The Olive-Egger thread!

[flgardengirl]

I have crossed an OE (ameraucana x marans) back to a very dark egg gened Marans and gotten pullets that lay a brownish egg with a slightly green tint in bright light. It still has the green but also looks brown much deeper than olive.
Regular olive egg (left)..light marans egg (center for brown comparison)...brown with slight green tint (right)

 

[redandalusian]

I'm breeding my light olive egger hen to my marans rooster to get
Dark olive eggers

 

[poularde]

I have crossed an OE (ameraucana x marans) back to a very dark egg gened Marans and gotten pullets that lay a brownish egg with a slightly green tint in bright light. It still has the green but also looks brown much deeper than olive.
Regular olive egg (left)..light marans egg (center for brown comparison)...brown with slight green tint (right)

Pretty...

 

[Illia]

i don't know that much about it but here is what i have read... there is only 2 colors of egg shell white and blue... if u look on the inside of the shell u can see this... then there is modifier gene's that coat the out side of the shell with brown... 2 kinds the 1st is the normal brown egg color that does not wash off and then the dark brown (like some of the Marans) that will wash off...

i think that was what they where trying to say...

Ah.

Yeah although there's white vs blue, pretty sure you can't actually get white outer shell from brown layers, which is what it sounded like they were saying. I actually have no clue how the white gene(s) work, but, I know it cannot be "created."

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

lol ya i know a fare amount about the genetics of color and body but next to nothing about egg genetics... i love my olive eggers tho and am hatching them like crazy right now... I've got about 50 EE/OE on the ground now 6 weeks and under...

the 1st time i read that there was only 2 colors of eggs i was sure they where wrong and went straight to the fridge and cracked open a dozen just to check lol...

Ah.

Yeah although there's white vs blue, pretty sure you can't actually get white outer shell from brown layers, which is what it sounded like they were saying. I actually have no clue how the white gene(s) work, but, I know it cannot be "created."

 

[buckabucka]

I have crossed an OE (ameraucana x marans) back to a very dark egg gened Marans and gotten pullets that lay a brownish egg with a slightly green tint in bright light. It still has the green but also looks brown much deeper than olive. 
Regular olive egg (left)..light marans egg (center for brown comparison)...brown with slight green tint (right)

I got that brown with slight greenish tint by crossing my dark Welsummer egg with a hatchery EE roo. It was a "miracle" hen, because that roo apparently was not very fertile (1 of 30 developed).

I also get the olive color on the left, but from a hatchery EE. I now have an OE rooster (from someone else's stock) and I've crossed him with dark brown, pale greenish, the olivey-EE, along with the brownish with green tint. Not sure how many of the chicks are pullets yet, but it will be fun to see what they lay.

 

[slick4591]

Now I'm confused. I am crossing my Blue Copper Marans roo with pure Splash and Blue Ameraucanas in an attempt of producing OE"s. After a little reading here I'm wondering if that's what I'm going to get. Would someone please straighten my thinking out?

 

[DMRippy]

Now I'm confused. I am crossing my Blue Copper Marans roo with pure Splash and Blue Ameraucanas in an attempt of producing OE"s. After a little reading here I'm wondering if that's what I'm going to get. Would someone please straighten my thinking out?

You might get some, I have seen your hatching on the Marans thread. You need to pick the ones with PEA combs and hope they carry both the blue and the dark brown genes.... you will have to wait and see. You COULD have a straight comb to lay an olive eggs, but it is only a slight chance. I bought some Olive Eggers when I first started and got lucky, both lay a nice olive eggs, BUT the lady I got them from NONE of hers laid an Olive Egg. You will just have to wait and see what you get. Good Luck!

 

[slick4591]

Thank you, but darn. I thought that cross made an OE every time.

 

[Illia]

It will if your blue layers are true and good. Now, of course, almost every F1 breeding I've seen will of course give a small chance of a single combed offspring, it can range from 2-10%, but if you have 10% or better with single combs then there's something wrong with your blue carrying parent. The best thing to do is truly look for a parent with parents, grandparents that had very good blue eggs, and focus on a bird who does not have too tall a pea comb, too floppy or folded a pea comb, or questionable lineage (such as EE's)

But, don't give up! If your Ameraucanas gave too high a percentage of single combs, you can always use someone else for the blue side of the parentage. Some BBS Ameraucanas do indeed have poor egg genetics. The first ones I got my hands on honestly had some poor color in their eggs, it was a sort of khaki color. Which, could easily lead to F1 OE's with single combs.