chicks in question Jean?

I read some where someone saying Dun is very difficult to get in the UK. Sorta like how hard it is or was to get Chocs here. So, your prolly right. Unlikely to be Dun. And the truth will come out after a few months of growing goes by.
By the way Jeremy, are you doing Beige?

 

[pips&peeps]

I'm back from my chores....

Anyway, so I went and dug through my brooder to look at the chicks again. So here is what I found, which I may have found sooner had people been brain storming and not getting upset.

I was wrong, and not afraid to admit it...... the chicks had blue down, but are feathering in black. The chick pictured below is what my flock usually presents as a blue chick.

Below is a photo of the first LF chocolate I hatched and the second is the one with blue down, you can see a black split male behind him.




So, there may be something in the genetics that lightens the down color........

I have noticed on these birds that the chocolates and the ones carrying chocolate have real mottled looking faces, lots of white. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[jeremy]

Jean, I hope you don't think I was getting upset, I was brainstorming and hoping to help you figure it out!

Anyways, it makes sense to me that we may see slight variation in down colors with these new varieties. Who knows what genes are hidden underneath the hood of all the newly imported breeds?

I too noticed the excess amounts of white on my day old chicks, this was the Black split Choc chick that I hatched.

 

[jeremy]

By the way Jeremy, are you doing Beige?

Bill, probably not in Orpingtons.

I'm working with my BBS flock right now as well as the LF Chocolate project and a Partridge (that may eventually turn into a Crele) project.

I am planning on crossing my Chocolate Orp pullet with one of my Sumatra cockerels that I have growing out to get the Choc gene into the Sumatras, I may or may not work on Beige Sumatras from there. It honestly just depends on whether or not I like the color, I have to see it first to make the decision. I do plan on creating Mottled Sumatras though and eventually Dun Mottled Sumatras.

 

[OSUman]

Yea my chocolate chicks have the white faces more than the pure blue/ black from what ive hatched

I'm back from my chores....

Anyway, so I went and dug through my brooder to look at the chicks again. So here is what I found, which I may have found sooner had people been brain storming and not getting upset.

I was wrong, and not afraid to admit it...... the chicks had blue down, but are feathering in black. The chick pictured below is what my flock usually presents as a blue chick.

Below is a photo of the first LF chocolate I hatched and the second is the one with blue down, you can see a black split male behind him.




So, there may be something in the genetics that lightens the down color........

I have noticed on these birds that the chocolates and the ones carrying chocolate have real mottled looking faces, lots of white. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[klf73]

I have a question since we are on the topic of chocolate although I apologize as it's not orp related. Does anyone know what you get from a choc x lavender? I have a breed that I have a lav hen in that I would love to work on a chocolate project. Any ideas?

 

[lildinkem]

Bill, probably not in Orpingtons.

I'm working with my BBS flock right now as well as the LF Chocolate project and a Partridge (that may eventually turn into a Crele) project.

I am planning on crossing my Chocolate Orp pullet with one of my Sumatra cockerels that I have growing out to get the Choc gene into the Sumatras, I may or may not work on Beige Sumatras from there. It honestly just depends on whether or not I like the color, I have to see it first to make the decision. I do plan on creating Mottled Sumatras though and eventually Dun Mottled Sumatras.

Crele COOL!!
I am trying to make some Silver Crele with my one Salmon breasted Silver Duckwing pullet with a Cuckoo male on her. Hatched out a few. not totally dedicated to these projects. More so dedicated to making something White and then the other standards. Blue Black and Buff.

 

[jeremy]

I have a question since we are on the topic of chocolate although I apologize as it's not orp related. Does anyone know what you get from a choc x lavender? I have a breed that I have a lav hen in that I would love to work on a chocolate project. Any ideas?

Theoretically you should get Black males split to both Chocolate and Lavenders and Chocolate females split to Lavender.

When you breed those birds together you will get a lot of different colors in their offspring, Lav males, Lav split Choc males, Lav females, Choc split Lav males, Black split Choc and Lav males, Choc females split Lav, Black females split Lav, Choc males, Black split Choc males, Choc females and Black females.

There will be no way to tell the splits from the other birds so genetically these offspring could get very confusing, the only way to know exactly what you had would be do to test breeding.

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Bill, yup true Crele. It's going to depend on how my Partridge project goes though, I need to have that color establish before I start working on the Crele. I have one Patridge hen now that I plan to use to recreate more. If I can get that color solidified I will add the barring from Cuckoo Orps to create the Crele pattern.

My main focus is my BBS, it's fun to have a few other colors running around with the rest of the flock though.

 

[pips&peeps]

Jean, I hope you don't think I was getting upset, I was brainstorming and hoping to help you figure it out!

Anyways, it makes sense to me that we may see slight variation in down colors with these new varieties. Who knows what genes are hidden underneath the hood of all the newly imported breeds?

I too noticed the excess amounts of white on my day old chicks, this was the Black split Choc chick that I hatched.

No Jeremy. Someone was kind of bent out of shape by my comment and I wasn't pointing fingers, just trying to figure it out.

Now that it is figured out, it will be out here to see in case anyone else has blue chick down like I did. (Also, I want to just say I do know the difference between blue and black chick down.) I imagine there may be alot of little things in the imported lines that we don't know about that may pop out as we start proliferating the genes. These things may be well known back "across the pond", but new to us.


ETA: That chick is awful "busty" for it's age.....