The Olive-Egger thread!

[Catandherchicks]

So if I cross my Olive egger roo (pea combed and a wellsummerx whiting true blue cross) with a blue ameracauna..... what egg color gene is passed? Is there a chart- im interested to see what my unusual olive egger crosses are going to produce- since I don't have the typical copper marans and ameracauna cross it's hard to find info. How does the basic genetics break down. Green egg x blue egg ?? Thanks!

Good looking eggs in your avatar. Looks like you threw in an avocado.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote: Yup just finished waiting for pullets

 

[percoco13]

Generally green egg to brown egg will get darker and darker khaki. Green egg to blue egg will get lighter and lighter approaching the blue color.


Whiting true blues are called a 'breed' and say they breed true, but they can come in any color, have single or rose combs and have different leg colors. Sounds like an easter egger to me.

 

[percoco13]

Generally green egg to brown egg will get darker and darker khaki. Green egg to blue egg will get lighter and lighter approaching the blue color.

I didn't breed thebolive eggers- but one turned out to be a roo so I'm thinking of breeding back with my pure ameracaunas or one of my brown layers. The OEs I purchased as day old chicks are the result of a cross between whiting true blue and wellsummers. I'm hoping for green speckled eggs!


Whiting true blues are called a 'breed' and say they breed true, but they can come in any color, have single or rose combs and have different leg colors. Sounds like an easter egger to me.

 

[hyzenthlay]

Morbius18, thanks so much for your response, and you have some really amazing egg colors! When you say dark khaki, do you mean the deep olive shade? And to clarify what you said in your previous post, you are saying the egg in the bottom row, middle is the result of an OE x Marans, whose offspring was bred with a Marans, and that offspring was bred to a Marans a third time? So that's how dark the eggs might get if you introduce the Olive in the first generation, but keep adding dark brown back in after that for 3 generations? Sorry if I'm a bit slow on this--I have some idea of genetics but I've never actually applied it in a breeding program before.




Can you also help me understand this color chart below? Since it's art, not real eggs, I can't tell if some of the shades are literally realistic to achieve, but I at least want to be sure I understand the chart. The first two rows seem straightforward, but the third row confuses me.

1) I think this means that, as in the first row, if I breed my F1 OE (Welsummer x CCL) rooster to my Marans hens, I will get the dark olive egg in the middle?
2) I think this means that, as in the second row, if I breed my F1 OE (Welsummer x CCL) rooster to my Blue Ameraucana or EE hens, I will get the spearmint egg in the middle
3) Does this mean that, as in the third row, if I breed and F1 OE rooster to an F1 OE hen (which I don't currently have), and then I breed their offspring to another F2 generation of OEs, then the third generation will have that more jade/bright avocado green color of egg on the right? Is that bright avocado color represented anywhere in percoco13's avatar? Why are there three egg colors shown on this row when it is only talking about breeding F1 to F1?

 

[morbius18]

Morbius18, thanks so much for your response, and you have some really amazing egg colors! When you say dark khaki, do you mean the deep olive shade? And to clarify what you said in your previous post, you are saying the egg in the bottom row, middle is the result of an OE x Marans, whose offspring was bred with a Marans, and that offspring was bred to a Marans a third time? So that's how dark the eggs might get if you introduce the Olive in the first generation, but keep adding dark brown back in after that for 3 generations? Sorry if I'm a bit slow on this--I have some idea of genetics but I've never actually applied it in a breeding program before. Can you also help me understand this color chart below? Since it's art, not real eggs, I can't tell if some of the shades are literally realistic to achieve, but I at least want to be sure I understand the chart. The first two rows seem straightforward, but the third row confuses me. 1) I think this means that, as in the first row, if I breed my F1 OE (Welsummer x CCL) rooster to my Marans hens, I will get the dark olive egg in the middle? 2) I think this means that, as in the second row, if I breed my F1 OE (Welsummer x CCL) rooster to my Blue Ameraucana or EE hens, I will get the spearmint egg in the middle 3) Does this mean that, as in the third row, if I breed and F1 OE rooster to an F1 OE hen (which I don't currently have), and then I breed their offspring to another F2 generation of OEs, then the third generation will have that more jade/bright avocado green color of egg on the right? Is that bright avocado color represented anywhere in percoco13's avatar? Why are there three egg colors shown on this row when it is only talking about breeding F1 to F1?

