The Olive-Egger thread!

[jeremy]

I finally took a few pics of some of my teenagers. The two pullets are Oliver x Welsummer (The roo was this guy http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/2/2d/900x900px-LL-2d483d5b_Sasquatch3.jpeg ).

One has blue trim and the other black, both have straight combs. The blue one has green legs and the other one pale yellow. They are nice hefty gals, so even though I doubt they will lay olive eggs, we'll add them to the laying flock. Their brother is darker and has a pea comb. He'll be dinner along with some other cull cockerels.

Any clues how to describe their color? I'd like to try their genes in the chicken calculator, but have no idea where to start.



I've seen this color described as "Silver Wheaten" or "Salmon". She also appears to be carrying the Blue gene.



Same color as the above mentioned hen, just no Blue gene.

The cockerel...


This male looks to be carrying both Silver and Gold, he looks Wheaten-ish (if he's related to the hens then that makes sense) but there is also some Columbian influence in his make up too. He also seems to be carrying Blue.

 

[SeattleLeah]

Some of us knew a bit earlier...

If he's crowing he should start preforming his "rooster-ly duties" in no time, do you have an incubator? Now's the time to invest in one if not!

Good luck!

haha, yes you called this one quite a while ago! I do have an incubator and am going to crate him at night as you suggested. Cant wait for some frizzled babies!!!!

 

[jeremy]

quick question - I have posted in another thread but no answer yet.
I have an Olive Egger that I got as a 2 week old chick back in October.
She lays one egg a week. Initially, I wasn't concerned because I thought
the number of eggs and size of eggs would change with time.

However, her eggs are long and slender. The shell is thinner than our RIR and BA.
They all eat the same food/snacks. RIR and BA each lay approx 5 or 6 eggs a week
with nice firm shells. Is there anything I need to be concerned about with the Olive Egger?
Thanks for your input. She really is a keeper regardless. We love her personality.

Sounds like "bad" genes. Some hens just don't have top laying genes in their make up. I've also read that late hatched hens aren't quite the same as spring hatched ones. I only have 3 pullets from my last Oct hatch and two aren't great layers and their eggs are smallish. The third lays olive eggs that are mediium sized, and she is about 65% production rate.

Thank you for taking the time. I had no idea about the late hatching vs. Spring hatching.
I learn every day from this forum.

Don't believe everything you read.

I've literally hatched chicks in every month of the year, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and do not believe there is a significant link between egg laying and when your chicks hatched. Yes it may take hens hatched later in the year a bit longer to lay (shorter winter days mean a longer time to wait for hens to reach POL) but it doesn't mean that they are going to be poor layers.

Hens need a certain number of daylight hours in order to produce eggs, the days are longer in the Spring/Summer so of course hens hatched in the early Spring will seem to lay more quickly and be more productive then those hatched later in the year.

Genetics are a big play in productivity, like it was mentioned above- some hens just aren't producers. This may have something to do with inbreeding or the breeds that were used in the breeding. Hybrids typically are more vigorous and lay more consistently. But not always, each bird is unique. There could also be something internally wrong with your hen that you cannot detect by just looking at her.

 

[jeremy]

What a handsome Roo! I hope mine turns out that pretty. Thank you for replying and for posting the pics! I might keep him and add him to my older brown and blue laying girls just to see what happens. If one of my white Marans ends up being a girl I think it would be neat to have him over her. You have some really beautiful birds there. What crosses are they?

They're actually not mine. I pulled the pictures from an EBAY ad to use as a reference, guess I should have mentioned that... oh well.

The seller has been selling eggs pretty consistently on EBAY if you're interested in them, I do think they're very pretty too.

 

[jeremy]

haha, yes you called this one quite a while ago! I do have an incubator and am going to crate him at night as you suggested. Cant wait for some frizzled babies!!!!

I had a similar situation last year, we can only keep 1 rooster and I happened upon a very special Sumatra roo that I just HAD to hatch eggs from... we crated him and then let him out in the daytime with his flock of girls and I hatched every single egg that they laid. It was a lot of fun and I got some beautiful babies from that trio. Good luck! I'd love to see the results of your hatching!

 

[SeattleLeah]

I had a similar situation last year, we can only keep 1 rooster and I happened upon a very special Sumatra roo that I just HAD to hatch eggs from... we crated him and then let him out in the daytime with his flock of girls and I hatched every single egg that they laid. It was a lot of fun and I got some beautiful babies from that trio. Good luck! I'd love to see the results of your hatching!

So he is an Frizzled, barred, OE (2nd generation I believe), has a modified pea comb. so may carry a blue gene. Here is what I am thinking, please correct me if Im wrong.

Crossed with my blue layers I should get olive eggers of unknown darkness. Assuming the gals have double blue genes which I know at least my CL does.
Crossed with my Marans I could maybe get dark olive eggers or more likely dark brown layers.
Crossed with my white layers all the chicks will be lay white because its dominant.

Half his offspring will be frizzled. Half will be barred but barring will not be sex linked.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

New to the breed and I have been reading the posts.
I hatched 8 OE in April, they are BCM & LA, they are now 10 weeks old.
Not sure how and when to tell the sex.
Some have beards and some don't





Any suggestions???
I am not familiar with the Ameraucan breed, so not sure what I should be looking for.
Thanks for any assistance

 

[Penny Hen]

New to the breed and I have been reading the posts.
I hatched 8 OE in April, they are BCM & LA, they are now 10 weeks old.
Not sure how and when to tell the sex.
Some have beards and some don't





Any suggestions???
I am not familiar with the Ameraucan breed, so not sure what I should be looking for.
Thanks for any assistance

the top 3 I think are definitely roos. The 4th is on the fence.

 

[MySuburbanLife]

Showing off my Olive Egger babies! These four are FBCM over EE, lovingly hatched by our excellent first-time broody EE hen. They are 4 weeks old today and are just a delight to watch. So far all four are various shades of black to gray with no colored feathers appearing yet. All seem to be developing itty bitty single combs and have lightly feathered legs.

Here's the group together: chicks 1, 2, 3, and 4 (L to R)


Chicks 1 and 2 are feathering out a lot slower than 3 and 4. My early suspicion is that 1&2 are cockerels and 3&4 are pullets. What do you guys think?

Chick 1:


Chick 1 on left; chick 3 on right


Chick 2


Chick 2


Chick 3


Chick 3


Chick 4


Chick 4 - See her pretty dark comb and face? She's my favorite.


Chicks 3 and 4 together, to see the difference in their coloring

 

[seventreesfarm]

Thanks for the input!
With all this cross-breeding, it's hard to figure out which colors come from where. But oh so fun to play around with the genetics. I'm hoping to make a template spreadsheet for each of my breeding birds to suss out the genetics. Assuming I can make the right guesses