According to the following article and a few other resources I checked.. JG are recessive white...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/jersey-giants-chicken-breed-information.47788/
That matches what I have read, too.
So according to my current understanding the chocolate rooster over other colored hens makes for chocolate sex linked offspring with only the females being chocolate.. they are therfore not chocolate splits.. best I can tell.
Correct about the daughters.
Sons from that mating would be chocolate splits (carry the gene but don't show it), but they are not involved here.
They would still however need to be bred to a chocolate rooster in order to produce chocolate offspring... otherwise bred to another color rooster the first generation offspring would then be chocolate split.. not showing the chocolate since it is recessive..
Yes, a chocolate hen bred to a chocolate rooster will produce chocolate chicks.
If the chocolate hen is bred to a non-chocolate rooster (not split), the daughters will not be chocolate at all. The sons will be splits (carry a chocolate gene but not show it.)
One of those split sons could be bred back to the chocolate hens. That will produce some chocolate chicks of both sexes, and some chicks that do not show chocolate (split males and plain no-chocolate females).
With the JG being recessive white, I'm not sure how that would play out if it happens to be male (when two recessive genes are bred together).
Maybe
@Amer or
@NatJ can correct or confirm my statements and/or provide more feedback.
If the Jersey Giant is a rooster and is recessive white:
Breeding him with the chocolate hens should produce black daughters that carry recessive white but not chocolate, and sons who are black but carry both recessive white and chocolate (split for chocolate, split for recessive white).
Breeding the Jersey Giant rooster back to his daughters will give about a 50/50 split of white chicks and black chicks. Each sex can be either color. None of them will carry chocolate, but all the black ones will carry a recessive white gene. The white ones have two recessive white genes, which is why they are white.
From the same cross of White Jersey Giant rooster and chocolate hen, breeding a son back to the chocolate hens will produce some chocolate chicks of both sexes, and some chicks that do not show chocolate (split males and plain no-chocolate females). Of those chicks, half of them will carry recessive white and half will not.
If you ignore the chocolate gene and the recessive white gene, those birds should all have the genes to be solid black. So depending on which matings you set up, you can get black chicks, chocolate chicks, white chicks. Assuming the chickens do have the genes that are normal for their breed & color, you should not get chicks of colors other than those three.
Can I cross the JG to something like mystic onyx if it's a hen or pearl Onyx if it's a rooster?
You can cross chickens any way you want.
Crossing a recessive white Jersey Giant with a Mystic Onyx will probably give you black chicks.
Crossing a recessive white Jersey Giant with a Pearl Onyx will probably give some black chicks and some paint chicks (white with black blotches, caused by the Dominant White gene.)
All of those chicks will carry the recessive white gene but not show any effects from it.
