Olive Eggers- pea combs and blue egg gene

[Heather74]

Hope im posting in the right place.

Im looking to get my first olive egger hen soon. (Maran/Amerucana mix)
The hens i get to choose from are 5months old.

I have read repeatedly that some first gen olive eggers can actualky be brown egg layers, and that pea combs are much more likely to have the 'blue egg' gene needed to make them lay olive eggs.

Firstly, if that true? Shoudl i make sure to pick a hen with a pea comb?
Secondly, what are tje best ways to id a peacomb vs a single or other simular combs? I tried looking for images but they seem to be wrong or too varied.


Thank you for the help

 

[rosyamanda2000]

I'm curious about this too. I have three oe chicks. One has a pea comb and two have single combs. Does anyone have olive Eggers with single combs that lay olive eggs?

 

[Manningjw]

Crossing PURE Ameraucana or Araucana to pure brown egg layer will ONLY produce pea comb chicks. The F1 generation should always lay olive colored eggs and should have pea combs. If they have straight combs, the stock was not selected well in the prior generation or they are hybrids.

You can use mixed breeds to produce Olive Eggers - but it is best to use a female pea combed chicken that you know lays blue or green eggs because it means that the pea comb and the blue egg gene are most likely linked (if they are an F1 hybrid or similar). My own project birds I verify in each successive generation that the pea comb and blue gene are linked by test crosses before I continue breeding. There is still a small chance in each generation that the two genes will no be inherited together but it is much more likely that they will.

 

[Manningjw]

I'm curious about this too. I have three oe chicks. One has a pea comb and two have single combs. Does anyone have olive Eggers with single combs that lay olive eggs?

You certainly can have this happen if the genes diverged in the cross or if you used a single comb chicken that lays blue eggs for the original Olive Eggers. Using single combed hens that lay blue eggs isn't ideal as it make it more difficult to track the passage of the blue egg laying gene.

 

[rosyamanda2000]

Crossing PURE Ameraucana or Araucana to pure brown egg layer will ONLY produce pea comb chicks.  The F1 generation should always lay olive colored eggs and should have pea combs. If they have straight combs, the stock was not selected well in the prior generation or they are hybrids. 

You can use mixed breeds to produce Olive Eggers - but it is best to use a female pea combed chicken that you know lays blue or green eggs because it means that the pea comb and the blue egg gene are most likely linked (if they are an F1 hybrid or similar).  My own project birds I verify in each successive generation that the pea comb and blue gene are linked by test crosses before I continue breeding.  There is still a small chance in each generation that the two genes will no be inherited together but it is much more likely that they will. 

I purchased the eggs so I'm unaware of the exact cross. However, the eggs were varying shades of olive so they may be the f2 generation. Wouldn't that explain the single comb and brown eggs?

 

[Manningjw]

I purchased the eggs so I'm unaware of the exact cross. However, the eggs were varying shades of olive so they may be the f2 generation. Wouldn't that explain the single comb and brown eggs?

It absolutely would explain that! An Olive Egger will in most situations have a single blue egg gene, likely linked to the pea comb if using the typical crosses. If you breed OE to OE you will get varying shades of green and brown eggs. Direct OE to OE will result in 25% homozygous blue egg gene, 25% non-blue egg gene, and 50% heterozygous for the blue egg gene(single copy). The most likely scenario is that the straight comb chickens are non-blue egg gene birds and will lay brown eggs but it isn't possible to know without knowing the parent stock and whether or not the blue gene was linked in the F1 generation that produced the F2 birds you have.