The Olive-Egger thread!

[mada25]

Here are some pictures of my olive eggers and others

This is my first time to try and load a photobucket picture. I hope it works! Mary

 

[monarc23]

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WOW!!!! Those are AWESOME!!!!! I cannot wait until my crosses hatch!!!

 

[tfpets]

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Now those are some really Olive eggs! Nice! What breeds are mixed to get those, do you know? They are a beautiful tone, thats for sure!

Thanks for posting the pic! Tina

 

[livin-green]

Okay, I've read over most of this thread, but maybe I'm missing something. I thought you just crossed the blue/green egg layer with the dark brown egg layer and--voila!--an olve egg layer! Maybe this isn't correct....??

I am still relatively new to keeping chickens. I am currently trying out hatching for the first time--16 BBS Ameraucana from a breeder in Washington. Provided this hatch goes well, I have plans to get BC Marans some hatching eggs from a friend. I want to cross an Ameraucana & Marans to get some Olive-Eggers to add to my laying flock--not to breed for more Olive-Eggers and I don't really care too much about their appearance.

Now, since I do not presently understand the whole genetics thing very well, I have this question: If I cross an Ameraucana hen with a Marans roo, or vice versa, will those offspring lay olive eggs? Or is there an issue of dominant genes determining what color egg they will lay?

Maybe I don't understand like I thought I did and need to read up on this some more.

 

[Kim_NC]

I've been waiting for our Nov 6 hatch of Barred Rock hens x Blue Ameraucana roo to start laying. They're 17 1/2 weeks now. Gosh, I can't wait to see those eggs and post pics!

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That's correct. The darker brown layer though....the closer to olive eggs in the offspring.

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You should get the olive eggers with one Marans and One Ameraucana parent. One blue egg gene and one dark brown egg green will = olive.

I prefer for my hens to be the barred parent - because then the intial cross are sexlink chicks. In your case, if you use the Marans hens, only the male chicks will be barred (cuckoo) in the first hatch.

Like all sexlink crosses, it won't carry forward in the following generations. But I do find it helpful in the initial first hatch of chicks to be able to sex them so easily. Then I can make choices going forward regarding feather color, muffing, bearding etc.

If you use a Marans Roo ......you'll get barred chicks in both sexes. This is because the roo will pass a barred gene to both sexes of offspring.

edited for typos - my fingers don't want to work this morning!

 

[mada25]

Hello,

I just got into chickens last year! Those dark olive eggs are coming from hens that I got from a lady that had free range chickens. She had marans and americanas. SoI am pretty sure that her dad was a marans. She looks like an easter egger. I have several shades of olive. My favorite is a little lighter olive with dark speckles. Last August my cochin went broody and set on a clutch of eggs that hatched. Those hens are just starting to lay. Some are from an americana that had been in a pen with welsummer roo. I also have some hens that look alot like the barred hens with the tuffs. I will try and take more pictures of my stock. Currently, I only have marans roosters. So that way the marans hens will stay marans and I can still make more olive eggers. My husband who really didn't want me to get chickens really does enjoy looking at all the different color eggs. I will try to get more pictures to post. Olive eggers are so much fun!!!!

 

[enola]

I would be very interested in a dozen of your eggs ! How much will the postage to zip 29384 be ?

 

[livin-green]

Kim_NC wrote:
You should get the olive eggers with one Marans and One Ameraucana parent. One blue egg gene and one dark brown egg green will = olive.

I prefer for my hens to be the barred parent - because then the intial cross are sexlink chicks. In your case, if you use the Marans hens, only the male chicks will be barred (cuckoo) in the first hatch.

Okay, I think I'm understanding about the olive-egg "gene". It works 100% on the first generation, but after that is when you get into that whole pea comb vs single comb, feathered leg vs not, etc. Right?
But, now I'm confused about the "barred (cuckoo)" thing. If I breed a black, blue, or splash Ameraucana with a Black Copper Marans roo--or vice-versa--how does barred come into play? Does it not follow the regular "Blue" genetics rules, well except for throwing the "copper" in there?
Blue x Black = 50% Blue / 50% Black
(Bb) (BB)

Splash x Black = 100% Blue
(bb) (BB)

Black x Black = 100% Black
(BB) (BB)

If you use a Marans Roo ......you'll get barred chicks in both sexes. This is because the roo will pass a barred gene to both sexes of offspring.

Do all Marans roos carry a barred gene or just the Black Copper Marans?

Like all sexlink crosses, it won't carry forward in the following generations. But I do find it helpful in the initial first hatch of chicks to be able to sex them so easily. Then I can make choices going forward regarding feather color, muffing, bearding etc.

What is sexlink? I thought that was a breed of chicken--no? Looks like I still have lots of research to do--any recommendations for info?

edited to include who the quote is from ​

 

[Mahonri]

Now I've really got to have at LEAST 3 breeding pens. Then I can switch out my ameraucanas with the little GC Maran roo I'm raising.... or I could put a Blue Wheaten or a Blue Ameraucana roo over the GC Maran hen. Ah the possibilities are endless.

 

[onthespot]

Barring is sex-linked. If you breed a barred hen to a non-barred roo, the boys will show barring. If you breed a barred roo to a non-barred hen, you will not be able to determine the sex of the chicks because either sex can inherit from the father. If the father has only one barred gene, (result of breeding a barred hen to a non-barred roo) then about half of his offspring will not have barring, and half will, not in any way determined by gender. That is about as far as I have gotten in understanding the barred gene inheritance pattern. there's more.