The Olive-Egger thread!

[BeardedLadyFarm]

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You will certainly make some Easter Eggers of various shades, which is always fun, and some may tend to the olive side of things. To get the really army green/dark olive eggs, you'll need some Marans or Wellsummer blood in the mix to give them that dark coating those breeds are known for.

Of course you should get big green eggs, and lots of them using your Red Stars.

 

[JamesA]

I understand that the more you cross olive eggers back to Marans, theoretically the darker the eggs will get.My question is has or does anyone have pictures of eggs from 2nd generation olive eggers breed back to marans? If you do not have pictures can you explain your results?

 

[JP33]

This is one of my four EEs Bertha: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-zEm8KEZSpWU1SjQTn_fmg?authkey=Gv1sRgCM2i16-hleqaNg&feat=directlink

These are her eggs: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2CQMJGhzitWzHAKy05Fm3A?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXRjcr9krWgFg&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JGCSrH1lWpJ54Gbwb0Qfog?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXRjcr9krWgFg&feat=directlink


...JP

 

[ruth]

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Here's a link to my original olive egg ad. It shows the parents of the birds that were laying the olive eggs (an EE mom and a BCM roo) and shows the EE's light blue/green eggs. Their chicks grew up and produced the olive eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=265026

Originally I only had three birds laying olive eggs and they were all consistently the same dark olive color. But this week I've started gathering many olive eggs of various colors, shades and speckles so either I now have a lot more birds laying olive eggs or some of the original olive egg chicks I hatched are now laying. But, I haven't breed the olive eggers back to a BCM since everyone freeranges. All I know is that as of this week here's what I'm gathering:

I'm thinking these new eggs must be coming from my next generation of olive eggers because the mom EE quit laying for many months and I was not able to hatch any more of her EE eggs but I kept hatching the olive eggs so any new olive egg layers I have must be coming from that second generation. I guess I need to put them with BCM roos to see what they will produce. But there is the possibility that the new eggs are coming from birds that were also offspring of my freeranging BCM roos and other EE moms.

I have over 200 birds and everyone freeranges and I occasionally gather up a bunch of eggs and hatch them and then release them when they are a couple of weeks old so keeping track of everyone hasn't been a priority or even a possibility.

 

[ruth]

Well I just did a little research and I got my first olive egg on Aug. 5th. I've been hatching them ever since but even the first chicks wouldn't be old enough to be laying yet - soon though. So all my new eggs must be coming from other offspring of BCM roos and EE moms.

But then again, I could be wrong - I've had many birds start laying at 4 months which is how old my oldest olive eggers would be right now - freeranging does produce birds that mature much faster.

My first batch of chicks, from olive eggs, hatched Aug. 31st with a second batch hatching Sept. 14th. It won't be long before they start laying and if I can figure out which ones they are, I will put them with my BCM flock and see what they produce.

Stay tuned.....

 

[quailbrain]

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What a great looking hen. I didn't realize they came in this color.

 

[quailbrain]

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I think they are such wonderful colors!!!

 

[quailbrain]

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What a beautiful egg! I'm not use to seeing that olive color I guess.

 

[cottagegarden]

What a beautiful egg! I'm not use to seeing that olive color I guess.

They are so much fun!! While the shade can vary over time or sometimes have speckles all the pullets from multiple hatches from this cross
have laid olive eggs. There has been one single combed chick and she is a favorite pet now and lays a marans colored eggs.


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[flower]

WOW ! This so exciting and of course interesting Ruth what a beautiful basket of eggs ! I LOVE IT !

No wonder we are all addicts to these beautiful birds ! (and their eggs)