The Olive-Egger thread!

[peachychick]

I have spare black copper, blue copper, and wheaten marans all from dark egglaying mamas. Would any one be a better cross over amerucana hens to get the best green eggs? and does it do the same thing genetically when you cross the blue egg roo over the dark egg hens?
OUr hens are partridge, blue wheaten, buff, and chocolate.

Vanda is a beauty queen, btw.

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

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I was wondering the same thing as I put a blue roo over my bard rocks to see if I get green... if it works, I want to darken her up with a wellsummer.

 

[Wynette]

Peachy and Lovin' - you both have the right idea. I personally look more at the parent stock to choose who I use, because I know the olive color will be nice & dark with the lines I have. I absolutely love blue - if it was me, peachy, I'd use the blue copper or wheaten marans over the blue wheaten or buff hens. That's just me, though!

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

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I will share the compliments with Vanda.

I would use your wheaten roo. It seems like all of us have blues, black or barred olive eggers. I like the idea of the more golden or brown ones.

Particularly on your blue wheaten hen. Then you can sex by feather color as well! Really all of your hens with the wheaten roo would be great. I'll take a dozen of those eggs!

 

[peachychick]

P-Phlock, forgive my ignorance, but how will I be able to sex by feather color? I've tried the feather tips examination at 3-5 days with limited success. Usually I can tell the difference when they begin crowing

. Hence, we have a bachelor pad of 12 right now. But this olive egging project is great news for the boys! We'll get to keep at least two more a slick legged wheat and blue copper and both came from very dark eggs.
And we have this funky cochin (?) that lays a blue coated egg. She was an extra from a hatchery order. But she doesn't have cochin shape or feet. She looks a lot like an amerucana. We're going to enter into the olive egg project pen.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Oops. posted twice... Next post has correct link.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

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You probably wouldn't be able to tell at hatch, but by week 3 or 4 male wheatens should start to get their dark breast feathers, and the females the lighter. Here's a link to a site that shows male and female wheatens in several breeds.

http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickenscolours/wheaten.htm

Post some pics of your "cochin" over on the 'what breed is this' section, and I'm sure someone will be able to narrow it down for you. Sounds like it might be an EE. Probably not an Ameraucana, if you bought it as a cochin. Pure Ameraucana people wouldn't make that mistake, but a hatchery might.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Here are two of my sex-linked olive eggers from Cottagegarden. They are a Blue Ameraucana Roo over a Cuckoo Marans hen (right?)

I'm pretty sure these are boys, as there is a bit of a head spot on each of them. When they start to get some real feathers I should see the barring that you would expect on the boys, as opposed to the solid color girls.

I have another chick from the same hatch that looks quite similar, but is and Olive Egger roo over a BCM hen, I think. It seems to have the pea comb, so likely has the blue (green) egg gene as well. Time will tell on that one.

Sorry the pic is bad. My "real" camera is busted, so phone photos only for a while.

 

[livin-green]

I am so excited to start my olive-egger project! I think I've asked on here before, but I want to ask one more time. This is what I want to do--a splash Ameraucana roo over Black Copper Marans hens. Any tips on how those chicks will turn out? I haven't studied up on all the dominant gene stuff, so I was curious what would carry over & if there would be any sex-linking...?? I've looked at the black/blue genetics and understand that a splash to a black = 100% blue. Does this work in this case? And any ideas on how the copper part will play into it? Could that give you something like a blue wheaten???

Also, am I right that the genes that will produce olive eggs will only be for the initial offspring? Can you breed an olive-egger hen or roo to something that will produce more olive-eggers? What about an olive-egger to an olive-egger?

Thanks so much guys!
Briana
Clay, AL

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

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There will be no sex-linkage in this cross. You would expect all blue offspring, probably with some degree of copper in the hackles. The would probably look something like Blue Copper Marans in their color, with maybe less to very little copper. The beards, muffs, and pea combs from the Ameraucana will probably be dominant, assuming your Ameraucana is pure for all of these traits.

I think the following information is all on this thread already, but here it is again.

There are a few people experimenting with F2 olive eggers, which can work.

The convenient part of breeding a pure Ameraucana, which theoretically carries 2 copies of the blue egg gene, is that ALL of it's offspring with a Marans will give you olive eggers. The offspring would have 1 copy of the blue egg gene each, which is all you need to make olive eggs.

When bred together, 2 olive eggers will give you 25% with 2 copies of the blue egg gene, 50% with 1 copy of the blue egg gene, and 25% with 0 copies of the blue egg gene. In other words, 75% of the second generation should have at least 1 copy of the blue egg gene, and thus be able to lay an Olive egg, if the dark brown genes are still present.

The part that isn't as easy is what happens to the brown genes in the second generation. There are dozens of brown egg genes, so they can combine in all sorts of ways. Some darker, and some lighter than their parents.

The handy part about the pea combs in Ameraucanas is that they are almost always inherited along with the blue egg gene, so you can often tell by looking at the comb that a bird does or doesn't have the blue egg gene. It's easier than waiting 6-8 months.

Some folks cross their olive eggers back to Marans to keep the eggs dark. Once again, selecting the chicks with pea combs is the best way to narrow down the blue egg gene carriers. Only half of the offspring of an olive egger x Marans cross would give you olive eggers.

Take pictures, and keep us posted on your progress!