Riddle Me This? Olive Egger from Hoover's Hatchery Color

[AUChickenGal]

Here's a fun one. I have a three-day-old Olive Egger pullet purchased from Hoover's Hatchery. The hatchery's description of their olive eggers says:

Our Olive Eggers come from a couple of different crosses. We have one line that is a cross of Americanas and French Cuckoo Marans. With this hybrid, most of the females will be black but a few will come out blue. We also have another cross that is between Legbars and Welsummers, our goal with these is to create a green egg that is speckled similar to the Welsummers.

My chick looks like this (ignore the caption; I labeled the photo before I realized she was definitely my Olive Egger and not my Welsummer):

So, you'd think that would make her one of the Welsummer/CCL line chicks right? BUT...she has lightly feathered legs. Which means that she obviously has some Marans blood. So, that makes me scratch my head a bit on her color, since she should be solid black (or blue) in that case. I guess she's at least an F2 cross, but I'd still expect the vast majority of those chicks to be black, also. It'll be interesting to see how she feathers out, for sure!

Anybody else have a Hoover's Olive Egger that doesn't follow the "rules" for their description on the site?

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Adorable, nonetheless!

 

[renk777]

Here's a fun one. I have a three-day-old Olive Egger pullet purchased from Hoover's Hatchery. The hatchery's description of their olive eggers says:


My chick looks like this (ignore the caption; I labeled the photo before I realized she was definitely my Olive Egger and not my Welsummer):
View attachment 2096479

So, you'd think that would make her one of the Welsummer/CCL line chicks right? BUT...she has lightly feathered legs. Which means that she obviously has some Marans blood. So, that makes me scratch my head a bit on her color, since she should be solid black (or blue) in that case. I guess she's at least an F2 cross, but I'd still expect the vast majority of those chicks to be black, also. It'll be interesting to see how she feathers out, for sure!

Anybody else have a Hoover's Olive Egger that doesn't follow the "rules" for their description on the site?

I'm thinking she's there Americauna (f1) or Ameraucana x Marans cross. Either way, she's an EE or OE if she lays a colored egg and those are impossible to predict gender... let alone color. Though I did figure out something that you can test for me. I recently picked up 5 EEs. Initially I bought 2 from one seller but I'm fairly certain one is a roo so I had to buy 3 more from another seller so that I raise my chances of having 2 or 3 pullets to introduce to flock. Ideally, I was hoping for an EE or OE with a black head and gold or other contrasting neck plumage so I picked out chicks with dark blue or chocolate down on heads. But after scouring web for photos of EE/OE chicks and their adult photos when available, I noticed down color does not predict adult color...both dark and light downed chicks can end up with dark heads as well as the opposite. 2 of my EEs are 5 weeks old. Both are partridge with gold feathers emerging. One has gold feathers starting to show on head... the other (woohooo...) black! Both had dark down on heads. But the one whose head/neck is turning gold had gold fuzz on ears at 3 weeks. And the one whose head is turning black...black fuzz on ears at 3 weeks. So I pulled out my 2 week EEs and the 2 dark 'twins'... the one with light fuzz on ears is getting gold on neck and the one with dark fuzz? Just black feathers so far. So then i looked at pics online of other chicks where I know what adults look like. For example, silver Egyptian Fayoumis...dark chicks...but adult birds have white heads/necks and no surprise...fuzz on ears around 3 weeks is light even though down on rest of chick is dark. This seems to hold true for every pic I've seen. So I'd love for you to keep us updated with her feather progress as I don't think her down is any indication of her final color (unless you're a genetics expert) and I would bet that whatever color the fuzz on her ears is at around 3 weeks will be a dominant color on her head/neck when she starts to feather out. Doesn't exactly answer your question but for people like me impatiently waiting to know what I have and what it will look like, knowing even the head/neck color only a few weeks in is oddly satisfying!

 

[tmf321]

This is my OE from Hoover Hatchery. First pic is day #1 and is one of the black chicks (the other is a barred rock but I forget which was which). Chicks are now 4 weeks old.

 

[AUChickenGal]

@renk777, my experience has been that EE coloring is all over the map, for sure! I'm not a genetics expert, but I do know that if this chick were an F1 Cuckoo Marans cross, she'd have to be solid black (or solid blue, depending on the color of the other parent) or barred/cuckoo. So, that's off the table. That's the fun of these birds.

Here are some of my previous EEs as chicks and then adults; not sure if it'll help your mission or not. But who doesn't love baby pics? Lol.

This was Ethel at a week old and then as at 12 weeks:

This was her hatch mate Hootie at the same ages:

This was Mocha at a week-ish old; she looked just like Hootie as an adult:

And this was Hazelnut at a week old. She ended up being a GORGEOUS blue partidge-ish color (she's the center bottom in the last photo):

 

[renk777]

@renk777, my experience has been that EE coloring is all over the map, for sure! I'm not a genetics expert, but I do know that if this chick were an F1 Cuckoo Marans cross, she'd have to be solid black (or solid blue, depending on the color of the hen) or barred/cuckoo. So, that's off the table. That's the fun of these birds.

Here are some of my previous EEs as chicks and then adults; not sure if it'll help your mission or not. But who doesn't love baby pics? Lol.

This was Ethel at a week old and then as at 12 weeks:
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View attachment 2097093

This was her hatch mate Hootie at the same ages:
View attachment 2097096
View attachment 2097098

This was Mocha at a week-ish old; she looked just like Hootie as an adult:
View attachment 2097104

And this was Hazelnut at a week old. She ended up being a GORGEOUS blue partidge-ish color (she's the center bottom in the last photo):
View attachment 2097105
View attachment 2097106

Omg... you're the best! I know how much time it takes to scroll and find and upload photos! Sadly, I can't see the ear fuzz at 1 week..too fluffy! I only notice it around 2 to 3 weeks. But I'm determined to discover a way to tell sooner so I'm going to study your pics for hours And that blue partridge...so gorgeous!!