Egger breeding help me out

[Party_Chicken]

I am going to start breeding olive eggers next spring. I am someone who like to plan ahead and have everything ready to execute. So I have a flock of 13 -Hens 2 buff Orpingtons 2 red sex links 1 failed olive egger 1 jersey giant mix 1 RIR -Chicks 3 EEs (1 cockerel) 1 splash marans 1 blue gold laced wyandotte and 1 mutt who I most likely won’t breed. I definitely want to breed my failed OE she lays peach eggs with specks my JG mix she lays a brown egg with dark specks my splash marans she hasn’t laid yet and won’t for a while and my EEs. I am aware that breeding EEs doesn’t get all of those shades of olive but one of my friends used EEs and got some pretty colors so I’m going to try it. I have also seen quite a few people looking for BBS olive eggers my cockerel is white with red shoulders and a blue undertone my EE pullet is blue with brown streaks here and there. My JG is black my OE is blue so I am hoping to get some pretty colors of egg and feathers out of these guys. Who should I use to get some pretty eggs?

 

[Know it All]

Hey! Sounds like you have quite a party over there . I'm totally with you on the whole plan-ahead thing too. Even though EE's are inconsistent, they can make some really fun crosses, so I think you should try that! I also recommend taking a look at Silver Homestead. You can find them online. They've done a lot of cool breeding and made tons of cool egg colors. Tell me how things go!

 

[Party_Chicken]

Hey! Sounds like you have quite a party over there . I'm totally with you on the whole plan-ahead thing too. Even though EE's are inconsistent, they can make some really fun crosses, so I think you should try that! I also recommend taking a look at Silver Homestead. You can find them online. They've done a lot of cool breeding and made tons of cool egg colors. Tell me how things go!

I did take a look over there and they helped me select my chicks. I love their charts they are soooo helpful.

 

[Party_Chicken]

Hey! Sounds like you have quite a party over there . I'm totally with you on the whole plan-ahead thing too. Even though EE's are inconsistent, they can make some really fun crosses, so I think you should try that! I also recommend taking a look at Silver Homestead. You can find them online. They've done a lot of cool breeding and made tons of cool egg colors. Tell me how things go!

I almost cheated and bought some hatching eggs from sky girl farms which they advertise a lot.

 

[Know it All]

I've definitely considered it myself!

 

[Party_Chicken]

Bump

 

[SourRoses]

I think you have a lot of options, but you should just pick some to include in the project. Otherwise, it will be impossible to track all of the traits and who is successfully contributing to the project.

Do you want deep Olive eggs, or medium green?
For Olive, you need a dark brown like from Marans or Barnevelders.
Light brown genes will produce light - medium green.

It's a lot easier to use a bird homozygous for the blue egg gene (2 copies). Then all the offspring will get a copy and produce blue pigment.
An EE is generally heterozygous at best, which means only some of the offspring will get the blue egg gene. If the EE is a hen you can tell that she at least has a copy by her egg color, but with an EE cockerel he may not be carrying the blue gene at all.

 

[Party_Chicken]

I think you have a lot of options, but you should just pick some to include in the project. Otherwise, it will be impossible to track all of the traits and who is successfully contributing to the project.

Do you want deep Olive eggs, or medium green?
For Olive, you need a dark brown like from Marans or Barnevelders.
Light brown genes will produce light - medium green.

It's a lot easier to use a bird homozygous for the blue egg gene (2 copies). Then all the offspring will get a copy and produce blue pigment.
An EE is generally heterozygous at best, which means only some of the offspring will get the blue egg gene. If the EE is a hen you can tell that she at least has a copy by her egg color, but with an EE cockerel he may not be carrying the blue gene at all.

I am hoping for some medium green all around but I would like to use my marans to get darker colors. I read somewhere that if an EE has a pea comb the bird has a 98% chance of carrying a blue gene. I am prepared for the risk with this dude. As for color I’m looking for a sage hue but if it’s olive I’ll take it!

 

[Know it All]

I think you have a lot of options, but you should just pick some to include in the project. Otherwise, it will be impossible to track all of the traits and who is successfully contributing to the project.

Do you want deep Olive eggs, or medium green?
For Olive, you need a dark brown like from Marans or Barnevelders.
Light brown genes will produce light - medium green.

It's a lot easier to use a bird homozygous for the blue egg gene (2 copies). Then all the offspring will get a copy and produce blue pigment.
An EE is generally heterozygous at best, which means only some of the offspring will get the blue egg gene. If the EE is a hen you can tell that she at least has a copy by her egg color, but with an EE cockerel he may not be carrying the blue gene at all.

For this reason I would suggest getting a breed known to carry two copies, such as a Whiting True Blue or Ameraucana

 

[Know it All]

I am hoping for some medium green all around but I would like to use my marans to get darker colors. I read somewhere that if an EE has a pea comb the bird has a 98% chance of carrying a blue gene. I am prepared for the risk with this dude. As for color I’m looking for a sage hue but if it’s olive I’ll take it!

Of course! It's always fun to experiment. I'm very interesting in pursuing egg color, too! I currently have a pullet I hatched out a while ago, who should hopefully lay olive eggs soon!