Would a Black Copper Marans roo bred with an Easter Egger hen (blue eggs) produce an olive Egger? Curious as I have the chance to get the roo from a gal not far from where I live. Curious if anyone has tried this? Your results?
A BCM roo should nicely carry the dark brown egg color genetics if he is of decent quality. I am starting my own Olive Egg project, and my reading indicates you get the darker olive if you have the dark brown gene in the rooster. You state your EE lays blue eggs, so you know she has to have at least 1 blue gene or her eggs wouldn't be blue...it takes 2 genes for the shell color, blue is dominant so Oo or OO would produce blue. If she has only 1 blue gene, then Punnett square math shows 50% will get a blue gene while 50% will not...that means 50% will have various shades of olive eggs (or green) and 50% brown shades with no blue gene. It makes it easier for long term breeding if you have a 2 gene hen...that way all chicks will have at least 1 blue gene, bred back to the original roo, will give you F2 (second generation) even darker olive eggers 50% and 50% brown layers....what color brown will vary as the brown genetics are fairly complicated (around 13 genes). With only 1 gene to start with, the math breeds out the potential for olive color faster as you breed daughters or sons back, so you have more potential for brown layers and less potential for olive or green layers. But...yeah...go for it..a nice BCM roo? Yup. That'll produce Olive Eggers if placed over a blue layer. LofMc working with Barnevelder roo and CCL, with level 7 Splash Marans added in for deepening of egg colors...yeah...I'm going to be working on this for awhile
