The Olive-Egger thread!

[ronott1]

well they don't enforce anything else around here.

They do here in my City. I have a rooster complaint so I have to move them out.

At least I can have hens in the City.

 

[magdelaine]

Help! I have a sexing question. By nine weeks, males should be looking rather cherry in their combs, right? I may be able to sell all of my OE pullets as a lot but I don't want to accidentally sell a rooster as a pullet. I know the "3 rows of peas" rule, but I'm not experienced enough to know what that really means. I have some of the pullets with growing/wider combs, but none with the bright red color the boys I've separated out have. Normally I would just wait and see, but since I'm selling them I can't really do that.

 

[aart]

Help! I have a sexing question. By nine weeks, males should be looking rather cherry in their combs, right? I may be able to sell all of my OE pullets as a lot but I don't want to accidentally sell a rooster as a pullet. I know the "3 rows of peas" rule, but I'm not experienced enough to know what that really means. I have some of the pullets with growing/wider combs, but none with the bright red color the boys I've separated out have. Normally I would just wait and see, but since I'm selling them I can't really do that.

I think the amount of color at 9 weeks(even at 5-6 weeks) is pretty strong indicator.

 

[magdelaine]

I think the amount of color at 9 weeks(even at 5-6 weeks) is pretty strong indicator.

Great! Thank you. I have pullets at 6 weeks I separated out too...that hatch seemed to yield 8 boys and only 3 girls. Granted I may be conservative but if I'm selling pullets I'd rather mistake a girl for a boy than the other way 'round.

 

[gapey]

I've been wanting olive eggers for a while. My broody hen has been broody for 3 weeks and found someone local to get some olive egger hatching eggs from. They are Isbar/BCM and Isbar/wheaten marans crosses. Hopefully she stays broody long enough to hatch them out. This will be my first time having a broody hatch out eggs. She was broody for a long time last year too and I ended up putting her in a dog crate to break her out of it.

 

[gimmie birdies]

This is my Blue Isbar/BCM as a teen age chick. not very pretty here, she is fluffed out now neck looks "silver penciled" body black and lays dark olive eggs.

 

[dekel18042]

Got my first two olive eggs today. The two small eggs on the right. The one in back I would consider a true olive egg, but the one in front looks a bit more green. Not sure who laid each egg. Both have cream legbar father and mothers are blue splash marans and welsumer. What good girls. Both laid in the nest boxes.

 

[LisaLouHoo]

I've been wanting olive eggers for a while. My broody hen has been broody for 3 weeks and found someone local to get some olive egger hatching eggs from. They are Isbar/BCM and Isbar/wheaten marans crosses. Hopefully she stays broody long enough to hatch them out. This will be my first time having a broody hatch out eggs. She was broody for a long time last year too and I ended up putting her in a dog crate to break her out of it.

Buff orpingtons make good broodies. Mine sat on 6 shipped eggs and 5 hatched. I was pretty happy with that. She has hatched several times and always a good, protective mama. Make sure your broody is isolated enough that no other hens can mess with the nest or add eggs to it. Make sure she has easy access to water and food, even though they don't eat or drink much. Good luck!!!

 

[gapey]

Buff orpingtons make good broodies. Mine sat on 6 shipped eggs and 5 hatched. I was pretty happy with that. She has hatched several times and always a good, protective mama. Make sure your broody is isolated enough that no other hens can mess with the nest or add eggs to it. Make sure she has easy access to water and food, even though they don't eat or drink much. Good luck!!!

Thanks. I left her with the rest of the flock for now. I didn't want to move her to risk her breaking out of it. I will separate her after the hatch and plan on taking time off when they are due to hatch so I can move her and the chicks. I marked the eggs just in case her clutch grew and sure enough I have had two other chickens lay eggs on her nest so far. The last time she went out to eat two of my other chickens stole her nest. One of my easter eggers and production reds decide they both wanted to keep the eggs warm, at the same time, while the buff was taking a food break. I had to go in and remove them from the nest and put her back on the nest. So far I've found an easter egger and a BCM egg on the nest so if I hadn't marked the eggs I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart.

I don't leave food out 24x7 and feed them in the morning and afternoon and the broody will come off the nest usually during the afternoon feeding so I keep an eye on her to make sure she gets her nest back when she's done eating and playing in the dirt.

ps. my orpington is the top of the pecking order too so I think she will protect her chicks pretty well. The walls of the nesting boxes are pretty tall so I don't think the chicks will be able to get out themselves for a little while. I know they grow fast so will move them within a day or two of hatching to a different area to be safe.

 

[gapey]

This is my Blue Isbar/BCM as a teen age chick. not very pretty here, she is fluffed out now neck looks "silver penciled" body black and lays dark olive eggs.

Thanks for the pic. I bet she looks lovely now. I didn't realize there were 3 different colors of Isbar. I just checked with the person I get the eggs from to see which kind the daddy is and she said she has all 3 (black, blue and splash) so the chicks could be a pretty wide range of colors. Excited to see how they come out.

Does it matter if the Isbar is the hen or the roo, ie. will the eggs be darker one way or the other?