Large fowl cockerel with dun gene

[John W Blehm]

This guy was hatched earlier this year and carries dun (I^D).  He is available for pick up at my place, for a limited time in Michigan, to an Alliance member that wants him to use in a dun/khaki breeding project.  He is 1/2 LF buff, 1/4 LF black, 1/4 bantam buff.  The dun (I^D) gene came from LF buff Ameraucana cock.

[Michael Muenks]

Super neat coloring. I don't want another project, but really neat coloring.

[Mindy Waters]

Gosh he's gorgeous 😍
Why do I have to live so far away? 😫

[John W Blehm]

If no one takes him for a dun/khaki breeding project I may keep him as a backup to his sister, a pullet, that I plan to breed from next year.  She shows dun in her tail, muffs and elsewhere and is mostly buff up front.  The plan is to put a bantam black cockerel over her and go from there to create dun and/or khaki bantam Ameraucanas...if time is on my side.   
I had thought about also creating these varieties in LF, but I'll leave that to others that might want to.  This cockerel would be a good start.  Another option that may be even better is to put a LF black Ameraucana over a LF buff Ameraucana that is carrying the dun (I^D) gene.

[Kalin McClure]

Very unusual and beautiful color!  What method would one use for a dun project?  Put him over black hens and breed the daughters back to him?

[John W Blehm]

Very unusual and beautiful color!  What method would one use for a dun project?  Put him over black hens and breed the daughters back to him?

I think I would put him over black pullets/hens.  Some of the F1 generation should carry dun and show it.  By continuing to put a bird that carries dun over solid black birds I believe you'd eventually get solid dun birds.  Keep using birds with the most dun and then black color, trying to eliminate all silver/white and gold/buff color. 
A solid dun crossed with a solid black should produce about 50% pure/solid black chicks and 50% solid dun (carrying one dun gene)...as I understand it, kind of like crossing a black and blue and getting 50% of each.  Crossing two dun birds should produce 25% black chicks, 25% khaki chicks and 50% dun chicks.  Khaki would breed true and Khaki crossed with black should produce all dun chicks. 
I haven't studied this much and even though I accidentally created khaki Ameraucanas at one time I didn't continue with them for long, so correct me if I'm wrong with my assumptions. 

[Kalin McClure]

Very cool, thanks for taking the time to explain!

[Janie Vila]

John,

That is an incredible bird!!!

[Mike Gilbert]

For those of you wondering what dun looks like, here is an image of the final product in another breed.

[Jorge Gutierrez]

Still available?

[John W Blehm]

He is spoken for and will be picked up, along with the pullet, when I'm finished setting eggs for this upcoming hatching season.