Alright, I've bred my EE roo...

[trilyn]

who has supposedly hatched from a blue egg. Does this mean he carries the blue egg gene? Also, I've bred him to my brown egg layers, will I get olive egg layers in return or even a green or blue colored egg? I'm curious about this-I'll admit I wasn't even thinking about this possibility when I put the eggs in the bator, I just wanted the experience. Then I realized, hey wait a minute-you might get olive eggers! So.......any answers would be appreciated! Thanks-Trish

 

[Illia]

It really depends on how blue he is - From my knowledge, no EE has a completely, strictly blue egg/egg gene. There's some sort of brown gene in there, making it some sort of aqua-green type color. Now, with this said - I believe your offspring should lay dark green or olive colored eggs, depending on the "brown" of the hen's egg laid. I'm also incubating some eggs from an EE roo X brown egg layer, but I have absolutely no guarantee on what genes the EE rooster carries. For all I know, it is just brown. . .

Oh, and with genetics - It goes :

green X brown = brown layer or green layer
blue-green X brown = green layer
blue X brown = greenish blue layer
blue / green X dark brown = rich olive layer

Now when I say green it could be an olive tint too - I believe it depends on how much brown the blue-gene carrier has, and how dark of brown the other has. (example, dark egg layers offer the best Olive Eggers because of their rich dark red in th egg)

 

[colby318]

There's a really good "official olive eggers thread" on here. This spring I will be using my welsummer rooster with the easter eggers (the ones who lay blue/greens) to try to have olive eggs. Are your hens the dark brown egg breeds? That is crucial. If your rooster is a true ameraucana, he might have a better chance of carrying the blue egg gene. Easter egger chickens have a lot more genetic diversity and he might carry the brown egg gene instead. Either way, I say go for it!
Colby

 

[Goose and Fig]

What she said!
Your darkest brown eggs have the best chance of being olive-eggers. Congrats!

 

[trilyn]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the info-will be copying and pasting that chart Illia!!

This is all so exciting to me, I just put my first hatch into lockdown yesterday and if all goes well, I'll find out what color eggs come from who by fall. Woohooo!!

 

[Illia]

Good luck.

Your best bet is to get some good dark egg layers though, if you want Olive Eggers.

Right now I have EE mixes in the bator just to see what extra odd colors I get. I know that if you mix the most washed out, pale blue to dark brown - You can have an odd wet stone sort of color.

 

[goldnchocolate]

Last spring I let a RIR hatch some eggs. The only roo I had, at that time, was a beautiful EE. I put 3 brown eggs and 3 pretty blue eggs under the hen. Only the blue ones hatched so the chicks were "purebred" EE's

. Anyway, 2 of the chicks were pullets and one was a cockerel. Those 2 EE chicks are now laying a nice looking olive/darkish-green egg. I assume that it is from them because my older EE hens all laid either a blue egg or a crappy green. As a side note, the roo that came out of that hatch is the most handsome fella I've ever seen and has a non aggressive personality just like his Dad.