Olive Egger Project

[Country-Wife]

can anyone guess
Maybe to early to tell all are 3 wk old BCM Roo x Olive Egger female chicks
Last 2 pics are of the middle and first chick again
TIA

 

[AlleysChicks]

1st and 3rd are cockerels. The 2nd needs more time

 

[The Moonshiner]

Cockerel
Pullet
Cockerel

 

[4 ever Orpington]

View attachment 1383871 View attachment 1383875 View attachment 1383876 View attachment 1383953 View attachment 1383955
can anyone guess
Maybe to early to tell all are 3 wk old BCM Roo x Olive Egger female chicks
Last 2 pics are of the middle and first chick again
TIA

 

[Hensndoes]

Do you know what bred these chicks? I ask because your 1st pic is a pea comb. The 2nd and 3rd are straight. (So is your olive egger gonna lay brown eggs? Or is ther more than one pullet? Or no pullets?)

 

[The Moonshiner]

They said BCM Xs OE so that cross has a 50% chance of producing a brown egg layer.
Many say the blue egg gene follows the pea comb. And I remember someone swearing with this cross a single comb offspring has a 94% or 96% chance of being a brown egg layer.
Odds don't look good for it being an olive egger.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree with Alley's chicks

 

[Hensndoes]

They said BCM Xs OE so that cross has a 50% chance of producing a brown egg layer.
Many say the blue egg gene follows the pea comb. And I remember someone swearing with this cross a single comb offspring has a 94% or 96% chance of being a brown egg layer.
Odds don't look good for it being an olive egger.

Not necessarily. CLB have straight combs. Many people like myself have both in their flock. This is why I asked what bred them. Are the olive eggers all from same parents and was a pea comb used or were they someone's backyard collection. f1 olive egger bred back to brown egg layer should make f2 - a darker olive. Were the mother hen(s) even the f1?

There is not enough info here to make assumptions on who will lay what (if they lay).

Edit for clarification: what bred the mother olive eggers. If only pea comb then the straight comb chicks shown here are not olive eggers- they are barnyard mixes.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Not necessarily. CLB have straight combs. Many people like myself have both in their flock. This is why I asked what bred them. Are the olive eggers all from same parents and was a pea comb used or were they someone's backyard collection. f1 olive egger bred back to brown egg layer should make f2 - a darker olive. Were the mother hen(s) even the f1?

There is not enough info here to make assumptions on who will lay what (if they lay).

I agree more info would help and may change my thoughts.
I do have a habit of making assumptions. Maybe I shouldn't but sometimes others may learn something so I'd rather post my thoughts by what info was provided then not reply at all or just reply with more questions.
I did and still assume that these were not created from CCLs. Op can correct me on that.
True a F1 bred back to a Marans should produce a darker olive egger. Should, but that's wishful thinking and not genetics.
Genetics tell me that it will produce about half brown egg layers.
If these are beyond F1 I'm still gonna assume they will produce quite a few brown egg layers. Maybe even more then 50% because some of the further generations can be brown egg layers on the male side that can be being bred without knowing it.
Just my thoughts with what I read. OP can reply with more info or corrections and I'll reply any further thoughts.

Olive eggers are a tough project because your breeding towards two things from two breeds. The dark egg genes and the blue egg genes.
When you breed towards one you're breeding away from the other.
Many make the F1s and breed them back to the dark egg breeds to darken the green. I think that's the wrong way to go about it.
I think you have to start with the very darkest brown egg layer you can get then breed the F1s back to blue egg breed or to each other.
Breed for the blue egg genes and let the brown ride along.
You need to get back to offspring that get two genes for blue eggs then breed them together and start selecting for darker green and continue improving the darker shade while only using birds homozygous for blue eggs.
Seems smarter that way then keep going back to dark brown layers with single blue egg gene birds. Or to keep losing half offspring because you are breeding away from the blue egg gene and producing birds without any blue egg genes.

 

[Hensndoes]

I agree more info would help and may change my thoughts.
I do have a habit of making assumptions. Maybe I shouldn't but sometimes others may learn something so I'd rather post my thoughts by what info was provided then not reply at all or just reply with more questions.
I did and still assume that these were not created from CCLs. Op can correct me on that.
True a F1 bred back to a Marans should produce a darker olive egger. Should, but that's wishful thinking and not genetics.
Genetics tell me that it will produce about half brown egg layers.
If these are beyond F1 I'm still gonna assume they will produce quite a few brown egg layers. Maybe even more then 50% because some of the further generations can be brown egg layers on the male side that can be being bred without knowing it.
Just my thoughts with what I read. OP can reply with more info or corrections and I'll reply any further thoughts.

Olive eggers are a tough project because your breeding towards two things from two breeds. The dark egg genes and the blue egg genes.
When you breed towards one you're breeding away from the other.
Many make the F1s and breed them back to the dark egg breeds to darken the green. I think that's the wrong way to go about it.
I think you have to start with the very darkest brown egg layer you can get then breed the F1s back to blue egg breed or to each other.
Breed for the blue egg genes and let the brown ride along.
You need to get back to offspring that get two genes for blue eggs then breed them together and start selecting for darker green and continue improving the darker shade while only using birds homozygous for blue eggs.
Seems smarter that way then keep going back to dark brown layers with single blue egg gene birds. Or to keep losing half offspring because you are breeding away from the blue egg gene and producing birds without any blue egg genes.

To be honest I think you're likely correct and these were bred off easter egger f1 - but that wouldn't be respectable to advertise the straight comb babies as olive eggers. I have a marans roo housed with both CLB and Easter egger - but when I sell olive eggers I can't use the easter egger offspring and say "olive egger" if the comb is straight. So part of me wants to think the supplier hatched separately and pulled out out straight combs off EE lineage.