The Olive-Egger thread!

[DMRippy]

How many times can you breed an olive egger back to a marans and keep the blue gene? I've seen f2's and f3's but can you keep going? Like could you eventually get back to a dark brown like a marans egg and still be blue on the inner shell?

My second gens Olive Eggers MOSTLY laid dark eggs. They still were green, but too dark for my liking. I am going to just work from the first cross in the future.

 

[DMRippy]

I have F2 OE chicks with straight combs. Does this mean they will almost certainly not carry the blue gene? So will they lay dark brown eggs (father is a marans)?

Egg genes are strange. Odd are they will NOT carry the blue egg genes (especially if they are a 2nd or 3rd gen olive egger). The dark eggs are a different story. Really a toss up all the way around. I personally only keep the pea combs......

 

[Hangtown Farms]

my empordanesa and crele penedesenca are laying daily now. Can not wait to slip a Isbar in with my Crele boy.

 

[winnscollision]

Quote:
My second gens Olive Eggers MOSTLY laid dark eggs. They still were green, but too dark for my liking. I am going to just work from the first cross in the future.

Well what im trying to figure out is, if i keep breeding back to marans and keep only the peacombs that keep the blue egg gene, will the outter shell continue to keep getting so dark they will be back to the original darkness of a marans(6 or higer on the marans chart) and still have the blue inner shell? Will the blue egg gene continue to 50 percent of the offspring each time or does it eventuall wash out of the gene pool and they would just be high percentage marans? (My Olive eggers have beards and peacombs)

 

[farmerChef]

I've started the St' Patty's day green/olive egg hatchalong, if anyone wants to join in. Set date for chicken eggs is Feb 25.

I am looking for 1-2 people to swap eggs with, I have only have EEs laying right now, most of my OEs are chicks. I am looking esp for splash, white, and barred.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/741343/st-pattys-day-green-egg-hatchalong-set-2-25

 

[mstricer]

I think I'm going to turn the light on in the coop. I need eggs and I'm not getting any. We one Marans egg. But I've never had hers hatch she always has meat in her eggs.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Well what im trying to figure out is, if i keep breeding back to marans and keep only the peacombs that keep the blue egg gene, will the outter shell continue to keep getting so dark they will be back to the original darkness of a marans(6 or higer on the marans chart) and still have the blue inner shell? Will the blue egg gene continue to 50 percent of the offspring each time or does it eventuall wash out of the gene pool and they would just be high percentage marans? (My Olive eggers have beards and peacombs)

Yes the eggs would keep getting darker and yes you could still have the blue egg under the dark brown.

The Blue egg gene will only pass to 50% of the chicks IF they bird is laying a blue egg. If they are laying a dark egg with white shell you will get 0% with blue egg genes.

You will NEVER get Marans from Olive Eggers. You might get some dark egg layers, but they will not be Marans anymore.

 

[qball53]

Our first generation olive eggers, Maranas over EE &/or Wheaten Ameracana so far are all laying dark brown eggs that rival the pure Marans. The number of birds is small less than a dz so I understand this can happen but it is still a surprise. We'll take these hens and go back to a wheaten ameracana.

 

[enggass]

So tell me if I understand correctly - When creating F1 OEs, say Marans Roo over WhAm's, only 50% of the resulting chicks will carry the Pea Comb/blue egg gene resulting in OE layers...?

 

[dfdesigns]

So tell me if I understand correctly - When creating F1 OEs, say Marans Roo over WhAm's, only 50% of the resulting chicks will carry the Pea Comb/blue egg gene resulting in OE layers...?

Our first generation olive eggers, Maranas over EE &/or Wheaten Ameracana so far are all laying dark brown eggs that rival the pure Marans. The number of birds is small less than a dz so I understand this can happen but it is still a surprise. We'll take these hens and go back to a wheaten ameracana.

Let's go back to some basic genetics... if you have a purebred Ameraucana and cross that with a purebred Marans, each chick gets one blue gene and one dark brown gene. EVERY resulting chick from an F-1 cross should be an Olive Egger no matter what their comb looks like (although most if not all will have pea combs).

Where it gets interesting is when you use birds with an unknown or mixed genetic background. Most EEs probably one have a single blue gene, not a double... getting that gene to pass on is playing the genetic lottery. For example, say you take your F-1 OE hens and breed them back to a Marans... the chicks have a 50/50 shot of getting mama's lone blue gene. You're either going to get a deeper, darker F-2 OE, or you're going to have a nice, dark brown layer.