The Olive-Egger thread!

[babyrnlc]

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Well, Ilia is definitely a much bigger expert than me and it's scary to go against someone who has so much more experience. Having said that, my BCM roo was crowing by 8 weeks. My BCM/EE cockerels I hatched are 10 weeks, and one is crowing. Their combs are definitely prominent and bright red. In your picture, they are 5 months old, and their combs aren't red. Go see my rooster- he was 5 months old or so in that picture. See the difference in comb between him and your BCMs? I don't think they're purebred BCM, and I don't think they're cockerels either.

Well now I am confused again. Ilia said to look for saddle feathers coming in and before I left on vacation, I saw gold colored quils and thought, oh yeah, it is a rooster. Well I just went out and the feathers that were coming in are now the black and gold like all the others and they are not straigh and skinny, they are just like the others. I am still not getting any crowing from either one. Not even an attempt. Also they are not interested in the girls AT ALL. They are scared of them. I have some tough girls though, we borrowed a rooster for 3 weeks and the poor thing was left to sit in the corner, the girls were so mean to him. And the combs are not that red at all. my pol pullets have redder combs that these guys. Maybe the lady that sold them was off on her dates and they are really 4-5 months (just huge for their age)?

 

[Wynette]

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You know, I have not noticed that tail sexing works at all with olive eggers, BUT I WILL say I used new gals this year with a different breeding, so maybe it DOES work?? That would rock!

The 6 that I hatched most recently will be 8 weeks this weekend. I recall when the tail feathers began growing that only 2 of the 6 had longish tails, the other 4 had short, so I wondered if that meant 2 pullets/4 cockerels. However, I hatched out a bunch of black copper marans alongside them and they are all in one large pen together...it's difficult to count them as they run around! HA! I think I ended up with only TWO females in the black copper marans, and I'm moving all of the females into a separate pen this weekend, so I'll be able to count who many of each I have. If I have 2 olive egger gals, then maybe it's so! I'll get some pics, too. I DO know I got one lovely blue gal out of this hatch. She's just gorgeous - I love the blues!

 

[Roosterfry]

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They are 5 month old Auburn Java's. The first is a pullet. The gold spangled hamburgs are the more common that look close to them. They come in large fowl(lf) or bantam. The Auburn Java's on the other hand are only Lf and are a dual purpose breed , but are known more for meat then eggs. As my mother ( a non chicken person) calls them the dolly Parton chickens because of the large breast they get when older. That is one reason I have been thinking of crossing one of the java roosters on my F2 oel's ( olive egg layers) is that they hopefully would put more meat on to the chicks along with the spangled genes and the colors. The only down side is Javas lay med reg brown eggs.
So I may loose some color. What I would do next is cross the F1 java x oels back to a blue or blk brichen marans rooster to add the egg color and size along with new color genes.
My F2 girls pictured in the post above had a crele pattern full brother that I had to sell as I had no where to out him. So the carry the same crele gene. I often wonder what the spangled gene and crele gene make when mixed. Does anyone know?

I'm not sure what spangled and crele would make. But to answer your question about breeding a java into the OE gene pool. If you were going to do this I would say to breed the F1 Java X OE to a F2 Maran X EE instead of just a Maran, to keep from weakening the blue genes too much.

 

[Arielle]

Thanks Illia for the info on the tails and thatthis method of sexing doesn't seem to work on EE. Hopefully I have more pullets than I originally thought !!

A friend breeds AMeraucanas and she didn't find that sexing by tail feathers worked for that breed.

I look at the combs and wonder if some of the larger combs are really pullets as the dad could be a sexlink male (RIR, BR) and some how the genes just are NOT doing what they usually go. HOPE is eternal!! LOL

 

[Soaring Chicks]

Roosterfry-
Thanks ! I knew I was missing something but had not put my finger on it.
Just really started playing around with it and had not got it right. Does not help to be sick at the same time.
That means I will have to get some sooner then later. If I do that route. I need a new jg rooster more right now so that is 1st in line on te list. I guess for now I'll have to work on getting a few more of my own breeding ee's to work with just for fun.

My F1 breeding was a blue/lemon ee that laid blue eggs and crossed with a cuckoo marans rooster.
I kept the one pullet I hatched and breed her to another cuckoo and got sex linked chicks the Rooster were cuckoo the hens solid. I took the F1 and bred her to a wm and got a cuckoo pullet & solid cockerels.
I did not like any of the pullets from those breedings do to had single combs.
So back to F1 x bwm and got solid pullets pictured in first post of mine.
The cockerels where crele. I really liked the cross and kept the 2 pullets I really liked I had 3 and lost one.
So with using a barred or cuckoo pattern to cross with you can lose the sexlinks or they change up on you.
Hope this helps and one thinking of going that route.
Thanks again for your help Roosterfry.

 

[Lark Rise]

Hi all! I've been getting a few more olive eggs!

Sadly, one of my OE hens a very hurt leg. We have been trying for over a month now to heal her, but she just hobbles along.

She does get picked on and doesn't get to eat very much as a result, so she is smaller than the others and is not laying. Is it mean to keep her alive? Should we cull her?

I'm still waiting for blue eggs from my BBS Ameraucanas, but that won't be till after the new year. My 2 golden cuckoo marans are laying, but their eggs aren't very dark. My BCM just quit laying altogether after laying for only 3 weeks.

Here are some new pics of the olive eggs. The camera can't quite capture the color.

 

[Roosterfry]

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Your welcome, keep us updated on how the progress is going! And I'm loving these olive eggs people are posting, Awesome! They just look like they got to be good for you to eat!

 

[wolftracks]

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Where in the world did you find auburn javas???? Wow!

Babyrnlc- I have some EEs that certain time of year they lay sage eggs, and then for months they'll lay blue. Its like a wellie running out of "paint" - if that makes sense.

From lorad here on BYC. these are my favs in both sex
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/46537_breeder_updates_10-2011_069.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/46537_breeder_updates_10-2011_019.jpg

I have a couple of young pullets that have similar markings. I love your birds.

I need to get a couple of pics up her of my OEs. I have a hen that is crossed with Wellie who is my best OE. Now muffs or anything but nice eggs. I also have a roo from my blue AM and a FBCM hen, Little Jovi, that I wish I could get a decent pic of to post. He's huge and had feathered shanks. I love my blue birds, so he's one of my favorites and His dad was my favorite roo at the time, but was stolen from the coop, so although the mix wasn't on purpose I'm so glad I have something from him.

Just glad I found this thread again. I always forget about my OEs even though I am breeding for some.

 

[buckabucka]

My olive-egger's eggs seem to be evolving in color, - becoming less green and more of a coffee color. Sometimes they are speckled, sometimes not. I still think they are pretty, just not sure I would call them olive! Strangely, my hatchery EE is laying a very similar color to this EExWelsummer cross. I would like to get true Ameraucanas and try greening these up a bit.

 

[Arielle]

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Lucscious looking eggs!

About your limping girl, can you isolate her so that she can have her own food and rest. She maynot be lhaling well if she is picked on, josled and lacking food due to competition. Perhaps you ca put her in a dog crate and nurse her for a few weeks.

I had a hen live in my downstairs bathroom for 2 weeks, and with some care, she improved and went back out to the hen house.

GL