The Olive-Egger thread!

[spunkychickenmomma]

I'm just starting my project and was wondering what Marian's lay the really dark chocolate looking eggs and what chickens lay the really red brown eggs I have a flock of 8 mo olds.a EE roo 2 EE hens a silver lace roo and 3 silver lace hens and about 17 brown egg layers from murry.now I want to get dark olives and striking feather color and patterns

In my experience it has been the French Black Copper Marans (FBCM) that lay the darkest of the marans. Welsummers lay a terra cotta colored sometimes speckled egg. My cross of Welsummer and true Ameracuana produced a nice olive egg but not as dark as I wanted. Right now in the incubator I have a FBCM and Cream Legbar cross that will hopefully produce a darker egg color. The picture is of the Wellie/Am cross eggs.

 

[wescottwomen]

Thanks so much beautiful eggs luck with your hatch can't wait till my hatches got eggs due on 6/8 6/9 6/10 and 6/14 wish me luck

 

[Peach2u]

These are from my OE's Crossed from BCM over mint green/blue eggs layers mostly EE's a few Ameraucana's.

the 1st gen OE's lay light olive, 2nd med olive with dark spots and 3rd almost khaki. The brown one's are also from my 3rd gen.

I decided not to weed out the brown layers this year. The basket gets dull looking with only shades of green

The new babies this year are a OE roo over the OE and Ameraucana/EE hens. I am hoping to go back to the med olive with spots.

I also picked up a couple of welsummer chicks this year to mix in for 2015 layers with the OE roo covering all.

Mixing up the gene pool over the last 3 years I have changed my roo every year.

I like my OE roo. He wasn't the prettiest but he sure was the biggest and friendly. Much better than the Splash and blue copper marans I used before. His father was an awful roo. He would run up your legs and back to peck your head if given the chance. I used him long enough to get chicks from him. He had it out for my then 3 and 4 year old kids. No room for a mean chicken! His son is a sweet heart has been from the start. As a chick he would follow me around till I picked him up to pet him. Now as the only roo and a 14 pound big baby. He calls the girls over to my feet and still wants pets. If he is around while scooping feed he will try his best to perch on me. Did I say he was heavy!

Mr. Friendly and girls

 

[sol2go]

<omitted rest of quote>
The new babies this year are a OE roo over the OE and Ameraucana/EE hens. I am hoping to go back to the med olive with spots.

I have noticed that people are most interested in the medium olive eggshell with spots. Do you have OE's that consistently lay a spotted egg? My OE eggshells seem to change all the time; the OE's are from Crested Cream Legbars x Crele Penedesencas.
I am also combining the offspring with different roosters/hens, working towards a consistent olive egg layer - hopefully with spots.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

If I breed my f1 that lay brown eggs back to a cream leg bar roo what color of eggs will be possible?

well if your f1's are straight combed and so is the legbar it will be hard to tell till the chicks that hatch lay but nice olive is a possibility

 

[lizanne]

I have noticed that people are most interested in the medium olive eggshell with spots. Do you have OE's that consistently lay a spotted egg? My OE eggshells seem to change all the time; the OE's are from Crested Cream Legbars x Crele Penedesencas.
I am also combining the offspring with different roosters/hens, working towards a consistent olive egg layer - hopefully with spots.

One of my girls lays an olive egg with brown spots, one lays a regular olive egg, and one lays an eggs that is darker on the top, and gets lighter towards the bottom of the egg. They are all from the same parents. I think it depends on the chicken.

 

[Peach2u]

Yes, My 2nd gens that lay the spotted olive eggs are always spotted. Sometimes only half the egg has spots or the spots are smaller or larger. The spots will never be the same. As the egg is being formed, the spots are a last coat on the egg. If any thing upsets them during that time it affects the color. The last thunder storm I ended up with 2 half spotted eggs. Looked like someone dipped them on just one side. So I don't think there is a way to control the spots.

 

[buckabucka]

I hatched some olive egger chicks that are now 6 weeks old. I'm really hoping this chick is a girl, because I like her coloring:

 

[Merro]

First olive-y egg-y thing! On the far right. Obviously the first on the left is from my little buff mix breed below,



But the other two are anyone's guess from the twin black sisters. One is pinkish pale, one is more olive-y pale. Very first collected from them today!

Guess I'll have to sit out there and wait to see who's is who's for sure. Never would've guessed they'd have different eggs since they've been identical on everything since behbehs. Even have one little white feather on each of their opposite eyebrows.

 

[dfdesigns]

My F-2s have started laying! This mix is F-1 (Black Ameraucana x French Black Marans) taken back to a French Blue Copper Marans.




And here is the pretty hen who laid that gorgeous egg...