Personal Vision

[Foster's Freehold]

Hi everyone. I've been reading and reading and have a couple of questions. The vision I have for a sustainable flock is a dual purpose, broody, wary, with a lot of egg color. I am looking at using BA, BR, Ameraucan or Olive Egger for the color, maybe a Welsummer for those dark eggs. I know this would be at least a 4 yr project, because from what I have read,it takes 2 F2 Olive Eggers to get the multi color. And I want the BA for hardiness and egg laying, the BR for sex link and broodiness.
Would Olive over Olive give the multi color basket with at least some blue layers or do I have to start with the blue layers? What happens if I cover a one of the F3's with a BA rooster, do I lose the colors? Could I use any F3 that came barred hen to create a sex link for hatches with a BA roo? What is the color gene for an F2 Olive Egger, 1 blue and 1 brown?

 

[3riverschick]

Just a thought. Might help if you weren't crossing alleles in the birds you were using. That way you wouldn't have heterozygous alleles to winnow out in trying to get birds which reproduced same plumage faithfully over the generations.
Best,
Karen

 

[Foster's Freehold]

Oh, guess I wasn't clear. I don't care about plumage as such, only in relation to the sex link for easier sales of pullets, thus a solid rooster over a barred hen.
What I am looking at most closely is the egg color, as it will drive egg sales at the farmers market. I want the hardiness and egg laying profile of the BA's with the colored egg basket of the olive x olive cross. Will I reinforce the blue egg gene if I (olive x olive) x Ameraucana? Will a (olive x olive) x BA lose me the egg color basket?