I've been working on trying to organize my chocolate pairings for the next hatching, which is no easy task since I'm still short on smooth-feathered chocolate pullets/hens. So short, in fact, I only have ONE smooth laying girl, Abby! So, here are some pictures of my next breeding pairs/pens…I'm trying to do only chocolate x chocolate, or chocolate x chocolate/split.

Snickerdoodle & Abby…I tried pairing her with her father, Cadbury, but he wanted nothing to do with her…In fact, I feared for her life (really!), so she wound up with Snickerdoodle instead, who is a son of Cadbury…

 Abby

Snickerdoodle

Next is Count Chocula & Collette & Lauren…Count Chocula is a son of Oreo and Blue Pearl, who at first glance appears black, but he's really a very, very dark chocolate, or so I think! At the very least, he's a chocolate/split, and I'll find out for sure when I hatch some chicks from him…

Count Chocula

Collette

Collette

Collette

Lauren

Lauren

 Then comes Rolo, a chocolate split from Cadbury and Dagger, paired with The Triplets.  The Triplets are almost identical, and very hard to tell apart, so unless I decide to split them up, I shall continue to call them The Triplets… 😉 Last time around, Rolo gave me frizzled chocolate girls and one black frizzled silkied cockeral…They all carry the recessive silkied gene, so I'm hoping they'll surprise me with a chocolate silkied one of these days.

Rolo and The Triplets

I also have a couple of chocolate girls who should be laying soon, and they will then be mated to Count Chocula…

Gabrielle (a very dark chocolate!)

Gabrielle

Amaretto, a mottled chocolate

Amaretto

Amaretto

Monique

Olivia

Olivia

Olivia

Jacqueline (a very light milk chocolate)

Jacqueline

Antoinette (another light milk chocolate girl)

I wanted to breed only chocolate to chocolate this time around, so Cadbury will temporarily be on the sidelines, since I don't have another smooth chocolate girl for him right now. I have two smooth girls waiting “in the wings”, so to speak, but it will be some time before they're ready to lay. Along with them are some mottled chocolates, from Rolo as well as Cadbury, all frizzleds (of course). Oh, and Rolo also surprised me with a very special chick last August…a Rumpless Mottled Frizzled Chocolate Cockeral! He is very small, cute as a button, and a very special little boy! I haven't decided to breed him or not, but I have to admit it is an intriguing idea…maybe his offspring will be all “rumpless” seramas, who knows? Of course, I'll need more smooth feathered girls first! :laugh: He is currently three months old, and weighs 9.1 ounces.

So, without further ado, here is the debut of Odo…

Odo