- Cuckoo Stud
-
Orpingtons '101'
- Orpington Club Membership
- Orpington Type and Main Colours
- Non APS colours - new and pre-existing but not approved Orpington colours
- Blue Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Lavender & Lav Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Buff Cuckoo Colour Standard
- Red Barred (Cuckoo) Colour Standard
- Chocolate Orpington colour Standard
- BREEDING SPLASH to carry the silver gene >
- Buff Orpington improving Type
- White Orpington improving Type
-
About us
- the Stud colours/breeds
- NEWS and UPDATES
- Breeding Cuckoo Orpingtons >
- Cuckoo and Black original lines
- Blue Cuckoo Orpington development
- Buff Cuckoo Orpington development
- Crele, Partridge and Gold Barred Buff Orpington development
- New Colours, acceptance of the colours
- Lavender and Lavender Cuckoo Orpingtons in the backyard
- the Chocolate Orpington >
- Cuckoo Double Bar and Single Bar factor
- the Blue Gene - theory of Mendel's Law
- Blue Cuckoo and Mendel's Law
- Developing multiple related lines
- Orpingtons - larrikin mateship = our first birds
- Our Cuckoo Silkies
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Gallery
- Show results
- Lavender & Lavender Cuckoo Orpington, bantam and large >
- Crele, Partridge Orpington
- Blue Cuckoo Orpington AORC, large >
- Buff Cuckoo Orpington, large >
- Cuckoo Orpington, bantam
- Black Orpington large
- Splash Orpington, large >
- Choc, Choc Cuckoo & Mauve Orpington large
- Choc Crele, Choc Partridge and Choc Birchen large size
- Black Orpington, bantam
- Gold Barred Buff Orpington
- Phoenix
- Silkie
- For Sale
- Contact us
- Acquiring and caring for your Orpingtons
- Feeding - what we feed our birds
- Heat waves, hot days, Summer and Liquefaction
- Artificial UV lighting
- Chook Saddles
- Fertility and my secret recipe
- Posted chickens - how to make them
- Embryonic developmental stages of a chick
- Mareks Disease
- Hatching larger std size birds
- Size = breeding down
- Brooder - recycled and effective
- Growth patterns and assessing birds
- Microchipping your birds
- Secure housing
- Lime - Hydrated and Garden (AG) Lime and their uses in the chook pen
- MOUSE/RAT TRAP chook friendly
- Appraisal pictures of your birds
- Showing - training your birds
- Coccidia Oocyst cycle and treating Coccidiosis with Baycox
- Lymphoid Leukosis – Avian (The Wasting Disease)
- Coryza Avibacterium Paragallinarum
- Crop problems in poultry
- Mosquito control
- Maremma - training a pup
- Fox Traps
- Snake Bite
# update - as of 2022 (decades after it first appeared in an Australian backyard of large fowl Orpingtons) this colour is still not officially recognised by either the Orpington Club of Australia
or the APS* for Orpingtons (or any poultry breeds)
it is listed for waterfowl but that colour standard is incomplete for poultry
* Australian Poultry Standard
(Orpington Club criteria for acceptance (by the Club) = page = 'Non APS colours - new and pre-existing but not approved Orpington colours')
- note that the Club has no power over the decisions of the APS* and anyone can forward an application for colour approval to
the APS*
Chocolate in the Orpington
The recognition of the colour of the Chocolate Orpington is credited to Dr Clive Carefoot of England, as Dr Carefoot recognised the importance of this colour as a mutation of the Black in the Orpington.
The Stud supports Dr Carefoot as 'the father' of the Chocolate Orpington due to this.
The Chocolate is exhibited in Any Other Recognised Colour in Australia as the colour is listed in the Australian Poultry Standard
note that only genetically correct Chocolate qualifies to be exhibited under the colour name in Australia = Dunn cannot be
exhibited as Chocolate it must be exhibited as Dunn
Chocolates hatch with blackish down that is distinguishable from a Black chick to the trained eye, they obviously grow out Chocolate. They are slow to feather up, with some still ‘bald’ at 8 to 9 weeks of age, some are still bald at 12 weeks.
This is thought to be directly related to the Chocolate gene.
Most will notice that the Black Orpingtons are slow to feather up, but not as slow as the Chocolate.
The Chocolate breeds true = Chocolate to Chocolate will give you 100% Chocolate.
The gene responsible for the Chocolate colouring is a recessive gene, written as choc, it appears to be another dilution of the Black.
(The Stud is testing a theory regards the dilution).
The females will be Chocolate with a single copy of the choc gene.
However, the males require two copies of the choc gene to look Chocolate.
