The Olive-Egger thread!

[onthespot]

This thread is for posting photos of the birds you are using to produce olive eggers, the eggs you are getting, your theories on what results different crosses will produce or have already produced, photos of your birds, your eggs, buy/sell/give/trade/barter/beg eggs and birds from each other.

I think as chickens get more and more mainstream there will be an increased demand for a pleasing variety of egg colors in the basket every day from the small flock holder in backyard chicken land, and olive just looks so GOOD next to brown.

 

[rharris1427]

Oliver egg off my Oliver egg layers

 

[emgrider]

I wanted to add to this thread if it’s okay! This is my Olive Egger, Blackbird, who is half Jersey Giant and half lavender Ameraucana! She’s a big girl but lays a lovely olive egg!

 

[theceltichorse]

Got my first eggs! They're olive!

 

[chicken stalker]

Mine are from Easter Eggers, which are what most hateries sell as Ameraucana/Aruacana. Basically they are mutts of Ameraucana/Aruacana. If a blue egg layer is crossed with a brown layer then you will get green.

 

[Farmer Viola]

It's here it's finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her first olive egg:


Her mother was an EE and her father a Marans. I've been impatiently waiting for this first egg for 6 months!

 

[gapey]

Loving the blonde hair on my olive egger boys. He's 15 weeks old today. He's already taller than all my other hens. He's a BCM hen x Blue Isbar roo.

 

[Chick-InnKeeper]

I started getting these beautiful eggs from these 17 week beautiful chickens! I am so thankful and grateful!

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

The egg rainbow is affected by each bird's DNA and what they pass on.

So some birds wether EE or OE will be Oo (Blue Gene + wild gene), thus producing either a Blue or Green egg. A bird that is OO will pass the O gene to all offspring but an Oo has only a 50% chance of passing the O gene. Thus an EE that is Oo bred to an OE that is Oo statistically has a 25% chance of producing OO, 25% of producing oo and 50% of producing Oo chicks.

The browning genes that produce the tint (that makes the blue become green) are a separate group of genes some that can work together to make eggs darker but others can actually counteract each other, thus a dark egg breed bred to another dark egg breed can actually produce hens that lay lighter eggs. (I have read a guess of anywhere between 11 to about 13 genes that make "brown"). The "brown" genes give you all the shades... and just to hurt the head more some white egg breeds such as leghorns carry special genes that prevent the brown genes expressing... thus if you cross a leghorn to a brown layer you could end up with hens that lay white eggs, in the case of a green layer you could end up with white & blue eggs depending on the hen's DNA.

The only way to know that your rooster carries the O gene is to test breed him to hens you know do not carry the O gene (white or brown layers) and wait to see what his daughters produce, if you get blue or green eggs you know he has the O gene. If he consistently produces such offspring out of wild type egg hens (oo) then more than likely he is OO. Note however if you get blue/green layers and brown/white layers as daughters than he is Oo.

All white & brown egg layers are oo.

You can figure out hens similarly, if you breed a roo to them you know does not carry the O genes aka wild type oo bird and that hen produces daughters that always produce blue/green eggs than more than likely she is OO.

So Green is Oo or OO plus browning genes minus any brown inhibiting genes. Blue can be Oo or OO but either lacks the browning genes or has browning inhibitor genes that prevent the expression of the brown genes.


I hope this helps...

 

[jaxchic]

I just wanted to share some of my olive egger pullets. They are just coming into lay. They have Marans mothers and a rumpless Araucana father. The pullets came out 90% rumpless while their male counterparts are 90% tailed, very interesting. The males are also have a lot more gold, they are calico colored.