The Olive-Egger thread!

[livin-green]

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You won't get blue wheaten, but you'll get some blues and blacks that might have red leakage and appear blue/black-coppery.

Right, it would take multiple generations of breeding the Blue offspring back to a pure Wheaten bird in order to fully establish the color pattern and have it breed true.

Thanks, guys! So, I'm not good with what colors are involved with Wheaten, but I'm understanding that the Blue/Black would be dominant over the Wheaten colors for the basic body feathering, right? Any red leakage would appear coopery in the hackles and also probably in the saddle feathers of a roo..?? The red leakage wouldn't show up as lacing would it? That's probably a whole other can of worms...Somebody hurry up with that chicken genetics for dummies book! LOL!

 

[jeremy]

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Right, it would take multiple generations of breeding the Blue offspring back to a pure Wheaten bird in order to fully establish the color pattern and have it breed true.

Thanks, guys! So, I'm not good with what colors are involved with Wheaten, but I'm understanding that the Blue/Black would be dominant over the Wheaten colors for the basic body feathering, right? Any red leakage would appear coopery in the hackles and also probably in the saddle feathers of a roo..?? The red leakage wouldn't show up as lacing would it? That's probably a whole other can of worms...Somebody hurry up with that chicken genetics for dummies book! LOL!

You've got it right. The leakage wouldn't appear as lacing, more like splotches throughout the hackles and saddles.

 

[buckabucka]

I liked this (for learning a little about genetics): http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

 

[livin-green]

Cool...thanks again! I'm liking those possibilities. I was expecting more of the copper (red leakage) from my Splash Ameraucana roo over FBC Marans hens, but the OE pullet looks just like my blue Ameraucana hens, with the exception of some very slight leg feathering.

I like the look of abellchicken's Fluffy & Puffy

That's more what I'm going for than what I ended up with. My two splash roos (Cree line) produce some super dark blues...I really thought they were blacks until I started calculating the impossibility of that color coming from both my Ameraucana & OE combinations! Plus, my splash roos have a lot of gold leakage, so I guess that is dominant over the red (copper) of the Marans (??) because my OE roos have gold in their hackles--no copper coloring at all on roos or pullet.

I think I'm about to play a big game of musical roosters to see if I can get a better combination!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

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That's a lot of progress for two years! Again, they are unique, beautiful birds, and the olive eggs are a bonus. Thank you for sharing your process.

 

[ChestnutRidge]

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Excellent link! Thanks for sharing.

 

[ruth]

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That's a lot of progress for two years! Again, they are unique, beautiful birds, and the olive eggs are a bonus. Thank you for sharing your process.

It is. Here's a link to page 10 where I posted my first olive eggs and the young pullets that laid them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=131131&p=10

On page 11, though it was just a few days later, the eggs were already getting much darker - plus I started getting my famous "pink & grey" eggs and I posted a picture.

Most of my "girls" start laying before 5 months old (usually 4 months - 4 1/2). I think it's because they freerange till I put them in breeder pens. I freerange all my chicks starting around 2 weeks old. I just turn them loose to run the farm with everyone else and it seems to cause them to mature faster. I have a whole thread called "Journey Through a Different Way" where I documented how I raise chicks without brooders or lights.

Anyway, in looking back I got my first dark olive eggs in August 2009. I had hatched those birds earlier in the year from light blue eggs laid by my Ameraucana-mix that lived with my BCMs. I've been putting the olive egg laying blue hens back into the pen and hatching their eggs ever since so now I have at least 5 generations of them.

 

[crazy4eggsJulie]

Okay all y'all Olive Egger Experts, I need help!

We have hatched black copper marans for awhile now and I decided it would be fun to try for some olive eggers. I separated the black copper marans eggs from the olive egger eggs (the cross of my BC Marans roo and an Ameraucana hen) with a divider in the incubator but the chicks managed to cross over it and mix. Now, they're a few weeks old and I'm having trouble telling who is who.

I THOUGHT some indicators were:
the black copper Marans had black legs with yellow feet and the olive eggers had mainly black legs AND feet

the black copper marans had yellowing around the eye and the olive eggers had a solid black eye area

But now, after seeing some of you guys' pics, it appears that your olive eggers look just like my black copper marans!

Is there ANY way to tell them apart at a couple of weeks or am I just going to have to wait it out?

Also, the ones that I *THINK* are olive eggers are already showing lots of copper in the wings. In my black copper marans, this indicates that they are male. Since these are our first olive eggers, I was wondering if it's the same? Does the copper mean they are male or do the females show it as well?

Thanks!

 

[Goose and Fig]

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[Lotsapaints]

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I've read from some other breeders that if the stock had not been banded they never would be able to tell who was mixed so I would just figure them to be your Olive Egger stock and not try to breed pure FBCM's from them.