Hatching Olive Egger

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

Hello all! This is my first post here so hello

I currently am in my second year raising chickens, my sister in law actually started first and has helped me learn a few things plus my own research. She has a lot of typical brown egg layers in her cup(ISA Browns, Barred Plymouth Rocks) she bought a few different chickens that life on a different part of our property with my mother in law and those are Easter Egger Hens with a beautiful New Hampshire Red rooster (I think that's what he is doing some research).

Well I wanted a colorful coop with colorful eggs so I incubated my mother in laws Easter egger chickens I got a white hen with a few black spots, two reddish brown hens, a black with a tint of red assuming it's neck hen and a couple gray ones.

Now my white hen with black spots is a bit older than the others because she was incubated out of a different batch, so she is laying eggs right now they are cream color and super cute and kind of small ish compared to the brown eggs my sister in laws lay. I think she was hatched out of a blue egg, I THINK. I know one of her chickens lay a blue egg and one did lay a green one but that one passed away.

I know, I know. You have to have a chicken that has both genes of a certain color to get a certain colored egg. My question is I REALLY want a chicken that lays a dark green colored egg, so an olive egger.

Like I said I'm not 100% sure what breeds the hens are that mine were hatched out of i know they were Easter eggers which is a crossbreed in itself.

I'm very new to this and my coop is thriving but I want to add some color to my eggs, anyone know based on descriptions of the chicks I gave if any of them will lay that color or how should I go about achieving that color?


Thanks for your guy's patience

 

[DemeterAD9]

All the eggs you incubated were colored right? If the only rooster was the New Hampshire red then the odds of getting a hen who lays colored eggs is either 50% or 100% depending on if the mother carries one blue egg gene or two. If you hatched any brown eggs then you will be getting brown layers. So you’ll just have to wait and see if you get any colored eggs.

That being said, to get a nice olive colored egg you need a blue gene and a dark brown gene. Typically people will use a pure blue layer (legbars, true Ameraucanas) with a dark brown gene rooster, like a black copper maran. For the really dark green you want a second and third generation olive egger. So if you continue to breed the green layer daughters back to a dark brown gene rooster you should get those nice dark, mossy green eggs.

 

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

All the eggs you incubated were colored right? If the only rooster was the New Hampshire red then the odds of getting a hen who lays colored eggs is either 50% or 100% depending on if the mother carries one blue egg gene or two. If you hatched any brown eggs then you will be getting brown layers. So you’ll just have to wait and see if you get any colored eggs.

That being said, to get a nice olive colored egg you need a blue gene and a dark brown gene. Typically people will use a pure blue layer (legbars, true Ameraucanas) with a dark brown gene rooster, like a black copper maran. For the really dark green you want a second and third generation olive egger. So if you continue to breed the green layer daughters back to a dark brown gene rooster you should get those nice dark, mossy green eggs.

I'm pretty sure just based on what I've googled that's what he is. He's a dark red/orange with emerald green feathers around the neck and tail feathers.

My rooster came from him so my rooster is a lighter orange fiery color and the hen that laid my rooster was an Easter egger and I'm pretty sure the color was blue but I could be wrong

 

[DemeterAD9]

Got any photos of your roo and perhaps his father?

So your rooster may carry the blue egg gene and be able to pass it down to his children. It’s a wait and see game unless you want to spend money on having them tested. There are a couple websites you can find that will test you birds for the blue egg gene. One is “the silkie lab” but I’ve never used it.

 

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

Got any photos of your roo and perhaps his father?

So your rooster may carry the blue egg gene and be able to pass it down to his children. It’s a wait and see game unless you want to spend money on having them tested. There are a couple websites you can find that will test you birds for the blue egg gene. One is “the silkie lab” but I’ve never used it.

Unfortunately not but I will be going to our property where all the animals are in a few hours and I can definitely post one then so you can get a better visual!

 

[Ridgerunner]

First some genetics. There is one specific gene pair that determines if the base eggshell color is blue or not-blue. Not-blue defaults to white. Blue is dominant over not-blue so if just one of those genes is the blue gene then the hen will lay a blue egg. The brown and green shades come from other gene pairs. So you can tell if a hen has a blue eggshell gene based on what color of egg she lays. A rooster does not lay eggs so it's harder to be sure. The blue eggshell gene can be passed down from either parent. It does not matter whether the rooster the hen was mated to has the blue eggshell gene or not as far as what color of egg she lays, that solely depends on the genetics she got from her parents.

