I'm about to set my first bunch of eggs in the incubator. I have 2 very colourful EE roos (and lots of hens with damaged back feathers so I know they're doing their job!!) I have 2 large (beautiful) EE hens laying fabulous big dark olive green eggs. A couple of the EE hens are laying much lighter green/blue eggs. And I also have a Barred Rock hen and some sex links that lay brown eggs. How do I give myself the best odds of getting more of the darker olive green eggs? Or is it primarily the roos that will establish the colour of the next generation's eggs? Any chance any of the brown eggs would hatch out green egg layers since the roos are Easter Eggers? Could my lighter green/blue eggs end up producing offspring that produce darker eggs than their mother because of the roo or should I stick to hatching the darkest green eggs?
Chances of getting the dark Olive Green eggs are really slim. Those are usually made by crossing a Marans (really chocolate brown egg) and an Ameracauna (blue egg). But to get the light green egg layers your chances are really high. I had an EE rooster and crossed it with barred rocks, and other brown egg layers and those offspring all laid green eggs. I am not good at the genetics part of it, but I got green egg layers from my mixes. I am on a quest for Olive Eggs too So I am first going to get some really dark brown egg layers and then mix them with my EE Rooster and my Ameraucana Rooster. Hope that helps. Maybe someone who knows more about the genetics part of it will chime in and give you some pointers.
