Yeah I think you're right about the color and I don't think it would make a difference whether the mother was EE or Wellie in that regard.
If he was a girl, my guess is he'd lay a light olive egg. Most of the F1 Marans x EEs do, but some get lucky and lay a dark olive. It's generally the B1...
kansaseq, I think you'll have the darkest-olive eggs from the pullets hatching out of the Wellie hens, but I'd say the best chances of getting one to look like Tequila's mom would come from an EE.
PhillyPhlock, your first two birds pictured show exactly what led me to thinking about the phenotype for my line. Notice that the F1s generally have the beard and muffs? But then everybody (it seems) is backcrossing them back to Marans to darken the egg, and then we all lose the beards and...
Have any of you given any thought to setting a goal of a certain phenotype for your Olive Eggers to breed true?
I'm thinking of something gamebirdy, like this Olive Egger cockerel, but way more so...
Maybe introduce some Sumatra?