This also means that Black males can look black, but be carrying the choc gene.
Chocolate Orpingtons breed true – the following are some breeding combinations
Chocolate male X Chocolate female = 100% Chocolate
Black male X Chocolate female = 50% Black males carrying Chocolate, 50% Black females
Chocolate male X Black female = 50% Black males carrying Chocolate, 50% Chocolate females
Black male carrying Chocolate X Chocolate female = 25% Chocolate males, 25% Black males carrying Chocolate, 25% Chocolate females, 25% Black females
Black male carrying Chocolate X Black female = 25% Black males carrying Chocolate, 25% Black males, 25% Chocolate females, 25% Black females.
Note that the Chocolate and the Dun are two different genes and colours.
The Chocolates breed a true brown Chocolate colour.
Homozygous females choc/- are a chocolate brown.
Homozygous males, choc/choc are a chocolate brown
Heterozygous males, choc/Choc+ are black
Dun is an allele of Dominant White, order of dominance is I^D Dun, I^ Smokey, I Dominant White & i+ coloured.
Homozygous Dun I^D/I^D gives Splash, White with random brown feathers displaying from a light brown to a fawn colour. Heterozygous I^D/i+ gives a brown feather displaying from a pale brown to a khaki brown, but is not genetically Chocolate therefore not Chocolate
Many rumours have circulated about to the origins of this colour. Some claim Dr Carefoot had this colour randomly and/or spontaneously occur in a mating of Black bantams. Others say that Dr Carefoot exported either/both eggs/birds from a breeder in Australia.
At the Stud we support both these statements as -
Prior to the 1990s the colour is said to have been found only in Australia, with birds hatching randomly from std size Black/Black mated Orpington fowl that originally came from England. Meaning the choc gene was in the UK, just needing to 'crop up' and be recognised.
Only one Australian family owning these Black fowl have ever reported Chocolate offspring.
The offspring were always smaller than the std size = slightly larger than half way between the std and bantam.
The family have only this century started to show an interest in furthering the colour in Australia.
The early/mid 1990s is when it is believed, that eggs and possibly birds were exported from Australia to England by Dr Carefoot.
It was around this time that Dr Carefoot reported what was thought to be a spontaneous mutation in birds in his possession, resulting in a rare gene being recognised, also a unique and attractive colour being refined.
Perhaps the best 'rumour' would be that Dr Carefoot had Choc offspring hatch then discovering that an Australian family also had birds that carry this gene, acquired eggs/birds to increase the chances of getting enough young on the ground to fully develop the colour in the UK.
Regardless of how Dr Carefoot came to have these birds, it is due to his recognition and dedication to the colour that the Chocolate is now well established in the poultry world
The Australian family members that own the birds with this once ‘rare’ gene in certain of their Black lines still has birds of this colour. The Chocolate colour has hatched randomly since mid last century, long before any eggs/birds were sent to England in the 1990s.
At least one family member always retained a few of these unusually coloured birds in their flock.
It has only been the last few years that the Chocolate Orpington is being seriously considered by others in Australia.
Previously it was considered a joke and scorned on the occasions the colour was displayed publicly.
The Stud has had Chocolates randomly hatch for a great many years, various family members have owned both Black and Chocolate birds. Sue took over her Father's Black, Chocolate and Cuckoo birds some years ago.
She also acquired her Uncle's birds.
Even though the breeding birds were almost decimated in the 2009 bushfire storms, then theft of some birds in 2014 with numbers having to be re-built on two occasions, the Chocolate is being bred to comply with the Orpington Standard as per
The Orpington Club of Australia guidelines.
The Stud continues to work with this colour.
# note = in December of 2015 the family's line of large Chocolate was started to be released
# subject to copyright laws of Australia
or the APS* for Orpingtons (or any poultry breeds)
it is listed for waterfowl but that colour standard is incomplete for poultry
* Australian Poultry Standard
(Orpington Club criteria for acceptance (by the Club) = page = 'Non APS colours - new and pre-existing but not approved Orpington colours')
- note that the Club has no power over the decisions of the APS* and anyone can forward an application for colour approval to
the APS*
Chocolate in the Orpington
The recognition of the colour of the Chocolate Orpington is credited to Dr Clive Carefoot of England, as Dr Carefoot recognised the importance of this colour as a mutation of the Black in the Orpington.
The Stud supports Dr Carefoot as 'the father' of the Chocolate Orpington due to this.
