Please can someone educate me on breeding an olive egger and how to do so

[ChookFlyingToTheMoon]

So I've been doing a lot of reading up and I really want to make an olive egger next year, but I want it to be autosexing. I've read up on the genetics and how to make it and saw something like this:

cream Legbar cockerel + cuckoo Marans

F1 barred cockerel + cuckoo Marans

F2 barred cockerel + F2 barred pullet

F3 homozygous cockerel + F3 barred pullet

F4 lightest cockerel + F4 darkest pullet

F5 lightest cockerel + F5 darkest pullet

Being in England, easiest blue egger to get is the Cream Legbar so I don't need to worry about muffs and the like, I'm just after an autosexing, olive egger, LF chicken, too much to ask? There are quite a few olive egger "breeders" but they only have first generation. I am worried that by the time I manage to get the best autosexing chicks, my line will be weak from the inbreeding, though I do plan to cull out any 'wrong' chicks. I'm also worried that the green/olive egg will be bred out and they'll lay brown eggs, obviously I'll be able to see the egg colour with each generation so I can note if the egg colour is getting browner or staying the same, if by any chance, the eggs were to become brown, how would I correct this without messing it up? The F3 cockerel over the latest pullet?

Sorry if I've got it all wrong. Please help me understand this! Thank you

 

[R2elk]

So I've been doing a lot of reading up and I really want to make an olive egger next year, but I want it to be autosexing. I've read up on the genetics and how to make it and saw something like this:

cream Legbar cockerel + cuckoo Marans

F1 barred cockerel + cuckoo Marans

F2 barred cockerel + F2 barred pullet

F3 homozygous cockerel + F3 barred pullet

F4 lightest cockerel + F4 darkest pullet

F5 lightest cockerel + F5 darkest pullet

Being in England, easiest blue egger to get is the Cream Legbar so I don't need to worry about muffs and the like, I'm just after an autosexing, olive egger, LF chicken, too much to ask? There are quite a few olive egger "breeders" but they only have first generation. I am worried that by the time I manage to get the best autosexing chicks, my line will be weak from the inbreeding, though I do plan to cull out any 'wrong' chicks. I'm also worried that the green/olive egg will be bred out and they'll lay brown eggs, obviously I'll be able to see the egg colour with each generation so I can note if the egg colour is getting browner or staying the same, if by any chance, the eggs were to become brown, how would I correct this without messing it up? The F3 cockerel over the latest pullet?

Sorry if I've got it all wrong. Please help me understand this! Thank you

The reason they only have F1 generation olive eggers is because future generations cannot be guaranteed to produce olive eggs. There are two primary egg shell colors, white and blue. Brown eggs are produced by a brown dye layer over a white shell egg. Green and olive eggs are produced by a brown dye layer over a blue egg shell.

Breeding olive eggers together can produce chickens that lay blue, green or olive eggs and even brown eggs if the F1 hens had a blue and a white egg gene. There is no single gene that produces an olive egg on its own so it is impossible to develop a race of olive eggers that are guaranteed to continue to produce olive eggers.

 

[LilJoe]

I thought the cock had to have the dark brown gene?

 

[R2elk]

I thought the cock had to have the dark brown gene?

It does not matter which is which to produce the olive egger. You could go either way. The sex link though is that the hens that are barred need to be used with a rooster that is not barred.

 

[ChookFlyingToTheMoon]

The reason they only have F1 generation olive eggers is because future generations cannot be guaranteed to produce olive eggs. There are two primary egg shell colors, white and blue. Brown eggs are produced by a brown dye layer over a white shell egg. Green and olive eggs are produced by a brown dye layer over a blue egg shell.

Breeding olive eggers together can produce chickens that lay blue, green or olive eggs and even brown eggs if the F1 hens had a blue and a white egg gene. There is no single gene that produces an olive egg on its own so it is impossible to develop a race of olive eggers that are guaranteed to continue to produce olive eggers.

Thank you for clarifying that!