Meyer Olive Egger?

[dekel18042]

Meyer is using Legbars and Ameraucana crossed with Marans in their breeding program. So you might not be looking for a chick with puffy cheeks. Look and see if any of the chicks have fuzzy legs and outer toes. Not all olive eggers will inherit the feathered legs from the Marans. My olive egger has very feathered legs though. Hope that might help! Good luck

I'm planning on breeding my own olive eggers this coming spring and am figuring out which birds I want to use as parents. I was told if I go with my legbar rooster, all the progeny will be barred. If Meyer's use legbars in their OE breeding program, shouldn't you see the barring coming in early? My barred chicks (not talking about the autosexing ones) start life with a spot on the head. Not sure how being a legbar mix affects this but can any of this info help you figure out which is your OE?
BTW, I got several marans this past spring for this project and finished my order by adding two extra EE's. Neither of these two look like any of my others. One lays a greenish egg and the other is lavender colored (very pretty) and lays an olive egg. She doesn't have a muff or beard, but has a pea comb.
I think it may just be luck of the dray what you get.

 

[donrae]

I'm planning on breeding my own olive eggers this coming spring and am figuring out which birds I want to use as parents. I was told if I go with my legbar rooster, all the progeny will be barred. If Meyer's use legbars in their OE breeding program, shouldn't you see the barring coming in early? My barred chicks (not talking about the autosexing ones) start life with a spot on the head. Not sure how being a legbar mix affects this but can any of this info help you figure out which is your OE?
BTW, I got several marans this past spring for this project and finished my order by adding two extra EE's. Neither of these two look like any of my others. One lays a greenish egg and the other is lavender colored (very pretty) and lays an olive egg. She doesn't have a muff or beard, but has a pea comb.
I think it may just be luck of the dray what you get.

If you use a Legbar rooster, all the offspring should be barred, if he's homozygous for barring. But, if the hatchery is using Legbar females, under non-barred males like a Marans, the offspring should actually be sex linked and the females will be non-barred....so hopefully one wouldn't get a barred chick or it would be mis-sexed. But, then throw cuckoo Marans in the mix and you've got a whole nother set of genes to deal with....since we don't know which parent stock the hatchery uses, or which parent is barred, you can't use barring or absence of as an indicator of gender.

 

[dekel18042]

If you use a Legbar rooster, all the offspring should be barred, if he's homozygous for barring. But, if the hatchery is using Legbar females, under non-barred males like a Marans, the offspring should actually be sex linked and the females will be non-barred....so hopefully one wouldn't get a barred chick or it would be mis-sexed. But, then throw cuckoo Marans in the mix and you've got a whole nother set of genes to deal with....since we don't know which parent stock the hatchery uses, or which parent is barred, you can't use barring or absence of as an indicator of gender.

He's a purebred legbar from a breeder. I plan to use him to make my own olive eggers. A year or so ago when I got the idea of colored eggs I did pick up an EE, added two more, one of which turned out to be an OE, and then hatched some more EE's from my original EE's.(Not only are they my favorites, they are excellent layers.) At that time I didn't have any dark egg layers to make the OE, so I rectified that. Now if the marans and welsumers would only lay, my project could go forward.

 

[song of joy]

My OE from Meyer Hatchery lays a medium olive egg. She appears to be a cross between a marans and ameraucana, as she has a pea comb and very lightly feathered legs. Size is similar to a black australorp. Feathers are black with a green sheen.

 

[KieksterChicken]

I noticed that you are talking about using Easter Eggers to create Olive Eggers. The problem with this is that EE's are not pure breds but rather crosses of Ameraucana's or Araucana's with whatever breed the hatchery or breeder decides to cross them with. Since they are not pure bred they don't breed true (they don't pass their blue egg genes) and the blue egg gene is often lost in the cross resulting in non blue eggs. The more crosses between resulting generations you do the more watered down the blue egg gene becomes until it is lost. If you want to create OE's then you will need to start with a base stock of pure bred Ameraucana's or Araucana's and cross them with a breed that lays a dark brown egg. The resulting crosses will not breed true but will lay olive eggs. What hatcheries claim are pure bred Ameraucana's or Araucana's are actually Easter Eggers becuase they are crosses. You will never get a pure bred Ameraucana or Araucana from a hatchery. Pure bred Ameraucana's and Araucana's in the USA are somewhat rare. Your best bet to find some is to go to online websites for Ameraucana and Araucana breeders clubs or associations and buy your birds through their members.

 

[nikkers390]

I have spring chicks coming. Olive eggers were in the plan. I had 2 from a breeder last year, but both got taken by ??? No sign of them. Their eggs were a beautiful dark olive color. I do have a rooster from the same breeder. I still have to hatch some eggs from various hens and this rooster.

I ordered a few feather legged cuckoo marans pullets and some pure Ameraucana straight run. Hopefully I will get a blue or splash cockerel in the mix.
According to the color calculator A splash rooster over barred hens will give solid blue females and blue barred males. First generation will be sexable at hatch. After that it is different. Nice to know how many females are in a hatch. The eggs should be green or olive. At any rate those should be some pretty chicks.

 

[nikkers390]

I have spring chicks coming. Olive eggers were in the plan. I had 2 from a breeder last year, but both got taken by ??? No sign of them. Their eggs were a beautiful dark olive color. I do have a rooster from the same breeder. I still have to hatch some eggs from various hens and this rooster.

I ordered a few feather legged cuckoo marans pullets and some pure Ameraucana straight run. Hopefully I will get a blue or splash cockerel in the mix.
According to the color calculator A splash rooster over barred hens will give solid blue females and blue barred males. First generation will be sexable at hatch. After that it is different. Nice to know how many females are in a hatch. The eggs should be green or olive. At any rate those should be some pretty chicks.

By the way, the Ameraucanas I ordered are not hatchery but come from a breeder. They are assorted colors: wheaten, blue wheaten splash and lavender.

 

[zonachick]

Here are my girls ordered from Meyers. The brown ones are the easter eggers and the light gray are the olive eggers. Hope this helps. They are 2 days old in this picture.

I have threee 4 week old chicks from Meyer's that looks like your brown colored ee chick..... do you think it's possible that they're Easter eggers as well? 1-2 weeks old:

4 weeks old:

 

[Savcluckers]

Do yours have puffy cheeks? All of my Easter Eggers had sort of chipmunk looking cheeks! I'm not sure if all do, but mine did. And all of my girls had a pea comb of sorts. You're girls are pretty though. I miss the baby stage!!

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

I have threee 4 week old chicks from Meyer's that looks like your brown colored ee chick..... do you think it's possible that they're Easter eggers as well?
1-2 weeks old:

4 weeks old:

What did you order? Those look like a welsummer maybe? Something with a salmon breast and partridge...