When Breeding to produce Olive Eggers, does it matter which is the rooster and which is the hen? For instance, if I have a FBCM rooster and an Ameraucana hen, would the eggs be a deeper green than if I bred an Ameraucana rooster to FBCM hen or does this have nothing to do with it?
It might make a difference. If a difference does exist, pullets with a Marans father would lay darker eggs (more brown on the outside) than pullets with an Ameraucana father.
There are many genes that determine how much brown is on the outside of the eggshell. One of them is known to be sex-linked, so a pullet inherits it only from her father but not from her mother. The Marans must have the darker-brown form of that gene. The Ameraucanas might have the lighter/white form of that gene, or they might not, which is why I'm not sure if it will actually make a difference or not.
I'll be bringing some FBCMs into my flock of Ameraucanas and Australorps and I'm wondering if it's at all beneficial to pick one of the Marans as my flock's rooster as opposed to one of the Ameraucana.
Egg color predictions for all the crosses you might make:
If you have Ameraucana, Australorp, and Marans hens with the Ameraucana rooster,
blue eggs (Ameraucana) will hatch pure Ameraucana chicks
brown eggs (Australorp) will hatch Easter Eggers that lay green
dark brown eggs (Marans) will hatch Olive Eggers that lay dark green
If you have Ameraucana, Australorp, and Marans hens with the Marans rooster,
blue eggs (Ameraucana) will hatch olive eggers that lay dark green
brown eggs (Australorp) will hatch brown-eggers, probably laying a medium shade of brown
dark brown eggs (Marans) will hatch pure Marans
If you want to hatch more chicks that have the blue egg gene, pick the Ameraucana rooster (but consider doing a genetic test just to be sure he has two copies of the blue egg gene: he should, but that doesn't always happen.)
depending on your climate - especially in cold months - roos with large comb and wattles are more likely to get frostbite. For that reason, I personally would choose the ameraucana rooster. However if your temps don’t get cold in the winter this will not matter so you can disregard.
Very good point.
One other benefit to having the ameraucana rooster is that you can see how dark brown your hens lay. There seems to be huge variation in egg color for marans, so it may be helpful for you to be able to see it when the hens lay and know which hens are giving darker eggs, etc.
Also a very good point. A Marans hen will show you how dark her eggs are. With a Marans rooster, you have to wait to see what color his daughters lay, and use that to guess what genes he has for dark or less-dark eggs.
Also, if you are planning to do purebred of one of the types but not the other, then keep a rooster of the same type as your purebred flock, and hens of the opposite breed. That way you can tell which eggs are purebred and which are olive eggers just based on sight.
I definitely agree about that!
Since all 3 breeds of hen will lay a different color egg, you’ll be able to tell easily what to expect from each.
