unknown breed- labeled as olive egger

[circuscash]

so the other day i picked up a new baby chicken that was said to be 4 weeks old and an olive egger. I have no interest in chickens for any reason other than as pets, so i didn’t worry whether they were being truthful or not about the breed, but now i’m getting pretty curious! they said it was “an olive egger backcrossed with a copper maran rooster” but i didn’t get any other information regarding the mom besides a photo, after seeing her though i don’t think the baby the parents would make would end up an olive egger, but it’s also hard to determine what breed the mother is. It was also mentioned that the chick is a female due to the lack of a white spot on its head which is a way to tell the gender in certain breeds, but once again i’m not sure if the chick is actually one of the breeds with that trait or not haha! below are some pics of them all:
if you’re able to determine the breed of the baby or even just the mother id love to know!

 

[Iluveggers]

The mom could be an olive Egger (there are some that are barred). Dad definitely looks like a BCM. You should get a dark dark green if they are being truthful about the mom.

 

[circuscash]

The mom could be an olive Egger (there are some that are barred). Dad definitely looks like a BCM. You should get a dark dark green if they are being truthful about the mom.

yeah i’ve just heard it’s pretty uncommon for mixed barred chickens to keep the barring so it was kinda surprising to see the mom looking like a pure bared if she really is an olive egger!

 

[Iluveggers]

yeah i’ve just heard it’s pretty uncommon for mixed barred chickens to keep the barring so it was kinda surprising to see the mom looking like a pure bared if she really is an olive egger!

Most likely a cuckoo Marans cross. Does she have a very small crest? Hard to tell with the front facing pic.

 

[circuscash]

Most likely a cuckoo Marans cross. Does she have a very small crest? Hard to tell with the front facing pic.

yeah, hardly any crest haha

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Olive Egger bred back to a dark brown egg layer breed (Marans or Welsummer usually) will give you an F2 OE. This will give you a pullet that has a 50/50 chance of laying a darker Olive green egg or a dark brown egg.

 

[Iluveggers]

yeah, hardly any crest haha

Probably crossed with legbar then. Cuckoo/Legbar, which would almost guarantee barring it would seem.

 

[circuscash]

Olive Egger bred back to a dark brown egg layer breed (Marans or Welsummer usually) will give you an F2 OE. This will give you a pullet that has a 50/50 chance of laying a darker Olive green egg or a dark brown egg.

gotcha! so you think the mom is a barred olive egger then? (if the breeder was being truthful haha)

 

[All4Eggz]

Yes, the father looks like a BCM and the mother does look like an Olive Egger.

The baby is a cross between the 2.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I believe she is an OE cross. They are simply cross breeds following some pretty basic rules.

Mom is not a Cream Legbar, however she could be a legbar cross. Legbars carry the blue gene. (Purebred would have 2 blue genes). Mom is barred, so my guess is she is a Cream Legbar and Cuckoo Marans cross. If she is the first generation result, she would have 1 blue gene (which is dominant for blue shell) with the darker brown genes to make her an olive egger.

If she is then bred back to a Black Copper Marans, then yes, their babies would be sex linked. The boys would be black based with a white head dot to become black barred roosters. The females would be black based likely with gold coming in at the hackles.

But she won't necessarily be an olive egger. Remember her mother had 1 blue gene only (assuming the first generation cross of CL to CM). Her mom will pass that blue gene 50% of the time to the offspring. So your chick could have a blue gene and be an olive egger (as she also has dark brown genes) or will simply be a dark brown layer.

It's a trick of olive egg breeders to take your blue gene daughters and breed back to the brown line to keep the brown wash as it takes 13 genes to keep that....brown wash breeds out quickly. However, if the breeder was smart, she secured the blue line first breeding the first generation daughters back to the Cream Legbar until she had 2 blue genes in all the offspring. Then you can breed back that line to the dark brown rooster to keep producing olive eggers.

It's a fascinating project that takes a lot of time and effort.

Either way your chick is a win as I enjoy my olive eggers and I enjoy my dark brown layers.