The Chocolate is exhibited in Any Other Recognised Colour in Australia as the colour is listed in the Australian Poultry Standard
note that only genetically correct Chocolate qualifies to be exhibited under the colour name in Australia = Dunn cannot be
exhibited as Chocolate it must be exhibited as Dunn
Chocolates hatch with blackish down that is distinguishable from a Black chick to the trained eye, they obviously grow out Chocolate. They are slow to feather up, with some still ‘bald’ at 8 to 9 weeks of age, some are still bald at 12 weeks.
This is thought to be directly related to the Chocolate gene.
Most will notice that the Black Orpingtons are slow to feather up, but not as slow as the Chocolate.
The Chocolate breeds true = Chocolate to Chocolate will give you 100% Chocolate.
The gene responsible for the Chocolate colouring is a recessive gene, written as choc, it appears to be another dilution of the Black.
(The Stud is testing a theory regards the dilution).
The females will be Chocolate with a single copy of the choc gene.
However, the males require two copies of the choc gene to look Chocolate.
This also means that Black males can look black, but be carrying the choc gene.
Chocolate Orpingtons breed true – the following are some breeding combinations
Chocolate male X Chocolate female = 100% Chocolate
Black male X Chocolate female = 50% Black males carrying Chocolate, 50% Black females
Chocolate male X Black female = 50% Black males carrying Chocolate, 50% Chocolate females
Black male carrying Chocolate X Chocolate female = 25% Chocolate males, 25% Black males carrying Chocolate, 25% Chocolate females, 25% Black females
Black male carrying Chocolate X Black female = 25% Black males carrying Chocolate, 25% Black males, 25% Chocolate females, 25% Black females.
Note that the Chocolate and the Dun are two different genes and colours.
The Chocolates breed a true brown Chocolate colour.
Homozygous females choc/- are a chocolate brown.
Homozygous males, choc/choc are a chocolate brown
Heterozygous males, choc/Choc+ are black
Dun is an allele of Dominant White, order of dominance is I^D Dun, I^ Smokey, I Dominant White & i+ coloured.
Homozygous Dun I^D/I^D gives Splash, White with random brown feathers displaying from a light brown to a fawn colour. Heterozygous I^D/i+ gives a brown feather displaying from a pale brown to a khaki brown, but is not genetically Chocolate therefore not Chocolate
Many rumours have circulated about to the origins of this colour. Some claim Dr Carefoot had this colour randomly and/or spontaneously occur in a mating of Black bantams. Others say that Dr Carefoot exported either/both eggs/birds from a breeder in Australia.
At the Stud we support both these statements as -
Prior to the 1990s the colour is said to have been found only in Australia, with birds hatching randomly from std size Black/Black mated Orpington fowl that originally came from England. Meaning the choc gene was in the UK, just needing to 'crop up' and be recognised.
Only one Australian family owning these Black fowl have ever reported Chocolate offspring.
The offspring were always smaller than the std size = slightly larger than half way between the std and bantam.
The family have only this century started to show an interest in furthering the colour in Australia.
The early/mid 1990s is when it is believed, that eggs and possibly birds were exported from Australia to England by Dr Carefoot.
It was around this time that Dr Carefoot reported what was thought to be a spontaneous mutation in birds in his possession, resulting in a rare gene being recognised, also a unique and attractive colour being refined.
Perhaps the best 'rumour' would be that Dr Carefoot had Choc offspring hatch then discovering that an Australian family also had birds that carry this gene, acquired eggs/birds to increase the chances of getting enough young on the ground to fully develop the colour in the UK.
Regardless of how Dr Carefoot came to have these birds, it is due to his recognition and dedication to the colour that the Chocolate is now well established in the poultry world
The Australian family members that own the birds with this once ‘rare’ gene in certain of their Black lines still has birds of this colour. The Chocolate colour has hatched randomly since mid last century, long before any eggs/birds were sent to England in the 1990s.
At least one family member always retained a few of these unusually coloured birds in their flock.
It has only been the last few years that the Chocolate Orpington is being seriously considered by others in Australia.
Previously it was considered a joke and scorned on the occasions the colour was displayed publicly.
The Stud has had Chocolates randomly hatch for a great many years, various family members have owned both Black and Chocolate birds. Sue took over her Father's Black, Chocolate and Cuckoo birds some years ago.
She also acquired her Uncle's birds.
Even though the breeding birds were almost decimated in the 2009 bushfire storms, then theft of some birds in 2014 with numbers having to be re-built on two occasions, the Chocolate is being bred to comply with the Orpington Standard as per
The Orpington Club of Australia guidelines.
The Stud continues to work with this colour.
# note = in December of 2015 the family's line of large Chocolate was started to be released
# subject to copyright laws of Australia
