Best cross for Olive eggs?

[WVduckchick]

Black copper marans from a known line of very dark eggs over crested cream legbar hens.
To get true olive color you need the marans to be from a breeder that breeds for egg color otherwise you'll be producing green instead of olive green eggers.
I also like CCL rather then ameraucanas because they lay better and the cross produces sex linked chicks so you can guarantee pullets when selling.

I did the opposite, so mine aren't sex-linked
I have one black copper marans hen with my flock of cream legbars. I liked the CL rooster better than the BCM rooster.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I did the opposite, so mine aren't sex-linked
I have one black copper marans hen with my flock of cream legbars. I liked the CL rooster better than the BCM rooster.

Liking the rooster counts for a lot.

 

[cstephens1987]

Unless you plan to sell them or cull early, autosexing isn't really necessary

 

[The Moonshiner]

Unless you plan to sell them or cull early, autosexing isn't really necessary

No it isn't necessary but sure is handy just to know from day one no matter what your plans are and I can't see any downside to it.

 

[nicalandia]

Unless you plan to sell them or cull early, autosexing isn't really necessary

in the OE world the correct term would be Sex-Link, as Autosexing would denote that the breed has been bred for such trait and so far Olive Eggers are the result of crossing blue eggers with Dark brown eggers.

And I would say that in the OE world being able to tell the sex apart early is very good as Olive Eggers Rooster don't lay eggs

 

[Lady of McCamley]

@Lady of McCamley was it you who was trying f2 and f3 OE breedings to get really neat colors?

Yes. I am now into season 2 or 3? Depending upon which line you are looking at....I started 3 separate lines (plummage color coded)...several with the Barnevelder rooster (a great terra cotta brown gene boy) and then his OE son from a pure Cream Legbar.

Line 1 (Ended)
My first year Barnevelder rooster over 2 Cream Legbar hens. (raccoon ended that experiment :/ )

Line 2
My F1 (But several generations OE): Barnevelder rooster over Isbar-Marans hens (OE hens hatched from purchased OE F1/F2 breeder eggs)....4 laying daughters (see chart below for their color development...about 1/3 came out darkest)

Retry Line 1A (Barnevelder-Cream Legbar pure breeders for F1 OE)
I then repurchased pure Cream Legbar hatching eggs (only got ONE hen out that year's batch! Geesh I had a load of cocks!)...I put my Barnevelder rooster over that Cream Legbar laying daughter and got one F1 B-CL hen (who I'll likely not breed from as she tends to get egg bound...but she lays the spring green eggs in the egg carton below.) I also got and kept 1 son as F1 B-CL son for breeding (nice conformation and temperament...and blue gene...Barney daddy is now on year 4.)

So I tried again this year...and got
Retry of Line 1A
F1 Barnevelder rooster over last year's hatched pure CL hen....yippee....I got 4 daughters...chicks in grow out.

And also this year
Line 3
F2 OE chicks....F1 Barnevelder-CL rooster (son from Line 1A) over F1 Isbar-Marans-Barnvelder olive eggers (from Line 2)....I have about 7 chicks right now growing...no idea genders yet...all black or black barred. (Next breeding I can bring out auto-sexing with single barred girls bred back to single barred Cl-B father...if I'm lucky that all barred aren't boys! 50% will be... Should get 25% no barring both genders, 50% single barred both genders, 25% double barred boys....keep single barred girls and double barred boys).

I'll post the colors I'm getting in a chart below and an egg box with what I call my color box so I can see the colors I am getting (I saved it in the fridge as the new pullets come into lay to compare). My F1 CL-Barnevelder OE daughter (the egg bound one) produces what I would call spring green eggs (see far left next to the pure CL)? Definitely more green but yet olive-ish but not dark olive-ish. Then there are the 4 daughters my F1 OE daughters (but line is older form hatched eggs). (For some reason they look brownish in the photo in the egg box...don't have time to fiddle with photos today...the chart on the right is their truer colors)

EDITED for clarity...and I got my lines crossed!

 

[cstephens1987]

Yes. I am now into season 2 or 3? Depending upon which line you are looking at....I started 3 separate lines (plummage color coded)...several with the Barnevelder rooster (a great terra cotta brown gene boy) and then his OE son with a pure Cream Legbar.

Line 1
My first year Barnevelder rooster over 2 Cream Legbar hens. (raccoon ended that experiment :/ )

Line 2
f1 Barnevelder rooster over Isbar-Marans hens (hatched from purchased OE F1/F2 breeder eggs)....4 laying daughters (see chart below for their color development...about 1/3 came out darkest)

Retry Line 1
I then repurchased Cream Legbar hatching eggs (only got ONE hen out that year's batch! Geesh I had a load of cocks!)...I put my Barnevelder rooster over that Cream Legbar laying daughter and got one F1 B-CL hen (who I'll likely not breed from as she tends to get egg bound) and 1 son wo I kept as F1 B-CL son (nice conformation and temperament...and blue gene...Barney daddy is now on year 4.)

So this year
Line 3
F2 Barnevelder-CL rooster (son from Line 1) over Isbar-Marans-Barnvelder olive eggers (F1 from Line 2)....I have about 7 chicks right now growing...no idea genders yet...all black or black barred. (Next breeding I can bring out auto-sexing with single barred girls bred back to single barred Cl-B father...if I'm lucky that all barred aren't boys! 50% will be).

Retry of new Line 1
F1 Barnevelder over new CL hen....yippee....I got 4 daughters...chicks in grow out.

I'll post the colors I'm getting in a chart below and an egg box with what I call my color box so I can see the colors I am getting (I saved it in the fridge as the new pullets come into lay to compare). My F2 Barnevelder over CL-Barnevelder OE daughter (breed back) produces what I would call spring green eggs (see far left next to the pure CL)? Definitely more green but yet olive-ish but not dark olive-ish. Then there are the 4 daughters. (For some reason they look brownish in the photo in the egg box...don't have time to fiddle with photos today...the chart on the right is their truer colors)

those are some gorgeous eggs