? about who to breed my Olive Eggers to..

[texaschickmama]

Hey guys!! I have some gorgeous blue olive eggers. One light blue hen and one dark blue hen and a black olive egger rooster. Should I breed these girls back to my blue copper maran or breed to my olive egg rooster? I want to intensify the olive egg color. Thanks!!

 

[Chris09]

Just a Head Up.
You may want to change your header from, "? about who to breed my OEs to."
To, ? about who to breed my Olive Eggers to. (you might get more hits)

OE is a abbreviation most used for Old English as in Old English Game Fowl.

Chris

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is your Maran from stock that lays very dark eggs? Not all Marans are.

I think about egg color this way. Every egg I have opened has either been blue or white on the inside. I have not opened eggs from every possible breed, but I have read that all egg shells are basically white or blue to start with. The hen puts a coating on them that makes them different colors but assume you start with either blue or white. You can think of it as spray painting of that helps visualize.

Blue + no spray paint = blue egg
Blue + light spray paint = green egg
Blue + heavy spray paint = olive egg.

White + no spray paint = white egg
White + light spray paint = light brown egg
White + heavy spray paint = dark brown egg.

There is a difference in the brown spray paint. Some makes it cream colored and some makes it different shades of light brown. The way I understand it, there are several different genes that affect the final egg shell color. This is just my way of thinking of it.

If the Maran rooster contributes really dark egg genes, them mating him to your Easter Eggers should give you some dark olive green egg layers. Some will only lay brown eggs though. If your Maran does not contribute genes to darken the eggs then he won't make them any darker.

I can't answer your question since I don't know how dark your eggs are now or what he would contribute. Hope this helps you look at your eggs and decide.

Good luck!

 

[Illia]

In general, breeding back to a dark egg layer intensifies the egg, but darkens it too. Some people love that, some people don't.

Breeding to a really dark layer will make it an amazing almost blackened olive.

Breeding to a Welsummer or a lighter Marans will intensify the color, but also give it a more golden hue.

Breeding back to blue/green egg layers will just lighten it up but also intensify the blue/green hue. If the egg is already pretty dark, you're in for a treat. If not, you're in for a typical EE looking egg.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
AGREED This OE for Olive Egger thing is gettin frustrating becuase everytime I see it, I think Old English too.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
AGREED This OE for Olive Egger thing is gettin frustrating becuase everytime I see it, I think Old English too.

That is the reason I clicked on the thread. Because I thought they were talking about OE's Old English.

Chris

 

[cashdl]

I almost didn't click on it because I thought it was for old english. Glad I did.

Lanae

 

[RAREROO]

And I have disregarded auctions for OE ( olive egger) eggs thinking they were Old English games and didnt pay them any attention since I'm not interested in buying Old english game bantam eggs.

 

[texaschickmama]

Thanks, guys, I didn't think about old english for oe so I did change it. I think I will breed back to the blue maran rooster then to get that dark olive egg.