The Olive-Egger thread!

[Catandherchicks]

I've been breeding OE chickens now for about 6 years, starting flock were a mix of Easter Eggers and Black Copper Marans. I then bred back to black copper marans hens and OE roosters for several generations. Right now my breeding rooster looks very much like a BCM but has a pea comb and beard. I have just about every shade of olive egg, speckles, dark, light medium. I love OE's they are so much fun. I most bred for temperament and egg color. My hens are various feather colors, splash with gold, splash, black, blue, wheaten, blue wheaten. My previous rooster was blue birchen. I have 2 black birchen hens, but never got a blue birchen, love that color. Most have muffs and beards and feathered legs. Mine are also excellent broody hens. My very first OE hen I still have she was hatched in Sept 2010 (I keep records) You can see my rooster at the top right of the first photo. I do have a few BCM hens, and some other various breeds, but the majority are all OE's.

Wow! Love the variety of your chickens AND eggs!

 

[laciechickie]

Hi everyone anyone know if a cream Legbar roo + Welsummer hens would be a good first step to producing auto-sexing olive eggers?? (I would call them "olive-bars" for fun lol) is the brown color of the Welsummer compatible? I've heard you can out-cross Rhodebar roosters to Rhode Island Red hens for diversity and cross the pullets back to Rhodebar roosters and those chicks would be auto-sexing. Just wondered if the same is possible for Legbars + Welsummers?
The females of both look very similar except one has barring and one doesn't.
Really wanting to try this out if it sounds possible.

 

[throwntogether]

Just joined this thread and this question may have already been discussed. I hatched my first chick to start the process of an OE on April 17th using a BCM roo and an Ameraucana hen. I have a roo from that hatch that has a lot of characteristics of an Ameraucana. Can I use him instead of the BCM going forward? Do I wait until I see what the new chicks lay before making this decision? I would like to get rid of my BCM roo is why I ask. If anyone knows of a good place for me to go read about all of this that would also be great. That way I can answer a lot of my basic cross breeding and gene selection questions instead of filling up the thread. Thanks for any advice and direction.

 

[aart]

Just joined this thread and this question may have already been discussed. I hatched my first chick to start the process of an OE on April 17th using a BCM roo and an Ameraucana hen. I have a roo from that hatch that has a lot of characteristics of an Ameraucana. Can I use him instead of the BCM going forward? Do I wait until I see what the new chicks lay before making this decision? I would like to get rid of my BCM roo is why I ask. If anyone knows of a good place for me to go read about all of this that would also be great. That way I can answer a lot of my basic cross breeding and gene selection questions instead of filling up the thread. Thanks for any advice and direction.

Welcome to BYC!

There is a great resource here if you use Facebook, download the PDF at the top of page for a good breeding chart.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541575112755530/

 

[throwntogether]

Welcome to BYC!

There is a great resource here if you use Facebook, download the PDF at the top of page for a good breeding chart.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541575112755530/

Thanks for the input. I also found https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com...012/07/15/gms3-breeding-for-other-egg-colors/ which I am currently reading to get some info in case any one needed some info.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Anyone have any good tips for sexing dark copper maran/ameracauna cross aka (olive eggers)? I have 9 that I hatched and I'm hoping to get a leg up and maybe find the roosters homes while they are still cute lol..

 

[BackyardMarana]

Jenniferlamar70 ,
Have you tried feather sexing ?

 

[ronott1]

Jenniferlamar70 ,
Have you tried feather sexing ?

feather sexing is for sex linked crosses and the marans x ee do not match this.

Feather Sexing Chicks

Color sexing chicks can be a difficult task and is dependent upon the phenotype of the chick. If a chick does not have the correct down color, then you can not color sex the chick. There is a way of using another sex-linked trait to sex chicks based upon the size of the primary and secondary feathers on the wing of a newly hatched chick.

Feather sexing chicks can be accomplished by crossing males that are homozygous for rapid feather growth or carry two rapid feather growth alleles ( k+/k+) with females that are hemizygous or carry only one slow feather growth allele ( K/_W).

The female parent contributes a dominant gene for slow feather growth (K) to all the male offspring while the female offspring will inherit only one rapid feather growth allele ( k+) from the father. This cross produces males that have slow feather growth (K/k+) and females that have rapid feather growth (k+/_W).


The following site provides an excellent example of how to tell the difference between a rapid feathering female (pullet) chick and a slow feathering male (cockerel) chick. You have to examine the feathers on the wings of the newly hatched chick. Wait until the down dries and examine the wing feathers.

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm


The table below contains some of the birds that can be crossed to produce chicks that can be feather sexed.

Any of the males in the table, can be crossed with any of the females in the table to produce offspring that can be feather sexed. If you purchased your birds from a hatchery, check with the hatchery to see if the hatchery feather sexed the birds you purchased. If your stock was feather sexed, then the chickens can not be used for feather sexing crosses.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Jenniferlamar70 ,
Have you tried feather sexing ?

feather sexing is for sex linked crosses and the marans x ee do not match this. 

[COLOR=333333]Feather Sexing Chicks[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]Color sexing chicks can be a difficult task and is dependent upon the phenotype of the chick.  If a chick does not have the correct down color, then you can not color sex the chick.  There is a way of using another sex-linked trait to sex chicks based upon the [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]size of the primary and secondary feathers on the wing of a newly hatched chick.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]Feather sexing chicks can be accomplished by crossing males that are homozygous for rapid feather growth or carry two rapid feather growth alleles ( k+/k+) with females that are hemizygous or carry only one slow feather growth allele ( K/_W).[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]The female parent contributes a dominant gene for slow feather growth (K) to all the male offspring while the female offspring will inherit only one rapid feather growth allele ( k+)  from the father. This cross produces males that have slow feather growth (K/k+) and females that have rapid feather growth (k+/_W). [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]  [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]The following site provides an excellent example of how to tell the difference between a rapid feathering female (pullet) chick and a slow feathering male (cockerel) chick. You have to examine the feathers on the wings of the newly hatched chick. Wait until the down dries and examine the wing feathers.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR]http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm[COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]The table below contains some of the birds that can be crossed to produce chicks that can be feather sexed.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]Any of the males in the table, can be crossed with any of the females in the table to produce offspring that can be feather sexed. [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]If you purchased your birds from a hatchery, check with the hatchery to see if the hatchery feather sexed the birds you purchased. If your stock was feather sexed, then the chickens can not be used for feather sexing crosses. [/COLOR]

I haven't tried feather sexing yet. I'm new to marans and purchased the colorful eggs for my personal flock. I was happily suprised when 9 out of 10 hatched since they were shipped eggs. They are all black with some white near wings and chest, feathered legs. A few have white liner around their eyes and a few others have beard and muff. I know with my wyandottes the boys tails didn't feather until way after the girls and the red in their comb and wattles came in way faster. The boys also had more white on their shoulders..

 

[ronott1]

I haven't tried feather sexing yet. I'm new to marans and purchased the colorful eggs for my personal flock. I was happily suprised when 9 out of 10 hatched since they were shipped eggs. They are all black with some white near wings and chest, feathered legs. A few have white liner around their eyes and a few others have beard and muff. I know with my wyandottes the boys tails didn't feather until way after the girls and the red in their comb and wattles came in way faster. The boys also had more white on their shoulders..

Feather sexing them will not work. Fast feathering and slow feathering has to be gender linked to change the feathering rate of the males.

It does not work for your two breeds.