The Olive-Egger thread!

[ChickChuck22]

Here is an updat photo at 12 weeks

ooh lovely birds, very interesting

 

[ChickChuck22]

Does anyone have any suggestions? I want to create my own olive eggers and have both Marans and cream legbar girls. Should I get a Marans roo, araucana roo or cream legbar Roo? I originally wanted an araucana because I didn't want a huge roo and they are smaller any ideas?

 

[chickengr]

Does anyone have any suggestions? I want to create my own olive eggers and have both Marans and cream legbar girls. Should I get a Marans roo, araucana roo or cream legbar Roo? I originally wanted an araucana because I didn't want a huge roo and they are smaller any ideas?

OE is not a breed. any green egg layer + dark egg layer will be OE.

I want to do the same thing. I have 1 marans and 3 araucana girls, 1 marans and 1 araucana boy. I read somewhere that the chicks will look more like roo (exept the colour). I am not sure about it but it is possible. maybe that is the reason why legbars are small and have single comb (like their great grandpa leghorn).

 

[ronott1]

Does anyone have any suggestions? I want to create my own olive eggers and have both Marans and cream legbar girls. Should I get a Marans roo, araucana roo or cream legbar Roo? I originally wanted an araucana because I didn't want a huge roo and they are smaller any ideas?

If you use an araucana(a real one) you might wind up with some spirited birds.

How much bigger are the CCLs there? They are not that big here in the USA.

 

[Saris]

Does anyone have any suggestions? I want to create my own olive eggers and have both Marans and cream legbar girls. Should I get a Marans roo, araucana roo or cream legbar Roo? I originally wanted an araucana because I didn't want a huge roo and they are smaller any ideas?

If you get a CL roo the chicks from your CL girls will be auto sexing so that's a bonus. If you get a Maran roo your CL eggs will be easier to candle to check on your OES growth.

 

[ronott1]

If you get a CL roo the chicks from your CL girls will be auto sexing so that's a bonus. If you get a Maran roo your CL eggs will be easier to candle to check on your OES growth.

A Marans Rooster(black) and CCL hens should make sex links.

 

[Saris]

A Marans Rooster(black) and CCL hens should make sex links.

That's what I would do then. Easy candling and a sexlink OE = winner winner.

 

[ronott1]

That's what I would do then. Easy candling and a sexlink OE = winner winner.

They are very pretty too!

 

[aart]

Quote: PLUS...I've read that using the dark brown for the sire will get you darker OE's......
.......but can't remember the reason<scratcheshead> tho it seemed to make good sense at the time or wouldn't have stuck in my head.

 

[dekel18042]

If you get a CL roo the chicks from your CL girls will be auto sexing so that's a bonus. If you get a Maran roo your CL eggs will be easier to candle to check on your OES growth.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, just what someone prefers. I used a cream legbar rooster to create my OE's.
After extensive reading I would probably stay away from the marans rooster unless I was after purebred marans.
My own experience tells me my marans are my poorest layers. I love the color of their eggs but I got them specifically to make OE's. In talking to other flocksters they say the same thing about marans' egg laying abilities.
Over the years I've noticed that a rooster does seem to have an influence on his daughters both in how many eggs they lay and the age they start laying.
I've also read that marans and other birds with rose combs seem to have lesser fertility. While the rule of thumb is a rooster can service 10 hens (At one point I had only one breeding age rooster, my CL, with 20 hens and I never opened an infertile egg.) if you want good fertility in black or blue copper marans a better ratio is one rooster to 4 hens during breeding season and you may want to put only three hens with each rooster. That would require keeping many more roosters.
Welsumer chicks can be sexed at hatch and the OE with welsumer mothers (CL father) could be sexed the same as welsumers.
In making OE's there are so many possibilities you may want to go with what you have or what is easiest for you.