4 mo old Olive Egger- Gender?

[MommaBee]

So question here. Seeing as an Olive Egger (which is actually  an EE and not a specific breed but a cross) is a hen that lays greenish blue eggs, so can a roo really be called an Olive Egger since they don't lay eggs? To clarify, can the genes for the olive egg color come from the roo? How I understand it is  1 parent carries a gene for dark brown egg color  and the other carries  a blue egg gene and the resulting female offspring from the pairing will lay olive colored eggs and can be called Olive Eggers.  Would the roos and hens from that cross (first generation olive eggers) pass along a gene for olive egg color to their offspring   Hope this doesn't sound too confusing..lol!

                                                                                      
blue egg gene hen---                                                   Olive Egger hen--
                                 I -----Olive Egger offspring                                      I---- olive egger offspring?
brown egg rooster---                                                   Olive Egger roo?--       (or too watered down so
                                                                                                                          blue or brown egg gene is 
                                                                                                                         lost resulting in either 
                                                                                                                         brown or blue eggs but no 
                                                                                                                         olive eggs?)
Guess what I am asking is does the olive egg color breed true if you cross 2 olive eggers or is that only a first generation trait? And  can a roo from the initial pairing be called an Olive Egger?Or am i just totally confused about all of this? Rofl!

Haha, quite a few questions there! Ok I will do my best to answer them from the little I know. So truthfully I can't see why an EE would be any more of a breed than an OE. They both can be produced from a variety of breeds. EEs have a peacomb and therefore should lay a blue or green egg. OEs should also have a peacomb but since one parent carries the dark brown gene trait the blue green egg color SHOULD be darker with the next generation, leaning more towards olive. So let's use my bird as an example.
There was a splash Ameracuna (sp?) and a black Orpington. From them I hatched a blue female EE. I mated her with a White Marans (he hatched from dark brown, almost chocolate colored egg) the result was this bird. A splash looking OE. So technically he/she is an F1 Olive Egger. Regardless of if its a boy he is still an OE, his peacomb means he SHOULD carry that olive colored egg gene. His children mated with other olive Eggers would be an F2 Olive Egger. He had brothers who had a straight comb (like their father) I would not call him an OE though. His comb indicates he would pass a brown egg gene, not olive.
So I could be totally wrong (someone correct me if I am) but a lot of the name in both "breeds" seems to rely on that pea comb

 

[MommaBee]

Also in regards to your question about diluting and breeding true. Weird things happen when breeding OEs. In one of the picks you see his barred siblings in the background. There was no barred looking parent involved in this hatch. They had a different Mom but she was just an EE. We had no clue there was barring in her background. Some things just sneak up. Like a random straight comb. Now maybe someone can tell us if peacomb over peacomb always makes a peacomb. I am not sure what is recessive and dominant when it comes to combs later down the line.
As far as diluting goes, I know many people will mate the F1 OE to another dark brown egg layer in order to darken up the olive coloring. It's kind of fun really. You are dying your own eggs the shade you want through genetics.

 

[KieksterChicken]

LOL! Ty for the answers.

 

[MommaBee]

New pics!

It's been a few weeks. This guy/gal is 5 mo now. No crowing. Very stand offish. Kinda keeps to himself. Any new thoughts?

 

[MommaBee]

Oh and here is one of the tail feathers

 

[Basskids08]

He looks like a boy to me.

 

[MommaBee]

He looks like a boy to me.

What makes you think so?
We originally thought that too but I am not seeing any changes in the comb.

 

[gander007]

New pics!




It's been a few weeks. This guy/gal is 5 mo now. No crowing. Very stand offish. Kinda keeps to himself. Any new thoughts?

Nice looking chicken you have there but just one observation you made for a 5 month old rooster not crowing yet would make me think your rooster is going to wind up laying an egg for you some time soon and unless something pulled out the tail feathers you my friend do not have much of a rooster there and need to have a nesting box for her

 

[MommaBee]

Nice looking chicken you have there but just one observation you made for a 5 month old rooster not crowing yet would make me think your rooster is going to wind up laying an egg for you some time soon and unless something pulled out the tail feathers you my friend do not have much of a rooster there and need to have a nesting box for her

Thanks! He/She is a fun mix, 1/4 black orpington, 1/4 splash americauna and 1/2 white Marans. I am beginning to lean towards girl too. I think the patches on his/her shoulders throws me off. But no crowing yet is leading me to believe we might have another layer. Which is fine by me. I think maybe she just has a bigger comb or matured early. I guess time will tell. Should know for sure in the next month or 2. OE and EEs are hard ones to figure out!

 

[gander007]

Well by 5 months the neck and saddle feathers would be
developing and your hen has none of these and no crowing
so if you wait she will stat laying some egg's for you ...

Take care and enjoy her ..