The Olive-Egger thread!

[ronott1]

I have several Ameraucanas and one of them is bluish/gray and she lays olive colored eggs! She's one of my nicest, friendliest hens, always comes up on the porch right away to see if there are any treats. She came in a bunch of pullets I purchased last spring. Her name is Miss Jean and she's quite a character!

That is the beauty of Easter Eggers! They lay a rainbow of colors.

Congratulations!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Photos always help!

About Nelson's Bubble Gum Combed Easter Egger cockerel/rooster (not sure when to apply the adult term, he was brought home from the feed store late last spring, I think) that we're debating keeping or banishing. Here are a few photos. Let me know what other photos might be interesting/useful.



The Beauty Shot (yeah, even I have to admit he is cute!)



Action Shot (pretty tail, huh?)



Muscle Shot (you can kinda tell he is going to be jerky with the hens, right?)

And now for something really special ... this is Dwerpy, one of our mutts (soon to be dispatched, sniff). I believe he is an Easter Egger hen fertilized by the Brown Leghorn rooster


Regardless of egg color potential, this is exactly the thing I'm hoping to avoid with the mixed comb mutts. He is super cute, but the comb blocks the vision from his right eye, and I know that can't be good. Nelson wants to dub him so we can keep him, but then he wouldn't be so cute. And we have PLENTY of roosters. Don't you just want to squeeze him?

As CMs have the straight comb, and the EEs have the pea comb, this could happen with a CM/EE cross, right? Not that I'd be keeping the mutt roosters around ... but sometimes hen combs can get pretty big, too (some of our Brown Leghorn hens have floppy combs).

A much more useful comb for getting around without a cane, but probably not going to put out blue/green egg genes because of the lack of "pea"-like appearance on this big guy, a mutt we hatched from an Easter Egger hen (Violet, she has a gorgeous blue tail and lays fairly dark green eggs) who mated with our Buff Orpington rooster. He has gone to live with some friends where he has a flock of 15 different hens, various breeds, all to himself. He mates very gently, has lovely coloring, and will be a big boy when he finishes growing. He was our first ever hatchling (about October 15th of 2012), so I'm very glad someone adopted him, and just in the nick of time, too!



Here you can see his coloring, but he wouldn't sit still for the photos. Silly bird!


This was the night we auditioned him with a hen to see how courtly he would be. He did very well. About a month ago Nelson tried to convince me he was a she so we could keep him (yeah, right, look at those feathers!), but I caught him trying to mate and had the proof I needed to send him back to the Cockerel Cage.

Now if only the EE cocks would be so sweet as dear BuffyEgger.

 

[Birdragon]

Well, the buff in my profile pic is the one who lays olive eggs, I don't know for sure what she is.

 

[joea]

I just started my olive egger project and I was wanting to know is if I breed a roo to a hen if the breed true

 

[seventreesfarm]

We're just getting down to business making Olivers this season. We culled out any birds that didn't have good egg laying structure, and are hatching a batch of Ameraucanas and marans to do some selecting from scratch for traits we want for our lines. We are also hatching some likely crosses from our Oliver roo over Wellies and marans hens and will do trap nesting once they start laying to identify keepers by body structure and egg shape/color.

I invested in a nice chicken genetics book and will start using a spreadsheet for each bird to try and inventory genetic characteristics, complete with pics.
This is going to be so much fun!!

 

[ronott1]

Quote: I was waiting for someone more knowledgeable to post a reply to Comb question. That comb on the fist one has pea in it. You would expect OEs of that cross to have combs that combine straight with pea. It is a fantastic comb! Too bad the comb on the second roo blocks vision...

 

[seventreesfarm]

The whole pea/rose comb thing is interesting reading. The Buckeye breeders group on yahoo has some good write-ups on how combos of the 2 can express themselves. I haven't looked on BYC to see if they share the info here, but it's worth looking for if you're interested in breeding beyond olive-egg color.

I prefer pea combs too, because of cold-weather issues. The Marans combs can be so big that I worry about frostbite.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I was waiting for someone more knowledgeable to post a reply to Comb question. That comb on the fist one has pea in it. You would expect OEs of that cross to have combs that combine straight with pea. It is a fantastic comb! Too bad the comb on the second roo blocks vision...

Thanks for the response! Nelson will be pleased. Now to see if we can get some etiquette classes for him.

 

[Noncentzter]

Thanks for the response! Nelson will be pleased. Now to see if we can get some etiquette classes for him.

For Nelson or the roo? LOL

 

[seventreesfarm]

I read somewhere (probably here) that the genes for the paint sprayer part of the egg laying process arent well understood. But genetics must still play a part, right?

Has anyone done more than a few test mating generations? At what point do OEs revert to parent breed characteristics, as in losing the blue shell? When does the dark paint disappear?

I can't wait to start trying my own combinations, but patience is not my main virtue

I was rereading this on my lunch break today, and now I'm all antsy to get going....

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/ALBCchicken_assessment-3.pdf