Dun variety project

[John W Blehm]

I don't know much at all myself on the Dun genetics though.  However, I know that it can be at times sex linked, but also not...

The Dun gene and the Chocolate gene (sex-linked) can both produce a feather color/variety that is shown as Chocolate.

Ameraucana Chickens, p75

Dun, ID - Incompletely dominant. Primarily inhibits production of black pigment. Two dun alleles (ID/ID) produce khaki, aka splash dun. A Dun Ameraucana (ID/i+) X a Dun Ameraucana (ID/i+) = 25% black, 50% dun & 25% khaki.

Ameraucana Chickens, p72

Chocolate, choc - Recessive mutation. Chocolate dilutes black/eumelanin. It breeds true.

[Elijah Ensor]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, makes sense!

[John W Blehm]

I put the last hatch, of ten, of the season in the incubator yesterday. I'm down to just bantam buffs and working yet on the bantam dun project, which also involves using blacks. Some lavenders have also popped up, since the last time I recreated my bantam blacks I used silvers and lavenders. Some of the lavenders aren't just lavender, they have brownish foreheads like some of my dun chicks. I'll grow some out to see what Chocolate Lavender looks like...maybe it is Dun Lavender, but that debate is for another day.
I haven't had any really brown chicks hatch this year, like the one or more last year. Much of what I've read about dun is it should look enough like sex-linked chocolate to be shown as chocolate. There are others that say dun is more "steel" or bluish and from my experience they are closer to the truth. From black to dun matings I'm getting black chicks, as expected, and very dark chicks with brownish foreheads. I'm thinking that is the day-old phenotype I want to get the best dark brown/chocolate adult phenotype. I'm only keeping those dun chicks with brownish foreheads and the rejects/culls are sold locally as easter eggers. Many of the chicks are hatching with what appears to be a khaki phenotype and many are splashed.

[Russ Blair]

Thanks for the update John, I am amazed at the different phenotypes you are hatching. The genetics and how they drastically influence the appearance of chickens are what keep this exciting. I look forward to seeing how the lavender colored ones with dark heads feather in.

[Laurie Ashley - Selah Farms]

Ohh fun! On your third picture, what color variety is the top left chick? Its peaking my interest.

[John W Blehm]

Ohh fun! On your third picture, what color variety is the top left chick? Its peaking my interest.

All five of those chicks are all from the same breeding coop, with a dun male over three black females. You can see one is lavender and one is black. The other three are showing results of the dun gene...expressing somewhat differently. Both chicks on the left have the brown foreheads and this year I'm only keeping dun chicks with that trait, with either the dark brown or cream down. The one cream chick, with the splash, doesn't have a brown forehead.

[John W Blehm]

Even after several years of breeding for a dark brown/chocolate bantam dun variety, I'm still not 100% sure of the day-old chick phenotype needed to mature into the color I desire. I don't want the bluish color, but brown. This chick, with the reddish/brown forehead and dark brown down is what I think I want. Most chicks from this project are still not hatching with this phenotype this year. Looking at the growing chicks it looks like silver/gold leakage may be another problem to breed out. The 2nd photo shows the difference between very dark brown and black down.

[John W Blehm]

I've had a few dun pullets hatch over the past few years that are dark with some brown color and they are always kept to breed from. A couple dun cockerels that I've bred from were muti-colored, but this year I hatched one that is the best so far. He is dark with some brown, like the best females. His downfall is a lot of silver/white leakage. I'll put him over a bunch of black hens, next year, and hope to see even better colored dun bantams a year from now.   

[John W Blehm]

I'd cut back to just having bantams, but now have a trio of LF for a LF dun project. Last year at the Fowl Fest I'd talked about my bantam dun project with Thomas Dean. Knowing of my interest, this year brought two dun pullets, of mixed ancestry, to the Fowl Fest. I bought them and a LF black Ameraucana K to breed over them. I'll breed from them next year and may have pullets to sell next fall to an Alliance member(s) that may want to continue with the project. The idea would be to just keep the best colored pullets year after year and putting top quality LF black Ameraucana males over them, hoping to only extract the dun gene and any associated modifying genes required to produce brown/chocolate feathered offspring from the female side.
About the parentage of the two pullets, Thomas said:

Mom was hatchery barred rock, dad was phenotypically chocolate, cuckoo, bearded, with duplex type comb and may have had a tiny tassel, but not really a crest. He was a barnyard mix- certainly had polish and crevecouer (source of beard and dun gene) may have easter egger, barred rock, who know what else. I sort of think he might have come from some green eggs I set...so maybe easter egger?...

[Elijah Ensor]

Thanks for sharing your experience Updates, looking forward to seeing the progress on the Large Fowl.   

[John W Blehm]

During my internet searches to find photos of dun chickens, I went thru all 58 pages on the BYC forum's Post Your Chocolates, Dun ,Khaki , Platinum Bird Pics topic. There are many opinions, comments about the feather colors the dun gene is involved in producing, but most agree a dun to black cross can produce offspring of various shades of gray to "almost" or "nearly" black. Today I sorted thru my birds and I'm done to about 40 keepers that I'll breed from next year. As I studied what I thought was a black K from my bantam dun project I found he is really a chocolatey black. I think these have popped up over the past few years and I mistook them for blacks and that may be why I've gotten khaki offspring...dun crossed with dun will produce a percentage of khaki.
This guy is now my prize bird of the year. His shanks are slate, not black as are the shanks of most pure black Ameraucanas. His underfluff is a light gray with a hint of brown, not black. From a distance, in the shaded pen he appears black and he still has a green sheen. In hand, in the sunlight you can see the brown. 

[Pedro Nunes Marques]

Hello John, how are you? Here they’re hatching in a kind of straw-colored shade. I crossed the female with a black male and have daughters from that cross, though they’re not breeding yet. These chicks are from the first female that hatched here with what I believe to be the Dun gene — she has a straw tone. Her offspring with a Buff male are hatching partly Buff and partly Dun again, like their mother. What do you think? Should I continue working on this line and see how the birds turn out?
Thank you to everyone in the Alliance group.

[John W Blehm]

Pedro, you can see from some of the other photos I've posted in this topic chicks and chickens of mine with colors similar to your birds. In my Ameraucana Chickens book I wrote that the dun gene I^D is "Incompletely dominant. Primarily inhibits production of black pigment. Two dun alleles (I^D/I^D) produce khaki, aka splash dun. A Dun Ameraucana (I^D/i+) X a Dun Ameraucana (I^D/i+) = 25% black, 50% dun & 25% khaki." There is not only a big difference between the color of a pure/homozygous dun chicken and one that is heterozygous, but it appears that other genes cause many various shades within each variety. In my opinion, once you have introduced the dun gene into your line of Ameraucana chickens you need to keep selectively breeding for the feather color you want. For me it is the brown or chocolate color, that took four years to achieve. I didn't want khaki, so each year I bred black to offspring that appeared to have the dun gene and also show the most brown color. Next year this chocolate (dun) male will be crossed over several black females in hopes of producing only more chocolate and black offspring, without khaki chicks (hopefully!).

[Pedro Nunes Marques]

Thank you! I’ll read that section in your book again. The straw tone I’m referring to would be the light khaki color, correct?

[John W Blehm]

...The straw tone I’m referring to would be the light khaki color, correct?

Yes, I believe it is.