The Olive-Egger thread!

[speckledhen]

Maisie is gorgeous!!! I agree, so happy to be away from that pesky SOP for awhile! These are just beautiful birds, aren't they?

 

[newlyweds]

Thanks ladies, and to think I wasn't going to keep her because she lays brown eggs, so love her now. Sammy is super cute. I love good broodies!!

 

[BuffyGRL]

Well I have finally joined this thread, My Olive Egg Layer Eggs are on their way tomorrow and I cannot wait.

The bird produced from these matings are great. Its a whole new dual purpose project its own.
I love how you can create a new color if you want and you have something unique that gives beautiful eggs
and Those Olive eggs are just awesome.

I cannot wait to see what hatches

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

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Hope you have a wonderful hatch!

=

Gosh, I don't even KNOW how many OE's I have running around the yard?

I can't wait to make my own, I'm thinking about crossing my my FBCM's ( if they hatch, they're still in the incuabator) with either my LF White or Lavender Ameraucanas.

But...we'll see. I hatched from OE's from Happy Chooks and I ended up with a few blues and a Splash cockerel! I named him Columbus b/c he is always off exploring Everything!

~ Aspen

 

[alicefelldown]

Sooo happy to be sending some your way! Please do let me know how your hatch goes!!!

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[BuffyGRL]

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I will

, its fun because the excitement brews from the minute you purchase eggs right up until they start laying and then some. Can you say chicken addict? LOL

 

[ezekielSM]

I dunno what color Chai's eggs will be. She's an Easter Egger, but looked like a silver Americauna when she was a chickie.

I'd love to breed her but she's got a NASTY attitude against newcoming hens. She's very dominant! Her colors are gorgeous though, lavender with the reddish mottling. I'd love to help her make chicks which are lavender/whatever her base color can be called, with penciling of orange...

Here's my Eeeeeaaaaaaaaaster Egger brat! I love her.

 

[Celtic Hill]

So these *should* be olive eggers!!!! They are EEs crossed with a barred rock. They are foundation stock for a project im working on!

 

[livin-green]

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I'm kinda new to chicken genetics, but I don't think you will be getting olive eggs from that combination. Even with EEs laying a good blue or green color, the Barred Rocks are just plain brown eggs. So, you will probably get basic green eggs (you could also get just brown because an EE is a mix and does not carry 2 blue egg genes--it may pass the brown egg gene, giving 2 brown egg genes to the offspring).

Sorry to say, I'm doubtful that this combination will produce the dark "olive" green because you will need to cross them with a dark brown egg layer--like a Marans, Welsummer or Penedesenca. A chicken with a blue egg gene and a dark brown egg gene will produce the dark green olive color.

However, I could always be wrong--anybody else want to chime in here?

 

[alicefelldown]

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Absolutely correct! EE's are tricky in that they can produce brown laying offspring!

One way to think of the 'olive recipe' is that egg shells (calcium carbonite) can only be white or 'stained' blue. Brown eggs are 'painted' over the base (blue or white) right before laying (this is why brown eggs are more sticky and can be smuged when wet).

It takes dark brown 'paint' + a decent blue to make a true olive. The fun is in mixing all the available shades of brown and blue for variety. The EE/Barred Rock mix should lay something 'greenish' but it won't be a nice dark olive.