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Chocolate Orpingtons have achieved cult status among poultry hobbyists. The “chocolate” gene, so called because it imparts a rich brown hue to the color of chicken feathers, is the Holy Grail of color traits among the dedicated chicken enthusiasts. Existing only in seramas in the United States, it has been successfully cultivated in Orpingtons in several European countries. The gene was originally described in 1994 by the late British geneticist, Dr. Clive Carefoot, when he observed the unusual color mutation in a single Orpington hen. He discovered that the chocolate gene is sex-linked: hens with the gene always display chocolate color while roosters with the recessive gene hide the chocolate color. Dr. Carefoot chose not to widely distribute the gene, instead working until his death to breed the gene into several varieties of chickens. The quality of the color varies considerably among chocolate Orpingtons, so Greenfire Farms has been diligent in seeking out the deepest and richest chocolate coloring as a basis for bringing the chocolate gene to America. We have imported birds into the United States from two top breeders in Britain so we are able to offer you pairs of their unrelated offspring; a significant advantage if you want to maximize the genetic diversity and health of your breeding flock. We have also acquired championship lines of black Orpingtons that may be used to further diversify and improve the genetics of the chocolate birds.