Olive egger questions

[NagemTX]

Wondering what breeds can be used to make olive Eggers. I have Ameraucanas but what breeds would provide the dark brown eggs besides the marans?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Off the top of my head, Marans, Welsummers, Barnevelders, Penedesencas, Empordanesas, and Welbars are all supposed to lay dark brown eggs. How dark depends on the quality of the birds, of course; some of these breeds, especially when purchased from hatcheries, don't lay eggs any darker of a brown than any other brown egg layer, unfortunately.

For the best results, you'll want the male in the parent generation to be of the brown egg breed and the females to be the blue egg breed, for the record. There is a spectrum of brown egg color genes and some are sexlinked; if the female is the brown egg layer, that means that her daughters will not receive some of her brown egg genes and thus will not lay as deep of an olive green color as the opposite cross will produce. Sexlinked genes cannot be passed mother to daughter, only mother to son. Males pass sexlinked genes to offspring of either sex, however, so he'll give his daughters the full dose of those brown egg genes, or at least all that he has available to pass on.

 

[NagemTX]

I think I'll be going with Barnvelders. I'm looking at ordering hatching eggs from gypsy hen.

 

[jbc37]

By accident, 10 years ago, had Americana Roo and Some Maran hens. I did start getting, what I called "Army Green" eggs, nowadays, I guess Olive. Now that I have many new chicks, am excited about hatching more myself. I will definitely cross several breeds with Americana, Marans, Salmon Faverolle, Wyandotte and a few others.

 

[Know it All]

Also, (just a random but awesome fact) the rooster will carry speckling genes better than hens. So I recommend getting a Welsummer cockerel. Hoover's Hatchery carries Welsummers with the most speckling I've ever seen (vs Cackle, Meyers, Sky Girl, McMurray, etc.)

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's not that the rooster carries them better, per se, it's most likely that they are sexlinked genes as I mentioned above. Hens cannot pass sexlinked genes to their daughters, only their sons, and since their sons aren't going to be doing any egg laying, then genes impacting eggs seem like they are lost in such crosses. A rooster, meanwhile, can pass sexlinked genes to both sons and daughters, so if he has sexlinked genes that impact eggs in some way, then they can be visible in his daughters from a first generation cross.

 

[TexasBlues]

Off the top of my head, Marans, Welsummers, Barnevelders, Penedesencas, Empordanesas, and Welbars are all supposed to lay dark brown eggs. How dark depends on the quality of the birds, of course; some of these breeds, especially when purchased from hatcheries, don't lay eggs any darker of a brown than any other brown egg layer, unfortunately.

For the best results, you'll want the male in the parent generation to be of the brown egg breed and the females to be the blue egg breed, for the record. There is a spectrum of brown egg color genes and some are sexlinked; if the female is the brown egg layer, that means that her daughters will not receive some of her brown egg genes and thus will not lay as deep of an olive green color as the opposite cross will produce. Sexlinked genes cannot be passed mother to daughter, only mother to son. Males pass sexlinked genes to offspring of either sex, however, so he'll give his daughters the full dose of those brown egg genes, or at least all that he has available to pass on.

good info thanks