The Olive-Egger thread!

[pbjmaker]

Everyone cross their fingers that the only fertile EE egg I have in the bator is an olive egger pullet. My EE has a stubborn streak a mile wide, hates my two current roos, and has been molting so is off laying. I have set about 2 dozen of her eggs in the last couple of months and this is the first one to develop. I had one other fertile one, but dropped it. I'm 98% sure that my BCM roo is the only one who has caught her lately. It is due in about 5 days.

My luck I will hatch a rooster

 

[onthespot]

Way to go ruth! That is a big ol' egg for a first one! I am growing out a half dozen pullets from my barred olive egger project. I'm hoping for some big olive eggs like that too! Congratulations! Sorry about the egg eaters.

It is HARD to get all the kinds of chickens you like, situated and happy in their pens, right roosters, all healthy, laying the color of egg you want, all with the right color of plumage, feet, toenails, combs right, eye colors right, not to mention temperament, foraging ability, healthy systems. When people come over they just see a bunch of chickens in pens and different colored eggs (which they fight over who gets to go egg hunting) Man, try to make it happen in your own back yard. It's HARD to do!

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Thats GREAT!!! Ruth....

I have a few in the bator my EE"s just started to lay...
BCM Roo
EE hen
They have about 10 days left in the bator....

 

[ruth]

I posted this on the regular Marans thread but thought I would post it here as well...

I'm getting more of the olive eggs. I noted something I find interesting and that is that the egg color is in the shell, like regular colored eggs, and not coated on the outside like the B.C. Marans egg color is. I wonder what happens to the "paint shute" in the mixed breeds? I also wonder what kind of chick/bird I will get once I set/hatch these eggs and what she will lay? I find this part of breeding fun....

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

They sure look pretty Ruth...
I have a wheaten color ee with super green legs as soon as she starts to lay I am going to put her in with my wheaten Marans Roo...I think they would be a GREAT color for an Olive egger..
Should be any day now..

 

[Andora]

I recently hatched some mixed chicks. They are faverolle/EE's and brahma/EE's. Do you think they will lay olive eggs or just brown? All but one or two of them have very green legs.

In the bator right now I have green EE eggs, the father is a cuckoo marans roo. There are also crevecoeur/marans eggs and one buff orp/marans.

 

[okiehen]

Wow, this is cool. And lots to read and learn about.
Maybe you all can help me out.
I have 1 pure blue Ameraucana pullet from a blue egg.
1 ee roo with feathered legs and straight comb from a blue green egg.
1 ameraucana/ee roo from a blue egg pea comb.
If I breed the roo from the blue egg with the pea comb to any of the following hens what will the egg color be?
(barred rock, welsummer, buff orpington, wheaten marans, cinnamon queens, black australorp, silver laced wyandott, black stars) what will you get when crossed with white egg laying hens?
And If I put the blue pullet in with my wheaten marans will I get
olive colored eggs and will the chicks be blue wheaten?

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I'm not sure I can answer your questions accurately because I really know nothing about the genetics of it all.....but.....from what I understood and what worked for me....was that if you cross a blue/green egg layer with a Marans dark brown egg layer the result will be an olive colored egg because the dark brown and the blue/green are both dominate traits and result in olive. I know that's not the scientific explanation but it's the best way I know to explain it.

 

[onthespot]

I think a blue bird bred to a non-blue bird would have half blue based chicks and half with no blue genes. If you want blue/green/olive layers I would bypass using the single combed roo unless he was your only source for some genetics you needed for this season only, until you could raise up a more suitable roo (pea comb)

One good use for the single comb roo though, you could use him to test breed pullets to see who is homozygous for pea combs. If the pullet is homozygous, you could at least be guaranteed all of her babies will hatch pea combed, and most likely blue/green/olive layers.

 

[ruth]

Here are some of today's eggs - the olive color is getting deeper. I'm also getting some that are gray and some that are pinkish.

All eggs from the young mixed breed pullets - all have same mama (who is a mixed breed herself 1/2 EE and 1/2 Barred Rock) and one of the two BCM daddys.

The young full-blooded Marans from this pen are also laying - notice the speckled eggs. I think they are my favorite. I only get them when a young BCM starts laying.