Making of an Olive Egger

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Sorry if I’m going to further confuse matters here... but I only hatched one olive egger hatching egg out of 4-5 and sure enough.... it’s a boy! He’s quite sweet tempered right now. (Wheaten/AmeraucanaxBCmarans hen) I am wondering what his breeding possibilities will be like over my other green/blue layers or Marans hens? I have Sapphires (CCLegbarxLeghorn) and Isbars as well.

Sapphires as in Sapphire Gems?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

This image (and it's source, https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/gms2-breeding-for-blue-eggs/) has a great example of a punnet square which is the easy way of demonstrating. This is a bird that, like the marans, has no blue egg genes and a bird that, like the easter egger, has only one blue eggs gene. As you can see, only half the birds lay blue.

If you simply replace the white eggs with brown in this diagram, you would have two brown layers and two green.

 

[Kris5902]

Sapphires as in Sapphire Gems?

Crashed cream legbar cock over a leghorn hen... supposedly (one has a questionable comb) crested*** autocorrect is evil some mornings... and I do have some sapphires, a ring and earrings I almost never wear... the kind I wear most often seem to be the feathered ones that are currently small enough to perch on my shoulder!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Crashed cream legbar cock over a leghorn hen... supposedly (one has a questionable comb)

So an F1 Easter Egger. Did you make them yourself or buy them from a hatchery?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Sorry if I’m going to further confuse matters here... but I only hatched one olive egger hatching egg out of 4-5 and sure enough.... it’s a boy! He’s quite sweet tempered right now. (Wheaten/AmeraucanaxBCmarans hen) I am wondering what his breeding possibilities will be like over my other green/blue layers or Marans hens? I have Sapphires (CCLegbarxLeghorn) and Isbars as well.

Your olive egger should have a genetic profile of one blue egg gene on and one off. The same is true of your cream legbar mixes (sapphires). Your Isbars also SHOULD have both blue egg genes on. So your offspring would look like;

Oo (olive egger) x Oo (sapphire) =
1/4 oo (brown or white eggs), 1/4 OO (two blue egg genes on), 1/2 Oo (one blue egg gene on) (all with varying degrees of tint/brown based on how the brown passes on).

Oo (olive egger) X OO (Isbar)=
50% OO (two blue egg genes on, lays blue/green, always passes on blue gene), 50% Oo (one blue egg gene on, lays blue/green, sometimes passes on blue gene)

Oo (olive egger) X oo (Marans)=
50% Oo (lays olive eggs), 50% oo (no blue, basically just a marans mutt)

This is all assuming that everything is kosher and your ameraucana that went into your OE or your isbar weren't duds with only one blue gene. This can be hard to identify because there's only a small difference in color between Oo and OO.

Your other blue/green layers will look like one of the above based on if they have two blue genes on (OO) or just one (Oo).

 

[Kris5902]

All bought from a local breeder... they don’t do yard tours for bio security reasons, so it’s mostly a trust on the breeding.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Fanci, the way I always explain it is like this;

Start with some basic concepts. Blue coloring is in the shell, brown is a coating, like paint. These are separate genes.

Then imagine simple genes like blue eggs as two light switches.
In a brown or white laying bird, both switches for "blue eggs" are turned off.
Because blue is dominant, if one of those switches is on you have a bird that lays blue eggs.
But brown eggs are a separate gene, so if you have a bird that WOULD be a brown layer with one blue egg gene switched on the egg comes out green tinted because of the shell is blue with a brown paint coating. The darker the brown, the darker the green, hence the use of dark brown egg layers like marans over, say, any other brown layer.

Each chick MUST inherit one of the two light switches from each of their parents. So if you have an EE, for example, with one blue switch on and one blue switch off as your hen... Then a marans rooster (which has no blue switches on)...
Half you chicks will get off blue switches from the maran, and the off blue switch from the EE. These will lay brown eggs. The other half will get the off blue switch from the maran and the on blue switch from the EE. These will lay green eggs.

Most EEs are some sort of mix, and so are likely to only have one blue switch on. So only half the chicks will be green layers because whether or not they get the on switch is random. But most Ameraucanas have BOTH blue switches on. Which means that they always inherit one on switch from the Am and one off from the Maran, and are ALWAYS green layers.

So genetically, the capital letters are a gene being "on", the genetics look like this:

OO = ameraucana (both light switches on, lays blue eggs, guaranteed to pass one blue gene on to their offspring)
Oo = Easter egger (One light switch on, lays blue eggs, has a 50% chance to pass on one blue gene to offspring)
oo = Maran (Neither switch is on, will never pass a blue gene on)

So you can see how crossing an Am with a maran will ALWAYS give you Oo (one O from the Am one o from the maran), whereas the EE will give you half oo and half Oo.

Now, not every easter egger is oO. Some are OO (blue eggs) and some lay brown eggs (oo). And occasionally you get a crummy, very poorly bred Am that is Oo or oo. (I ended up with three hens from a 'reputable' breeder this year and one lays BROWN eggs!) But this is a loose guide for getting started.

No switches on, brown eggs, never passes on blue
One switch on, blue with brown tint, passes on blue half the time
two switches on, blue with brown tint, always passes on blue

This is very helpful

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I'm glad it helped! With this you can understand how crossing future generations of birds can end up with an olive egger line that is OO, but also carries the dark brown of a marans. You can actually produce a line of OEs that breeds 100% true for egg color, where every chick is an olive egger.

Incidentally, this is how lots and lots of genetics work. Like the BBS gene is the same thing only one switch on makes it blue and two makes it splash. And simple recessive genes just activate when both switches are on, like a ceiling light where you need to both flip the switch AND pull the string.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Your olive egger should have a genetic profile of one blue egg gene on and one off. The same is true of your cream legbars. Your Isbars also SHOULD have both blue egg genes on. So your offspring would look like;

Oo (olive egger) x Oo legbar =
1/4 oo (brown or white eggs), 1/4 OO (two blue egg genes on), 1/2 Oo (one blue egg gene on) (all with varying degrees of tint/brown based on how the brown passes on).

Oo (olive egger) X OO (Isbar)=
50% OO (two blue egg genes on, lays blue/green, always passes on blue gene), 50% Oo (one blue egg gene on, lays blue/green, sometimes passes on blue gene)

Oo (olive egger) X oo (Marans)=
50% Oo (lays olive eggs), 50% oo (no blue, basically just a marans mutt)

This is all assuming that everything is kosher and your ameraucana that went into your OE or your isbar weren't duds with only one blue gene. This can be hard to identify because there's only a small difference in color between Oo and OO.

Your other blue/green layers will look like one of the above based on if they have two blue genes on (OO) or just one (Oo).

Legbars carry 2 blue egg genes.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Legbars carry 2 blue egg genes.

Sorry, you're right, I meant the sapphire, which she has, which is a cross with a legbar and a second bird (leghorn) that carries no blue genes making it an Oo. I'll edit for clarity.