The Olive-Egger thread!

[ronott1]

Anyone have Olive Eggers, Delaware or Black Copper Marans hens for sale? I live in Palo Alto, Ca.

Psst...head on over the the Northern California Thread!

Several of us there have OEs, capayvalley chick had dels on craigs list recently and chiquita has Marans along with several others.

You might need to wait a bit since we are just gearing up for hatching.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/25/california-northern/59950#post_14912220

 

[farmhand]

The egg shell gene and brown coating genes are not sex linked so it does not matter which parent has a blue gene for the egg shell color...

I am questioning this only because I saw somewhere in BYC that stated that it was better for the Ro to carry the dark egg gene and the hen the blue. ??? But I'm hearing you say it makes no difference. @ronott1

 

[ronott1]

I am questioning this only because I saw somewhere in BYC that stated that it was better for the Ro to carry the dark egg gene and the hen the blue. ??? But I'm hearing you say it makes no difference. @ronott1

The brown coating genes are very complicated--12 to 15 pairs. I did read that there may be a sexlinked to the male pair but only one pair. The females carry the dark gene too though.

This is where it becomes more of an art than a science for making Olive colored eggs.

Having the correct male is important for making sexlinks so, as a guess, the post may have been about that and not egg color. You would want a black marans rooster over a cream legbar to make sexlinks that lay olive colored eggs. The other way would still be olive colored eggs, but the chicks would not be sexlinks.

 

[Allie3513]

This breeding stuff is so confusing..

I will be picking up a Blue Ameraucana rooster this week. I want to breed him for some EE or olive egger chicks.. so what should he be bred with?

I thought any dark brown egg laying chicken to make olive eggers. Only ameraucana or EE hens for blue layers?

I'm totally lost.

 

[LisaLouHoo]

This breeding stuff is so confusing..  

I will be picking up a B[COLOR=141823]lue Ameraucana  rooster this week.  I want to breed him for some EE or olive egger chicks.. so what should he be bred with? [/COLOR]

[COLOR=141823]I thought any dark brown egg laying chicken to make olive eggers. Only ameraucana  or EE hens for blue layers?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=141823] I'm totally lost.[/COLOR]

Since you have the blue egg rooster, you just need a really dark brown egg laying hen. You've got it right. If your Ameraucana roo ends up being an EE roo, then you might not get ALL olive eggers, just 50%...that's what i understand. Getting a sex-linked chick is another matter. Good luck!!

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I posted in here a few weeks ago about my black copper marans possibly being an olive egger and people wanted me to post an update when she starts to lay. Well she laid her first egg today and it ended up not being olive but it is dark, maybe a 4 on the marans scale. It's funny both of my marans girls laid their first eggs today unless one of them laid two eggs. One is a little darker than the other and both are about the same size. The lighter one is from one of my buff orpingtons.

I maintain that this bird is not BCM. Most likely a BC1 to Marans from an F1 OE that did not get the blue egg gene, or just a Marans cross of some sort.

 

[ronott1]

This breeding stuff is so confusing..

I will be picking up a Blue Ameraucana rooster this week. I want to breed him for some EE or olive egger chicks.. so what should he be bred with?

I thought any dark brown egg laying chicken to make olive eggers. Only ameraucana or EE hens for blue layers?

I'm totally lost.

I am sorry to confuse you!

Barnevelders, Wellsummers, Marans, Penedesencas and etc. will work well for making OEs with an Ameraucana.

There are two main blue egg layers--araucana based with a pea comb and Cream legbars with straight combs.

When combined, they make a dark green egg because of simple color blending--like mixing paint--if you mix brown with blue you get green.

 

[Allie3513]

I am sorry to confuse you!

Barnevelders, Wellsummers, Marans, Penedesencas and etc. will work well for making OEs with an Ameraucana.

There are two main blue egg layers--araucana based with a pea comb and Cream legbars with straight combs.

When combined, they make a dark green egg because of simple color blending--like mixing paint--if you mix brown with blue you get green.

I'm going to be using Marans.. Is there a specific color Maran I should us? Or can I do blue, splash, black, ect?
It would be neat having a variety, but my goal is really to produce olive eggers.. Not barnyard mixes.
Mainly wondering if blue on blue would cancel anything out.. LOVE blue chickens!

 

[bamadude]

Pretty sure blue x blue would result in 50% of the offspring being blue, 25% splash, and 25% black. Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[rich1991]

Mine are eight weeks old