The Olive-Egger thread!

[livin-green]

Okay, I'm currently working on my own Olive-eggers, and I have a question...Which egg color gene is dominate? Brown? Blue?

Another question -- an Olive-egger should carry one of each gene, right? So, if you breed an Olive-egger back to a pure dark brown or blue egg layer, wouldn't it lay either the dark brown or the blue, whichever gene it's getting a double does of?

I'm still trying to figure out all this genetics stuff, so any help from some veteran breeders here would be awesome!

 

[Medicine Man]

The egg color genes in question are on different loci, so go ahead and stack as many copies of those genes as you can into the same chickens.

 

[Medicine Man]

a little update on my project...

cockerel at 7 or 8 weeks. very slow-feathering. tail not plucked, simply has not come in yet...

pullet at 7 weeks. slightly faster feathering, but still very slow...

dad

dad

dad

pullet

cockerel

dad

I'm hoping to lose the copper; enhancing the purple would be nice; other triptastic and boombastic features will likely come up.

 

[livin-green]

Quote:
Thanks for the info., but--unfortunately--I'm still a little confused. I asked before, and the basic idea for an Olive-egger rooster was they are "if-y" in which egg color gene would be carried in the offspring. What is the use of an Olive-egger rooster in a breeding program? It is also my understanding that you can breed up or down your line (parent <--> offspring) but not across lines (sibling <--> sibling). I know I have hatched out some Buff Orp eggs that were from a sibling mating and at least 2 out of 3 had a genetic defect & had to be culled. The 3rd appeared normal & was given away--not sure what might have happened to it. So to use the OE roo that I have would I not need to find some OEs from a different line?

I'm trying to learn about the genetics, but I can't find good "Chicken Genetics for Dummies". It's been a long time since high school biology

, and I don't remember much of the basics on genetics anymore. Any tips on where to find some genetics info for the lay breeder?

 

[Medicine Man]

hmmm...my original pair of parent Olive Eggers are unrelated. Lucky me, I had two different local gals supply me with eggs from the same breeding, but different stock/different lines.

As far as which egg color genes will be passed to the offspring, figure it like this...(and I'm oversimplifying it for my sake, otherwise I would never understand my own logic)...

-there are (approximately??) 17 different genes associated with the dark eggs in Marans. I don't know anything about the other dark egg breeds' genes. So it's a pretty safe bet that ALL offspring will receive some dark egg genes.

-the blue egg gene is dominant AND it's attached to the pea comb gene. not quite 100% of the time, but close enough. so basically, if it has a pea comb, it has at least one blue egg gene.

It's pretty much that simple...if you know how to do a Punnett Square and work up the pea comb/single comb combinations, then there ya go...

here are some hypothetical examples...and it doesn't even matter what symbols you use as long as you know what you're trying to figure out for yourself, so in the case of a mating between a Marans and an EE, I use P for pea comb (blue egg gene) and s for single comb...

here is the F1 Generation, an EE/Ameraucana/Araucana x Marans...

PP
s
s
____________
in this breeding, all the peeps are going to be Ps.

Then you'd probably want to darken the egg, so breed back to a Marans...that makes a B1 Generation (backcross 1)

Ps
s
s
___________
now only half the peeps are Ps, half are ss. these are what my parent Olive Eggers are - sort of - but the Marans wasn't exactly pure to start with so they're all crazy.

my peeps in the photos above are this...

Ps
P
s
___________
I get one PP (awesome!), two Ps and one ss.

One way in which your Olive Egger rooster can be of great value - breed him to some Cuckoo Marans hens. The offspring will be Black Sex Links. That is, the males will be barred and will be born black with a white spot in their heads, the females will be born solid black. Yay! You can tell right away who your pea-combed pullets are.

 

[kathyinmo]

What does slow (or fast) feathering tell you? Is this desirable?

 

[Medicine Man]

I was told by Res that it's a trait from the Austronesian gamefowl. Desirable, I don't know. I wants to assume that perhaps a peep in a climate in which it can "get away with" slow feathering (i.e., a tropical climate - warm) can then use the protein and energy to develop the rest of its body systems rather than feathers. Make any sense? I dunno.

 

[Medicine Man]

also in the Punnet Square examples above, you can also figure out how to lose the beard/muffs if you so desire. I specifically do not want my Olive Eggers to look like any other breed, so it was important to me to lose the beard and muffs (although it was actually already done for me by the luck of the genes).

 

[livin-green]

Quote:
Personally, I just

the beard/muffs ~ just too cute! I guess there'd be an advantage to having them look different, because my blue OE looks just like my blue Ameraucanas (except for some light leg feathers which I am hoping will fill out better with maturity).

Thanks for all the detail, Medicine Man!! I really want to dig into the genetics stuff when I have more time (HA!), but the basics you gave me do help tremendously. I don't have Cuckoo Marans ~ mine are FBC. Might consider some one day, but hubby is boycotting building me any more coops/runs as we are currently finishing on our 3rd coop and already have duckling/goslings on the way March 2!

Good luck with your projects!

 

[livin-green]

Quote:
Okay, nevermind, I do have a question...this kind of stuff just bugs me. Now, this involves feather color genetics rather than egg color. What would you get with a very dark blue with gold accented hackles OE crossed with a Cuckoo Marans? Would the offspring still be black/cuckoo or would the offspring be 50% blue & 50% black? And then what happens with the Cuckoo part?

Sorry for all the questions...I just find all this stuff fascinating, and, as I said previously, it's hard to find info. about all this stuff. I'd love a reference to a good book, site, etc....