The darker olive shades resemble khaki. My path is the top row. You are correct on the 3rd generation description you posted. The light green egg is an easter egger with 2 blue genes crossed to my Golden Cuckoo marans. My rooster carries the egg color on the top right of my picture. The egg color will approach the darkness of the dark layer being used or the lightness of the Blue layer if used. I don't like to keep olive egger roosters, just the marans that I primarly breed. Since the dark laying hen cannot be bred to a green carrying rooster, I crossed her with my lighter carrying Golden cuckoo marans rooster and got a dark carrying cockeral. He will be used for both lines, my Marans and my Olive eggers and hopefully give me really dark olives. The bottom row is showing your first generation on the left. When you breed your f1 olive egger hen to your f1 rooster, you get the f2. F2s should be selected for hens that have olive eggs, some blue and brown might be possible. The hen is easy to tell, she lays eggs. The rooster has to be test mated and raise the pullets to laying age to even see which color he carries. If he was a green carrier, the all the babies should carry greens. I personally don't know if this is correct. Egg shells come in 2 colors genetically, white and blue. Brown eggs are white with the brown coloring on top. So with a Marans cross the f1s have 1 blue and 1 white gene, covered with browns. That's how in the f2 you can get plain brown shells. 25% inherit 2 copies of the white gene, and brown covers them. The brown color isn't a simple gene though, there are at least 12 that control the brown color. So out of the f1s, all babied will have 1 copy of all the brown genes and 1 copy of the non brown (blue layers don't have these). So instead of 2 genes to test mate you get 13, in every possible combination. The number you would have to breed would be REALLY high to just get 1 with the right combinations.

 

[pennyJo1960]

eggs from my first incubator are starting to pip due tomorrow

 

[hyzenthlay]

Thank you, Morbius18! I really appreciate the explanation--I love learning about this, and I'm sure your knowledge will help a lot of other people, too. It sounds like Olive Egger genetics can get a bit complicated with all the different brown genes to consider! Maybe this is why we don't see too many of those avocado colored eggs around. It sounds like working towards the bottom row colors will be out of my reach, since I don't have room for significant flock expansion and I'm not really supposed to have any roosters here, much less long term, multiple generation projects that require test matings, etc. I have this one accidental OE rooster, and I'm interested in seeing what I can do with him for as long as he doesn't irritate my neighbors too much--so if anything I guess I will focus my efforts on the first two rows, since I already have dark and blue egg laying hens. Thanks again!

 

[AmandaMBG]

Whiting true blues breed true to egg color. They are not an Easter Egger. The entire idea of an EE is that they varied shades of eggs.... They also do not look like EE..some have muffs and beards but they're body is closer to a leghorn.
Here is photos of my girls. And egg photos.

You can see the interior and exterior are the same color of light blue.

Just thought I'd give some info as there really isn't a huge amount out there on them yet.
Forgot to add they all have white earlobes and from what I've heard from people that have them they all have modified pea combs ( a mix of straight and pea).

Generally green egg to brown egg will get darker and darker khaki. Green egg to blue egg will get lighter and lighter approaching the blue color.


Whiting true blues are called a 'breed' and say they breed true, but they can come in any color, have single or rose combs and have different leg colors. Sounds like an easter egger to me.

 

[morbius18]

Whiting true blues breed true to egg color. They are not an Easter Egger. The entire idea of an EE is that they varied shades of eggs.... They also do not look like EE..some have muffs and beards but they're body is closer to a leghorn.
Here is photos of my girls. And egg photos.

You can see the interior and exterior are the same color of light blue.

Just thought I'd give some info as there really isn't a huge amount out there on them yet.
Forgot to add they all have white earlobes and from what I've heard from people that have them they all have modified pea combs ( a mix of straight and pea).

I simply meant they met the definition for easter eggers, they lay blue eggs and they don't confirm to breed standards.

I was going off Murray McMurray's description of varying feather plumage with varying shank colors. The questions answered at the bottom says they typically have single combs, but may have rose combs. I don't think a breed can be specifically defined by egg color, there has to be some body coloration that breeds true

I didn't mean offense, and technically all my Olive eggers are also easter eggers by the generally accepted definition.