The Olive-Egger thread!

[otakalhasas]

Here is one I have. Easter egger x marans cross

Does it make any difference if the rooster is "brown layer" over a blue layer or if the rooster is a "blue layer" over a brown layer?

 

[morbius18]

Does it make any difference if the rooster is "brown layer" over a blue layer or if the rooster is a "blue layer" over a brown layer?

Is easier to to know that a 'pure' brown layer will lay brown than a possibly mixed easter egger. With pure breeds, it shouldn't matter. You have a real ameraucana flock and throw a marans or welsummer hen in, you know to hatch your brown eggs for the olive egger. I have 3 easter eggers in with my Marans flock, so I know to hatch the blue eggs. If the rooster is of mixed parantage, you have no way of really knowing which egg color he carries, short of test mating him to establish his egg color.

Problem is hatcheries sell easter eggers as ameraucana/aracauna when they are definitely not. I had an easter egger that had a beard, muffs, pea comb and green legs. She laid white eggs. If it had been a rooster and I used it to make olive eggers, I'd have ended up with all that might have 'looked' right that potentially laid lighter brown eggs. With the opposite rooster being a Marans, I 'know' he carries dark brown eggs.

 

[morbius18]

This is an interesting series of articles about the blue and white egg color and why some easter eggers lay whites.

https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/gms2-breeding-for-blue-eggs/

 

[dolfi]

Is easier to to know that a 'pure' brown layer will lay brown than a possibly mixed easter egger. With pure breeds, it shouldn't matter. You have a real ameraucana flock and throw a marans or welsummer hen in, you know to hatch your brown eggs for the olive egger. I have 3 easter eggers in with my Marans flock, so I know to hatch the blue eggs. If the rooster is of mixed parantage, you have no way of really knowing which egg color he carries, short of test mating him to establish his egg color.

Problem is hatcheries sell easter eggers as ameraucana/aracauna when they are definitely not. I had an easter egger that had a beard, muffs, pea comb and green legs. She laid white eggs. If it had been a rooster and I used it to make olive eggers, I'd have ended up with all that might have 'looked' right that potentially laid lighter brown eggs. With the opposite rooster being a Marans, I 'know' he carries dark brown eggs.

That makes so much sense now

 

[dolfi]

So how can I ensure myself to keep getting olive eggers once I managed to get one?
Do I have to keep the process of breeding the same or can I breed the same olive egger to whom in order to get more olive egger

 

[morbius18]

That makes so much sense now

You should also check this site out for the genetics side of things. I didn't really understand much, but by breeding and trying to figure out why or how, you learn quite a bit. The chicken calculator site is probably one of my most visited to pre test matings for colors.

http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

 

[morbius18]

So how can I ensure myself to keep getting olive eggers once I managed to get one?
Do I have to keep the process of breeding the same or can I breed the same olive egger to whom in order to get more olive egger

It depends, you can get the olive eggs for 3-5 years, so you can raise some, and redo it later or you can cross the olive to olives. In the first generation you could still get blues. I just keep the olive egger hens and mate with my Marans rooster. They will keep getting darker, and I know to just hatch the olives out.

 

[dolfi]

I was in the middle of feeding my babies and was able to see the two in question's legs. They are actually green. Yee now the thigh is will they have pea comb

 

[morbius18]

Sometimes you can look for the muffs and beard too to see if they carry the blue egg gene. But the pea comb is a pretty good indication.

 

[morbius18]

Do you have a small basket you can put that one in to keep the others off? Looks like it might be a splash.

This little guy has random black spots on its head and 2 on its lower back. It would be really cool if it was a splash.