The Olive-Egger thread!

[RoosterCogburn7]

I have a question. I made first generation Olive Eggers by Cross a French Black Copper Marans with a Black Americana. Now, I am hearing there is a second generation. I thought Olive Eggers were essentially a sex link. However, if I hatched an Olive Egg from an Olive Egger it would continue to be an Olive Egger or something else altogether.

 

[aart]

I have a question. I made first generation Olive Eggers by Cross a French Black Copper Marans with a Black Americana. Now, I am hearing there is a second generation. I thought Olive Eggers were essentially a sex link. However, if I hatched an Olive Egg from an Olive Egger it would continue to be an Olive Egger or something else altogether.

I think you can get sexlinks by using a BCMarans over a Creme Leg Bar(solid cock x barred hen).
But your BCM x Am will not create sexlink.

As to crossing OE to other birds there are more than several possibilities.
If you cross the OE back to a BCM you might get darker olives,
cross the OE back to the Am you might get lighter olives.

Might want to go here on Facebook, some serious OE geneticists over there:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541575112755530/
With a great crossing chart to dload at top of page.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

That is good information. Thank you. My OE is in the same pen with the FBCM's which should create a darker OE, which would make the produced egg a deeper Olive and make their prodigy Gen 2.

 

[pioneerchick816]

Looking forward to seeing my sweet little Vera's Olive eggs this fall

 

[melbah]

Ok, I have been reading through this thread to get my questions answered, but I am getting a little overwhelmed! I will just ask and keep reading and learning at the same time.

My son sells eggs and raises pullets in the spring to sell. He has decided to work toward producing some Olive Eggers. Yesterday, he purchased 4 Lavender Ameraucana eggs (these might be Lavender/wheaton mixes, the breeder didn't have the breeds separated very long) and 4 Black Copper Maran eggs and put them under a broody hen that he has used before for hatching. He's hoping for at least one rooster out of that hatch. He already has several young Ameraucana hens and Welsummers that lay a decently dark egg.

From reading the thread, it looks like you can get an OE from either a dark egg rooster covering a green egg hen or a green egg rooster covering a dark egg hen. Is that true? He would prefer to keep an Ameraucana rooster to breed Ameraucana hens and olive eggers. He would use the welsummer hens this year to breed OE and plan to bring in BCM next year.

Would that work?

 

[aart]

Ok, I have been reading through this thread to get my questions answered, but I am getting a little overwhelmed! I will just ask and keep reading and learning at the same time.

My son sells eggs and raises pullets in the spring to sell. He has decided to work toward producing some Olive Eggers. Yesterday, he purchased 4 Lavender Ameraucana eggs (these might be Lavender/wheaton mixes, the breeder didn't have the breeds separated very long) and 4 Black Copper Maran eggs and put them under a broody hen that he has used before for hatching. He's hoping for at least one rooster out of that hatch. He already has several young Ameraucana hens and Welsummers that lay a decently dark egg.

From reading the thread, it looks like you can get an OE from either a dark egg rooster covering a green Blue egg hen or a green Blue egg rooster covering a dark egg hen. Is that true? He would prefer to keep an Ameraucana rooster to breed Ameraucana hens and olive eggers. He would use the welsummer hens this year to breed OE and plan to bring in BCM next year.

Would that work?

Welcome to BYC!
It is overwhelming and there's a plethora of misinformation and/or misunderstanding out there.

Make darn sure your Ameraucana are really pure bred...you want blue egg layers.
Lots of Easter Eggers out there sold as Ameraucana.
You can still get OE's out of EE's but not fair to sell chicks as OE,
when EE mostly give a 50% chance of carrying the blue shell gene.

There's few people on this Facebook group that are very well versed in genetics,
I am not one of them haha!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1541575112755530/

 

[melbah]

Well, that's helpful. The Americaunas were supposed to be pure breed lavender or wheaton, but I was surprised to see the eggs were green when we picked them up. So, they aren't pure breed then?

The Americauna hens he has in the flock were bought from a farm store and lay green eggs. I wasn't expecting them to be real Americaunas but I didn't realize it made a difference. Ugh. I looked at the facebook page but it's a closed group.

 

[aart]

Well, that's helpful. The Americaunas were supposed to be pure breed lavender or wheaton, but I was surprised to see the eggs were green when we picked them up. So, they aren't pure breed then?

The Americauna hens he has in the flock were bought from a farm store and lay green eggs. I wasn't expecting them to be real Americaunas but I didn't realize it made a difference. Ugh. I looked at the facebook page but it's a closed group.

If they came from a farm store.....they are most likely Easter Eggers, but were probably labeled as Ameraucana.
Long story about marketing that I don't feel like typing out.
Might find the explanation here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/128806/differences-ee-ameraucana-araucana-pls-post-pics

That group is easy to get in, just ask.

 

[melbah]

The BCM eggs that he bought were not a very dark color. In the pictures on craigslist they were very dark. The breeder said that the eggs were just not as dark this time of year, but get darker. Is that true?

So sad for my son who spend a lot of his money on these eggs. Too bad I didn't check here before we bought them.

 

[hyzenthlay]

It is true that the eggs are darkest at the beginning of the lay cycle, and then get lighter over the season. My Marans' eggs were noticeably a bit darker in February than they are now, but not massively darker--maybe like 1 or 2 shades on the color chart, but not 4 or 5.