The Olive-Egger thread!

[morbius18]

7 week old BCM x EE
Hen or Roo?

The comb looks like a pullet, but the curved tail feather looks like a cockeral.

 

[morbius18]

Thank you for info! So was I incorrect that the initial cross of brown and blue layers will produce half olive and half brown layers? If I worked the genetic grid right, it looks like they would all get both genes so 100% olive eggs?

It depends on your intital beed stock. If it's Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream crested legbar, they will carry 2 blue genes and pass to 100% of the offspring.

If you start with a mix like an easter egger, then they could carry only 1 blue and 1 white, so you will get a mix of olives and lighter browns. Some easter eggers do carry 2 genes though. I have one that does.

An easy way to see which inherited the blue egg gene is to look for the pea comb, they are close on the same spot in the genetic code. Not foolproof, but accurate most of the time.

 

[morbius18]

Yes, the Punnett square will show you exactly what you can get. Pure Ameraucana carry two blue egg genes: O/O (this blue egg gene is dominant) Pure Marans carry two white egg genes: o[SUP]+[/SUP]/o[SUP]+ [/SUP] , as well as dominant brown egg shell alleles & dominant modifiers to make the brown very dark.
The OE offspring (O/o[SUP]+[/SUP]) means a blue egg since that gene is dominant, but the dominant brown egg shell allele creates a brown coating over the blue which makes it appear green. The dominant modifier also makes that same brown coating very dark which creates a darker green, or olive, shade of color.

Now, when you breed an OE to an OE you get:

This gives you a 50 % chance of another OE, a 25% chance of a blue layer, & a 25% chance of a white layer. But don’t forget to add the dominant brown egg allele & dominant modifier. This means all the offspring get the allele & modifier from both parents, and your 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] gen. OEs should have a very dark olive. The blue layers should also be a shade of olive, and the white layers will actually be a darker brown. Personal breeding results: I crossed a first gen. OE to a brown egg layer and got a layer of a nice coppery brown egg. The same OE to a Leghorn produced a very light olive layer (the white genes from the Leghorn essentially lighten the egg color). Edited to correct spelling error

I found this back quite a number of pages, and apprears to contradict what I said earlier. So marans carry 2 white egg genes with the brown coloration added. Sorry if I confused you.

 

[aart]

An easy way to see which inherited the blue egg gene is to look for the pea comb, they are close on the same spot in the genetic code. Not foolproof, but accurate most of the time.

Unless, and often happens....you have modified pea combs, then you wait until POL to see.
I have a straight combed girl with a muff that lays a blue shell making a khaki colored egg.
Others from that batch have muffs, straight and modified pea combs all lay brown.
Cross was Welsummer cock over blue laying EE hen with modified pea.

Use a straight combed blue layer, and all bets are off until POL.

 

[morbius18]

can you help me understand this: I would like to have avocado skin coloured eggs but I don't understand how to get it.

A Review of Egg Color in Chickens - Marans Chicken Club USA https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...zF2hH6BnD7gYclitA&sig2=mrfxwEx1lEvoAQfYU1I9zw It's a pdf with some good info on egg color

 

[laurianne]

The comb looks like a pullet, but the curved tail feather looks like a cockeral.

I know, it's weird!
Would a close up of the neck help?

 

[laurianne]

I know, it's weird!
Would a close up of the neck help?

 

[ronott1]

The odd feather or two happens at that age.

I am leaning towards pullet because the wattles are still small.

 

[cupofJoelene]

So weird. I have an OE pullet who has a very roo-ish tail with curved feathers, too. It drove me up the wall trying to figure out what she was!

 

[fatcatx]

It depends on your intital beed stock. If it's Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream crested legbar, they will carry 2 blue genes and pass to 100% of the offspring.

If you start with a mix like an easter egger, then they could carry only 1 blue and 1 white, so you will get a mix of olives and lighter browns. Some easter eggers do carry 2 genes though. I have one that does.

Thank you for all the helpful info. I had no idea that EE could carry the white gene so that is good to know.