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No poll has been taken, but that's an interesting idea. Welsummers and Marans are the most commonly used dark egger because they're the most commonly available. Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers are more common to use than Araucanas for the same reason. As for roo vs hen, no, there's no "better" pairing.
In my experience from other people's breedings, a Welsummer creates a lighter olive, often with slight speckling. A Marans, depending on the quality of the bird, will create anything from a pale olive to a very dark, rich olive. Black Copper Marans are the best to use for a good rich color. Cuckoo Marans just make a pale greenish gray color.
I'm probably one out of, ooh, two or three people total who use Araucanas for Olive Eggers. My reasons are that I want a
different Olive Egger - One with different plumage coloring, no tail, and tufts. Also, Araucanas lay rounder eggs than Marans, and most of mine carry a thick blume over their egg, which will result in a very different type of Olive Egg in the offspring. It will be darker because of its roundness and probably carry on the heavy blume trait, which means the single combed flukes will lay a purple tinted egg, and the true olive layers will lay a royal blue tinted egg.
There's no good or bad Olive color, really, it is all in the eye of the beholder. And the best fun of it is that there are so many combinations you can do. . . Then, in the second generation, it gets even crazier - Especially if you cross back to a dark brown egger, you'll make your olive a darker shade. If you cross to another Olive Egger of completely different breeding, you could possibly get what Wynette has, and what I call "Golden Eggers"
