The Olive-Egger thread!

[DMRippy]

I have chicks from an ameraucana roo x black marans hen, how,when they are old enough,what breed of roo would i breed these back to keep the olive egg color?

To darken the egg you would breed to a dark egg layer ie Marans. If you have two Olive Eggers you can breed together you will get a "better" version of the olive with any luck. Some people do try to get them to breed true for egg color or for coloring on the birds. There are all kinds of ways to breed them.... go the direction of the color you are looking for.

Illia has a chart on post 3504 on my computer it is 6 pages back.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/131131/the-olive-egger-thread/3500

 

[DMRippy]

I have a pen of hens without a rooster. I have a Black Ameraucana roo that I was thinking of putting with them. The hens are golden cuckoo marans, welsummer, BO, RIR, EE, GLW, BR, Delaware, Brown Leghorn. It occurred to me that some of those eggs would yield OEs. Would the rest be labeled EE? Thanks.

Only the Marans and Welsummers would produce Olive Eggers... the other would be EE. I would say anything breed to the Ameraucana would be an EE unless it is another Black AM

 

[MuffsnFluff]

Hi All

Been catching up on this thread as I plan on breeding for some olive eggers in a couple of months. I've been learning a lot! One question I haven't seen talked about yet (I'm only up to page 350 or so, lol!) I'm going to also be breeding some straight easter eggers to replace some girls in my flock, as well as straight black coopper marans for the same reasons. Should I separate out my roosters from all the girls for the "clean out" period? I'm just kind of wondering if I should just throw my extra Marans rooster in with the easter eggers, and hatch everything I need from that pen (would keep the marans for black copper breeding completely seperate, lol), BUT WILL I BE ABLE TO TELL THE OLIVE EGGERS FROM THE EASTER EGGERS? Or will I have to wait until they lay eggs to tell the difference, lol?!?!?! Most of the hens I've seen that are easter egger/black copper marans crosses look like marans with muffs and pea combs, but are they all like that? Will all the black chicks I hatch out of that proposed pen be olive eggers, or will some of the chipmunk/typical EE looking chicks be olive eggers too?
I'm planning on selling off some extra chicks when I do hatch, so just wondering, lol I wasn't sure how strong the black colored marans genetics were against the EE chipmunk stripes. And no, I do not have any black EE's
Back to lurking and catching up on the thread

 

[Stacykins]

What would a first time breeding for an olive egger be considered, F1, first generation? Because I have two Araucana boys (the real deal, tufted n rumpless) with my girls. I am collecting the BCM eggs to incubate for some neato olive eggers, I hope! My BCM gals are laying wonderful, dark chocolately eggs that are always fertile now when I crack them open if I cook with them.

 

[mikeypalone]

thanks for the info,I knew someone here would have an answer that I could understand.All this chicken stuff is new to me. Thank you

 

[DMRippy]

Hi All

Been catching up on this thread as I plan on breeding for some olive eggers in a couple of months. I've been learning a lot! One question I haven't seen talked about yet (I'm only up to page 350 or so, lol!) I'm going to also be breeding some straight easter eggers to replace some girls in my flock, as well as straight black coopper marans for the same reasons. Should I separate out my roosters from all the girls for the "clean out" period? I'm just kind of wondering if I should just throw my extra Marans rooster in with the easter eggers, and hatch everything I need from that pen (would keep the marans for black copper breeding completely seperate, lol), BUT WILL I BE ABLE TO TELL THE OLIVE EGGERS FROM THE EASTER EGGERS? Or will I have to wait until they lay eggs to tell the difference, lol?!?!?! Most of the hens I've seen that are easter egger/black copper marans crosses look like marans with muffs and pea combs, but are they all like that? Will all the black chicks I hatch out of that proposed pen be olive eggers, or will some of the chipmunk/typical EE looking chicks be olive eggers too?
I'm planning on selling off some extra chicks when I do hatch, so just wondering, lol I wasn't sure how strong the black colored marans genetics were against the EE chipmunk stripes. And no, I do not have any black EE's
Back to lurking and catching up on the thread

Well it might be easy, if they all have feathered legs

but as you know not all Marans will have feathered legs so I would keep them sep or marked just in case.

 

[MuffsnFluff]

Yeah, that's what I was kind of afraid of, lol All my marans are correct with the "sparse" leg feathering but I kind of figured that over the clean legged easter eggers that it might not be a reliable marker, lol! Sure would have saved some time though with letting the hens systems clear out, etc! Ah well

 

[cmitchell]

Here is my EE egg picture. Would any of these be dark enough to make OEs if I got a BCM roo for them? At this point I'm not sure which EE hen is laying the darker or lighter eggs. I just started learning about Olive Eggers.

 

[poularde]

I just got my first breeding Ark set up today.

The Ark will be moved down the bed row so they will get fresh greens.They did not want to come out of the house this morning. It is cold out. Can not wait to collect eggs for hatching. I hope they start laying soon.

 

[Wynette]

cmitchell - yes, any of those who laid the eggs in your pic, when crossed to a dark-egg laying breed of cock bird (Marans, Welsummer, etc.), will give you offspring that lay a medium olive egg; you would then take THOSE gals, and breed them BACK TO your dark egg breed boy, and THOSE offspring will give you a very dark olive green egg!

Poularde, nice job on the ark!