The Olive-Egger thread!

[Pipe Dreaming]

I'm going to jump in here.. I have been wanting to add olive-colored eggs to my basket.
I bought some hatching eggs and in that mix were 5 F3 OE's. I got 4 of those to hatch. The lady I purchased from said the hen was crested, and it looks like 3 of my chicks are as well. For F3's, (I guess the actual egg was an F2, chick inside is the F3) I expected more deep green olive color, but I don't know what she used to cross for 3 generations. Here are the F3s' (I don't know what they're out of)

I also have 6 EE pullets. Just got them in the spring - I don't know what color they are going to lay.

Love my white girl..

Now, I plan to keep 1 or 2 BCM roosters. I just picked up 5 chicks from a lady with nice birds (not that I'm an expert!)

So these guys will be where I start. I haven't read all these pages but I'm enjoying reading up as much as I can. I have a lot to learn, I don't even know the difference between a pea comb and a straight comb yet

I guess I have a lot of time to read up on this subject before my girls and boys are ready to produce the next generation.

Oh, I also have chestnut wheaton ameraucana chicks. I was going to sell them just to cut down - do you guys think it'd be best to keep a couple Ameraucana hens for part of this project or will my EE's work better?

 

[magdelaine]

Oh, I also have chestnut wheaton ameraucana chicks. I was going to sell them just to cut down - do you guys think it'd be best to keep a couple Ameraucana hens for part of this project or will my EE's work better?

Sounds like you have a start! The first thing to know is egg color genes and how they work. Blue and Brown are dominant over white. Blue is a color that is actually laid down in the shell, and when you open a blue egg it's blue on the inside. Brown is a color that is coated on the shell, and when you open a brown egg it is white on the inside.

Your typical green laying EE is a bird that's been bred from a blue laying bird like an Ameraucana or a CCL; in other words a bird that has 2 copies of the blue egg gene, AND a brown egg layer. The brown coats the blue and you get a green egg. However, that means the EE has one copy of the blue egg gene and one white. If bred to a brown egg layer, 50% of the offspring will no longer have the blue egg gene and will lay brown eggs only.

Long story short, in order to ensure that your crosses lay olive eggs, you have to use birds with 2 copies of the blue egg gene. Your EEs will probably not have this, and definitely not your OE chicks. Only pure Ameraucanas, Arauacanas, and CCLs will. Anything you breed out of EEs and OEs you will have to wait until they lay to find out if they are OEs or actually brown egg layers.

So keep the Ameraucanas!

 

[nordicacres]

 Sounds like you have a start! The first thing to know is egg color genes and how they work. Blue and Brown are dominant over white. Blue is a color that is actually laid down in the shell, and when you open a blue egg it's blue on the inside. Brown is a color that is coated on the shell, and when you open a brown egg it is white on the inside.

Your typical green laying EE is a bird that's been bred from a blue laying bird like an Ameraucana or a CCL; in other words a bird that has 2 copies of the blue egg gene, AND a brown egg layer. The brown coats the blue and you get a green egg. However, that means the EE has one copy of the blue egg gene and one white. If bred to a brown egg layer, 50% of the offspring will no longer have the blue egg gene and will lay brown eggs only.

Long story short, in order to ensure that your crosses lay olive eggs, you have to use birds with 2 copies of the blue egg gene. Your EEs will probably not have this, and definitely not your OE chicks. Only pure Ameraucanas, Arauacanas, and CCLs will. Anything you breed out of EEs and OEs you will have to wait until they lay to find out if they are OEs or actually brown egg layers.

So keep the Ameraucanas!

This was great info, TFS! I'm toying with the idea of keeping my one lone EE cockerel and keeping him in a separate run with a few EEs. Will an EE rooster and hen always produce blue or green egg layers or is there a good chance they will produce brown egg layers? Or maybe I should find a blue egg rooster instead?

 

[Pipe Dreaming]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[magdelaine]

This was great info, TFS! I'm toying with the idea of keeping my one lone EE cockerel and keeping him in a separate run with a few EEs. Will an EE rooster and hen always produce blue or green egg layers or is there a good chance they will produce brown egg layers? Or maybe I should find a blue egg rooster instead?

It's a total crapshoot, and it's made worse by the fact that Ameraucana fanciers insist on calling ALL non-standard color Ameraucanas EEs. For our purposes, they are pure Am and they have two blue egg genes, you know? But I digress. You just don't know what you'll get from that breeding until the chicks start laying. But that can be fun too! I'm looking forward to creating as many colors/shades of eggs as possible.

 

[Pipe Dreaming]

Quick question in regards to the F3 chicks. I was assuming that crossing those hens with a BCM roo would only darken the olive color. You're saying some of the chicks from that cross will lay brown eggs and some will lay green?

 

[magdelaine]

Quick question in regards to the F3 chicks. I was assuming that crossing those hens with a BCM roo would only darken the olive color. You're saying some of the chicks from that cross will lay brown eggs and some will lay green?

Exactly. The goal of breeding past F1 is to get birds that have the double blue egg gene AND a dark brown gene, but getting there requires raising each pullet to hatch and seeing the color. Then, for all green layers, only some of those will have two copies of the blue egg gene, so crossing back to dark layer will always yield some brown layers. It's a tedious process! Hatch, raise, test...rinse, repeat. This is why I can't see going beyond F1 except for maybe backcrossing here and there.

Check out this document by Steve Neumann...he's worked it out for you: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2tKFvBKXZesVDZxaUYteElKTE0/view

 

[Pipe Dreaming]

So my F3 chicks could lay brown eggs. Hmph... and I thought I was getting ahead of the game. Lol
Thanks again for patiently explaining this to me and I'm going to read that article.

 

[magdelaine]

There is only one breeder I know of that has OEs that breed true; they lay olive eggs and when bred those birds lay olive eggs. I think it took him a long time to get there, but if you want OEs that will consistently reproduce more OEs, you might want to get some eggs/chicks from him. It's Brian Parks. His site links aren't working but contact information IS available. http://www.frasiercreekfarm.com/

 

[gyr99]

I'm sure this has been beaten like a dead horse, but what are the two blue Genes?