Olive egger x copper maran

[Crimsoncloud13]

Does anyone know what would happen of someone crossed a f3 olive egger with a copper maran rooster? How would the eggs look like?? Im just curious because some is selling pullets from that cross and I was thinking of getting one. They also sell a wellsummer copper maran mix as well, how would those eggs turn out. Anyone got pictures?

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I have no idea! But you might post this question in our Breed Discussion section of the forums. Maybe someone can help you there...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/14/general-breed-discussions-faq

Enjoy all your poultry adventures and welcome to our flock!

 

[gander007]

If you can find the dark green one in there that is by a BCM and EE mix hen and she lays some great green egg's of good size but only 3 a week I think it hurts her but she is only 25 weeks old ...

I know the color really dose not come out well in the photos .....

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

 

[Michael OShay]

Welcome to BYC! The color of the eggs laid by the offspring of an Copper Marans rooster x Olive Egger will depend on which egg color gene the Olive Egger gives to the offspring. Olive Eggers have both a blue egg gene and a chocolate (very dark brown) egg gene. If she gives her blue egg gene to the offspring, then the offspring will also lay Olive Eggs. If she gives her chocolate egg gene to the offspring, then the offspring will lay chocolate eggs. Welsummer X Copper Marans will also lay chocolate eggs as both parents are chocolate egg layers.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! X2 Green/olive eggs are blue eggs with a brown coating, the more brown the more olive the egg. The blue egg gene is a single dominant, there are quite a few genes that control the shade of brown. The F3 parent could have 1 or 2 copies of the blue egg gene depending on the cross, if only 1 copy, only half their female offspring would lay olive, the other half will lay some shade of brown... the general rule of thumb seems to be that the "brown" shade of offspring's eggs will be the average of the shades the parents carry. Wels X BCMs would just give you dark brown eggs.

 

[Michael OShay]

If all of these genetics are confusing (they can be), the simple answer is the offspring of your Copper Marans rooster x Olive Egger hen will lay either Olive eggs or dark brown eggs.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm totally confused myself

 

[Outpost JWB]

So, if I understand Michael OShay's comment correctly then the hen is the one who's genes determine the egg color....? Here are my confusing questions.

I have a couple french marans and a couple olive egger pullets. I also hatched out a olive egger cockrell. I was planning on breeding the olive egger roo with the marans hens. Does this mean their offspring will only lay the dark brown?
I was also going to breed him with the olive egger hens figuring the offspring will just continue to lay the same shade green. Is that correct? I may have to rethink next spring's plans!?!?! Thanks!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Egg color is not sex linked. Both genders can carry 1 or two blue egg shell genes, (blue color is actually in the eggs shell, egg shells are either blue or white) and various genes for the brown shading (brown color is a "paint" on the egg shell itself, think there were like 13 different genes found that affect brown last time I checked). Blue egg shell + brown give you green, more/darker brown more olivey the green.

The question becomes how many blue egg shell genes does your olive egger carry, an F1 would pretty much always be one if you are dealing with good purebreds, ie Marans (0 blues) X Ameraucana (2 blues), they would get 1 blue gene from the Ameraucana so all pullets would lay olive/green, but both sexes would only carry 1 blue gene to pass on...

Now if you go on to an F2, if you breed your F1 roo back to a Marans, since your F1 only has 1 blue gene to give, only half the offspring would have one... so half the pullets will lay some shade of olive, half some shade of brown.

If you breed F1 to F1, you'd get 3/4 with the blue gene (usual 1:2:1 ratio).

With the brown, the general rule of thumb seems to be that the offspring will lay about the average of the parents, iow if you breed a dark brown to a light brown you will average mostly medium browns (adding blue gene to that gives you the equivalent green to olive shading).