The Olive-Egger thread!

[protodon]

Quote:
Okay, now I'm confused again. If they are homozygous for the blue egg gene, then they won't be olive eggers, right?

Olive eggs are the result of blue eggs and dark brown eggs, all expressed at the same time.

People refer to the "blue" egg gene because without the interference of any other genes, the eggs are indeed blue. But blue eggs in the presence of brown egg genes gives you the appearance of green eggs, and blue when combined with the dark brown coatings of Marans and Welsummers, gives the appearance of olive eggs.

There is no green egg gene, or olive egg gene, just combinations of the blue egg gene with various brown egg genes.

Okay so really what you need to make an olive egger is a bird homozygous for blue egg genes + dark brown shellack from marans or welsummers. You really don't need the brown egg gene at all...

 

[onthespot]

The shellac IS the brown egg gene, in one sense or another, Blue plus Brown makes Green. The more brown, the darker the green. Olive eggers don't care if it is brown pigment that goes through the egg, or just on the outside like the marans. Olive is olive if it looks olive in my book, LOL. There are several ways to get there, not just one way to make an olive egger.

 

[protodon]

Quote:
I understand what makes an olive egg, I just don't understand how a bird can be homozygous for the blue egg gene and still be an olive egger.

 

[onthespot]

homozgous for blue egg just means the blue coat is guaranteed to go on every egg, under whatever color else is laid. If the bird carries brown egg genes too, the egg will be olive and EVERY SINGLE CHICK that hatches from that bird WILL carry the blue egg gene. If the bird is heterozygous, or carries only one blue gene instead of two, then their eggs will still be blue or green, depending on what brown egg genes they also carry, but HALF of their chicks, if bred to a non-blue egg gened bird, will only lay some color of white, tinted, tan, beige, brown, chocolate egg, depending on what their brown egg gene situation is.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
I understand what makes an olive egg, I just don't understand how a bird can be homozygous for the blue egg gene and still be an olive egger.

If its still clear as mud to you , hear is how I picture it in my mind :
At one point in the long line of genetic information the chicken carries is a place that decides what color the shell will be as its being made . At that point it can be two copies for blue [ homozygous ] , or two copies for white [ homozygous ] , or one of each [ heterozygous ] . Farther down the line of genetic information is a place for information as to the amount of paint [ if any ] and shade of tint to paint over the surface of that egg [ which is already either white or blue ] . Hope that helps .

 

[evonne]

so the olive egg is really kind of like the breeding of sexlinks?? you're really better to just keep going with your pure bases to breed??
you can't get sexlinks out of a sexlink kind of thing?? you CAN get olive eggers out of an olive egg, but it is less predictable??

the base for my olive egger project is 4 EE's and some cuckoo marans

1 ee lays a very blue egg
3 ee's lay green 1 is already a light olive, 2 are less olive and more green

not sure how dark my cuckoo's are becasue they're hatchery day olds...

my next generation out of this pen will lay olive eggs

the generation after that is iffy??

 

[Cats Critters]

Here is my confirmed olive-egger, a BA/EE cross (this picture was taken at 9wks, she was hatched May 4th)

edited to add:
Her egg is the center one:

 

[SteveH]

" so the olive egg is really kind of like the breeding of sexlinks?? you're really better to just keep going with your pure bases to breed?? "

Not necessarily . To get a consistant olive color out of 100% of the pullets you would have to cross the original generation of olive eggers with each other , then determine by test breeding both sexes of the next generation to non-blue gened chickens to find the homozygous blue [ or green/olive if you prefer ] . Saving only those that are homozygous for blue , further culling all of the lighter olive egg layers that are homozygous for blue over several generations would then be necessary .

 

[mstricer]

My EE girls just started laying. I have young FBCM cockerel that I wanted to breed with them to make my olive eggers. Now the question if my roo is feather legged will his offspring also be featherlegged? Or should I breed with my BM or Blue Cooper Marans which are clean legged? Here is what 4 out my eight are laying.

 

[evonne]

there's no standards for olive egger birds, so i think it's personal preference on that one... but from what i understand the feathered leg is dominant so your chicks would have them..