The Olive-Egger thread!

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

I don't think that was my egg basket you saw. I am not really having a problem breeding, it is just these two girls eggs for some reason. I have had some technical problems with some hatches. But I think it may have been the roo, maybe not... they do develop, jut don't hatch. I feed a pork based feed and some high quality feed with soy AND high protein spent grains cut with a little bit of scratch. They are probably getting 20-22% protein. I have them with new roos... so maybe now. The eggs are so dark and thick I can't see in the eggs.... I need to do eggtopsies.

After a week of lockdown things started getting stanky and I wasn't opening up any eggs! LOL Although I was going to ask you what you fed your birds because of all the development. I'm sure its not the feed!!! Wonder if its the animal proteins that's your key though. I dont think my feed has animal proteins and I do think they need it.

 

[DMRippy]

After a week of lockdown things started getting stanky and I wasn't opening up any eggs! LOL Although I was going to ask you what you fed your birds because of all the development. I'm sure its not the feed!!! Wonder if its the animal proteins that's your key though. I dont think my feed has animal proteins and I do think they need it.

I cracked them open today. We were going to the dump and I remembered they were in the trash. Most had nothing in them 2 had chicks...really wet and had not absorbed the yolks, but well developed chicks with feathers. Only 2 out of 10 eggs. I may try to give them just the feed with animal protein if it continues. These may have been from the other roo.... I am setting some now from the new roos and I think the ones in the bator are from these new roos... we will see. The eggs are really dark and very hard to see in with a flashlight even my 400 lumens light.....

 

[Coopacabana]

So i was wondering abou welsummer/ blue wheaten ameraucana crosses:
a) is the gene for the big, splotchy speckling on welsummer eggs dominant or ressesive and is it sexlinked?
b) is there anything to the claim egg color is inherited via the rooster?
c) is it better to use the welsummer roo or the hen for olive eggs or does it make a difference?
d) is it better to use the welsummer roo or the hen for increased egg production in the offspring?

My idea is speckled olive eggers with a good production rate, as you may have guessed. I'd also like to see what blue BBR looks like...

 

[DMRippy]

Lavender Eggies..... Lookie here...... https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ssion-pictures-are-welcome/32210#post_8611483

 

[dfdesigns]

This may be a long post, and I'm not sure if I'm posting it in the right place. (It probably should be in the Marans thread, but I don't want to get yelled at for *purposely* creating crossbreds!

I recently had a friend incubate some eggs for me, and I had 5 of 12 hatch. I had two true Ameraucana roosters, full brothers, one black and one blue. I crossed them with a variety of hens hoping for some OEs. Two of those hens were a French Black Copper Marans (with feathered legs) and a Cuckoo Marans (with clean legs). I asked my friend to segregate the Cuckoo's eggs as they'd be sexable at hatch.

According to my friend, all three of the Cuckoo's eggs hatched, 2 pullets and a cockerel with an obvious head spot. One of the FBC Marans hatched, as well as an EE/Am mix. My friend banded them with different colors as they hatched. She kept them for a few days for me, and I didn't take custody until they were a few days old.

As I was looking at the babies, I noticed that 2 of the 3 banded Cuckoo babies had sparse leg feathering, including the head spot boy. I asked my friend if she was very sure about the eggs that hatched/what chicks got banded, and she thought she was. I just assumed things happened quickly, and that the leg feathering babies had to be from the FBCM hen.

The chicks are now almost 3 weeks old, and that little head spot cockerel is developing definite barring - he has to be out of my Cuckoo hen. I am so confused though, as he also has leg feathering. At long last, here's my question:

Can my Cuckoo Marans be hiding a leg feathering gene?
If so, I feel really badly for even questioning my friend's ability to keep chicks separate...

 

[DMRippy]

This may be a long post, and I'm not sure if I'm posting it in the right place. (It probably should be in the Marans thread, but I don't want to get yelled at for *purposely* creating crossbreds!

I recently had a friend incubate some eggs for me, and I had 5 of 12 hatch. I had two true Ameraucana roosters, full brothers, one black and one blue. I crossed them with a variety of hens hoping for some OEs. Two of those hens were a French Black Copper Marans (with feathered legs) and a Cuckoo Marans (with clean legs). I asked my friend to segregate the Cuckoo's eggs as they'd be sexable at hatch.

According to my friend, all three of the Cuckoo's eggs hatched, 2 pullets and a cockerel with an obvious head spot. One of the FBC Marans hatched, as well as an EE/Am mix. My friend banded them with different colors as they hatched. She kept them for a few days for me, and I didn't take custody until they were a few days old.

As I was looking at the babies, I noticed that 2 of the 3 banded Cuckoo babies had sparse leg feathering, including the head spot boy. I asked my friend if she was very sure about the eggs that hatched/what chicks got banded, and she thought she was. I just assumed things happened quickly, and that the leg feathering babies had to be from the FBCM hen.

The chicks are now almost 3 weeks old, and that little head spot cockerel is developing definite barring - he has to be out of my Cuckoo hen. I am so confused though, as he also has leg feathering. At long last, here's my question:

Can my Cuckoo Marans be hiding a leg feathering gene?
If so, I feel really badly for even questioning my friend's ability to keep chicks separate...

She probably carries it and didn't express it but her babies did. Just like you can get clean legs from 2 parents with feathered legs. I just hatched some that only have feathers on the outer toe and at the ankle... they will look funny...

 

[mayberrygirl]

I am trying to get a couple olive eggers, my roo is an EE and the hens are NNs. Will this work?

 

[jeremy]

I am trying to get a couple olive eggers, my roo is an EE and the hens are NNs. Will this work?

Does NN stand for Naked Necks? If so no.

You need a green/blue egg laying bird crossed with a dark egg laying bird.

Crossing your EE roo to Marans, Penedesenca or Welsummers are your best bet for OEs.

 

[mayberrygirl]

Hmmm, cause one of my NNs (naked neck) lays tinted (so I figured no on her), but the other lays brown (can barely see in the egg using my candler). I am hoping for the Speckled Sussex/Welsummer cross (please be a girl) I have in the bator to give me a somewhat dark egg to cross with in the future.

 

[mstricer]

Here are my 1st and 2nd Generation Olive Eggs from Wynette. Hatch date Easter Sunday. Can not wait. I also have a BCM roo that I hatch from her also, wasn't going to keep him but I changed my mind, I will leave him with my EE's since he came from a nice dark egg. I have a white EE in the mix and I wonder what her chicks with the roo will look like. Has anyone hatch some from that mix?