The Olive-Egger thread!

[sgtmom52]

Two of my 6 OEs are now laying. They were hatched on 4/28/10. I have been getting small to medium size pullet eggs for the past 2 weeks but today I got a Jumbo one. It does have some blood on the shell so I'm sure one of the girls is a bit sore today.

I know this blue OE is laying...

I just have to figure out which one of the 5 black girls is now laying too...

My Olive Eggers are Cuckoo Marans hens covered by an Ameraucana Roo. Their eggs aren't the darkest olive ~ but I like them anyway. I may still get darker olive eggs as I still have 3 more to start laying. Not to mention the 3 Ameraucanas that I'm still waiting on.

 

[LaSombra]

Quote:
what a great pic! beautiful

 

[Illia]

Here's a couple of my first Olive Eggers. . .

This here is a gold duckwing Araucana x Black Copper Marans. It sadly passed too much tail gene and no tufted genes though, but should grow to have a lot of color.

This here is a "lemon blue" Araucana x Wheaten Marans. It did indeed get both rumpless-ness and a tuft! One tuft, haha. . .

Neither of them got feathered shanks though.

So with my next batch, I'm pairing up my fuzziest legged Marans out there!

Expecting olive eggs at the beginning of next year.

 

[coq au vin]

Have any of you given any thought to setting a goal of a certain phenotype for your Olive Eggers to breed true?

I'm thinking of something gamebirdy, like this Olive Egger cockerel, but way more so...

Maybe introduce some Sumatra?

 

[ihvpower]

Quote:
Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Newyorkrita]

My olive eggers have nice feathered legs and feet like the BCM daddy. I guess the dea of setting type on the olive eggers is that not everyone will be looking for the same idea of what type they should look like.

 

[ihvpower]

Daddy is a FBCM Momma could be an EE, or an Americauna or another! White Silkie is an amazing surrogate...

 

[coq au vin]

Quote:
Exactly. That's what's so cool about it. I'm thinking I want mine to look wild and junglebirdy, maybe even with a crest.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

I think whenever you start breeding to a type, eggs suffer. Either production value or egg color. It's hard to keep perfect color and type in Marans and still get the darkest eggs. I personally want dark olive eggs, and lots of 'em.

I think since there are so many ways to make Olive Eggers, there's no reason to standardize them. They are mutts. My favorite mutts, but mutts.

Ideally, I want to have a pure breeding line that won't need to be crossed back to Marans, but that will require starting with the darkest olive eggs possible. Just for my own use, I like wheatens, since they can be sexed at an early age.

I also think it's a fun project for individuals to decide on their own personal standard and breed towards that. The eggs will always make them desirable even if they aren't show birds.

 

[ihvpower]

Quote:
I like the dark too