RIR/White EE cross question...

[Jennn27]

So I have a RIR roo and two white and brown (mostly white) EE hens. I am hatching some of their fertilized eggs out (two have pipped today). What are the chances I will get an Olive Egger out of this?? Would love to have another OE in my flock!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It would depend on what strength of blue egg your EE's are currently laying. Olive is a combination of deep blue and a dark egg. EE's are not known for very blue eggs, being a hybrid themselves and not having a direct parent with pure blue egg genes they range in egg color quite a bit. EE's lay pink, light green, light blue and so forth egg colors. There is no way to judge what color your next generation EE will lay without seeing your current birds eggs.

Take a look at what color you have and imagine it blended fairly evenly with a Production Red (hatchery RIR) egg.

 

[donrae]

I would not consider any egg from that cross to be Olive. You need one parent to be a dark brown egger, and the Red father is not. Reds lay a regular brown egg. this, crossed with any blue gene from the EE mother, will give you pullet offspring that lay some shade of green, but not the rich Olive color that's so coveted.

that said, I've seen so many shades of green posted here where folks are thrilled with their "Olive Egger".....I may be too picky about what I would term Olive.

 

[Jennn27]

Ahhh...ok. Yeah I used to have an OE and her eggs were a deep green...like the color of an actual olive. My EE's lay, I guess, a medium-blue egg? But on the bright side, one of the EE's I just hatched was the last egg my gray and black EE layed before she was killed. So here's hoping it's a hen!!