The Olive-Egger thread!

[Ihilani Coffee]

I can't wait to see those eggs!

I'm anticipating setting another round of eggs in May... do you think you'll have Isbar X Marans hatching eggs still available then?

Hens willing, we sure will.

 

[jeremy]

Hens willing, we sure will.

How are your pens set up? Isbar male over BCM hens? Or BCM male over Isbar hens?

Just wondering about the color of the resulting pullets, whether they will be gold or silver based.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Here are some pullet eggs from our F1 single comb olive eggers. These are BCM X CCL. The BCM is a Bev Davis cockerel (dark egg line). We love the color!

We also have Isbar X Marans single comb OE...waiting for those eggs to show up soon.

Wow nice egg color! Are they naturally shiny like that or did you coat them with something?

 

[aart]

Can you hear them?
"I'll be the olive egger!"
"No, I will"
"I'll be the darkest olive egger!"
"Mine's gonna be the darkest!!"

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Wow nice egg color! Are they naturally shiny like that or did you coat them with something?

These are pullet eggs...laying on the coop floor and dirty so I washed them.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

How are your pens set up? Isbar male over BCM hens? Or BCM male over Isbar hens?

Just wondering about the color of the resulting pullets, whether they will be gold or silver based.

This is a blue Isbar cock over BCM pullet.

We now have a splash Isbar cockerel in with a recessive white Marans and the same black that produced the pullet shown here. I'm thinking of putting some blue copper Marans in with him also.

 

[Dianne88]

My single comb 5 week old OE Pullet (I hope)

 

[rich719]

Finaly found out all pullets at 11 weeks still waiting on eggs pics tomorrow morning

 

[rich719]

So sorry for your loss. I've lost some of my favorites to Marek's, it's a terrible disease. (I now vaccinate and booster all new chicks.)

Do u no if I can still vaccinate at 11 weeks hope so

 

[ochochicas]

I lost all my olives to Marek's. They seem to be a lot less resistant to it than some of the other breeds. You can vaccinate them at any age. The issue is that you need to vaccinate them before they have been exposed to the virus. Experts say it takes three weeks (or longer) to develop immunity after the vaccine is given. it is recommended that the chicks be vaccinated as young as possible and then isolated for 3 - 6 weeks with no exposure to other chickens or bird dander. This means you have to wash well and change your clothes when feeding or handling the new birds. Eliminating all exposure is difficult if not impossible. I do the best I can and hope they don't get enough exposure to the virus before their immune systems can handle it.

@rich719 Do you have Marek's in your flock already? Have your chicks been exposed to the outdoors and your other chickens?
If the answer is yes, it won't do any good to vaccinate. If the answer is NO to both questions, you can vaccinate and hope the chicks have not been exposed already. It won't hurt to vaccinate them late, but it won't do any good if they are already carrying the virus.

Best of luck! There is also a marek's thread you can read as well as a Marek's Vaccine thread.