If your rooster hatched from a blue or green egg there is a chance he has one or two blue eggshell genes. It is not a sure thing but a possibility. You can only be sure what he has if you have a full understanding of the genetics his parents had. You do not have that. The only way you can be sure is to hatch several chicks from him and see what color of eggs his daughters lay. That is going to take a while.

The way to make an olive egger is to mate a chicken that has the genetics for a dark brown egg (typically a Welsummer or Marans) with a chicken that has the blue eggshell gene. It doesn't matter which is the mother and which is the father.

It will be interesting to see photos of your chickens. They might give us some clues as to what might be happening. But the only true test is to see what color of eggs the pullets lay. Good luck!

 

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

Unfortunately not but I will be going to our property where all the animals are in a few hours and I can definitely post one then so you can get a better visual!

Here's a pic of my roo (his dad is the suspected new Hampshire Red) the bigger white one is the one hatched with this roo. Now the others are a mix of Easter eggers (blue and white eggs) and a couple brown eggs (the gray chicks)

 

[AinaWGSD]

If I'm reading the original post correctly, all of your chickens (including the rooster) are from easter eggers mixed with a new Hampshire red rooster. It's really unlikely that you have the genetics for dark olive or olive eggs in your current flock if that's the case. You would need to bring in a dark brown egg gene from another breed (black copper marans or welsummer are probably the most readily available breeds with the dark brown egg genes) to get olive eggers.

Your rooster has a comb that's pretty typical of a pea combed breed crossed with a single combed breed. The blue egg gene is often genetically linked to the pea comb gene, so it is definitely possible that your rooster has a single copy of the blue egg gene which he has a 50% chance of passing on to his offspring. But there's no guarantees.

One way to find out would be to do a test mating with a brown or white layer and wait for his female offspring to start laying. If some of them lay green eggs (or blue if you used a white layer) then you know he has a blue egg gene. Of course, depending on how many you hatch/raise to point of lay test mating still may not tell if he has a blue egg gene. If you raise a dozen pullets sized by him and none of them lay blue/green eggs then it's unlikely he carries the blue egg gene. But if you only raise 2-4 pullets and non of them lay blue/green eggs it could just mean they weren't in that 50% chance of blue.

The other way to find out would be to send a sample for DNA testing. There's a few places that can test for the blue egg gene and that will tell you if he has one, two, or zero copies of the blue egg gene

 

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

If I'm reading the original post correctly, all of your chickens (including the rooster) are from easter eggers mixed with a new Hampshire red rooster. It's really unlikely that you have the genetics for dark olive or olive eggs in your current flock if that's the case. You would need to bring in a dark brown egg gene from another breed (black copper marans or welsummer are probably the most readily available breeds with the dark brown egg genes) to get olive eggers.

Your rooster has a comb that's pretty typical of a pea combed breed crossed with a single combed breed. The blue egg gene is often genetically linked to the pea comb gene, so it is definitely possible that your rooster has a single copy of the blue egg gene which he has a 50% chance of passing on to his offspring. But there's no guarantees.

One way to find out would be to do a test mating with a brown or white layer and wait for his female offspring to start laying. If some of them lay green eggs (or blue if you used a white layer) then you know he has a blue egg gene. Of course, depending on how many you hatch/raise to point of lay test mating still may not tell if he has a blue egg gene. If you raise a dozen pullets sized by him and none of them lay blue/green eggs then it's unlikely he carries the blue egg gene. But if you only raise 2-4 pullets and non of them lay blue/green eggs it could just mean they weren't in that 50% chance of blue.

The other way to find out would be to send a sample for DNA testing. There's a few places that can test for the blue egg gene and that will tell you if he has one, two, or zero copies of the blue egg gene

Thank you, I'm looking into getting the chickens you mentioned now. I'm also going to keep incubating the eggs my hen lays and once the others start laying to see what they lay! It'll be fun! What is your or anyone's opinion on buying olive egger eggs to hatch?

 

[TheGoodinTimesFarm]

Got any photos of your roo and perhaps his father?

So your rooster may carry the blue egg gene and be able to pass it down to his children. It’s a wait and see game unless you want to spend money on having them tested. There are a couple websites you can find that will test you birds for the blue egg gene. One is “the silkie lab” but I’ve never used it.

Here's the pics of my Roo (his names fruity by the way) and the big white hen was hatched with him. The others are hatched from the same hens/too but different times