When Breeding for Egg Color...

[JesWith3]

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?
Is one way over the other preferable for any reason(s) at all?
Offspring's potential egg color aside, why else might I want to keep one of the mentioned roosters over the other (temperament, noise level, etc.)?
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.
Any and all input appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Slothinc]

This is far out of my area of expertise, so I’ll just leave you with a couple of things to consider. First, 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.

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, 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.

Those would be my considerations, but I’m sorry I don’t have much experience with the breeds - I have only had a few hens of those breeds.

 

[NatJ]

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!

 

[JesWith3]

You all have been MOST helpful and make such great points. I appreciate you so much! Thank you!

 

[Slothinc]

Thank you @NatJ for providing so much more information! You are a gem!

Sorry if part of my answer didn’t make sense, as I was kind of picturing two separate flocks. I didn’t realize that you would be having just one flock all covered by the same male, which is a good way to do it. In that case, decide which breed you would like to be able to offer as purebred, and just keep that breed of rooster Since all 3 breeds of hen will lay a different color egg, you’ll be able to tell easily what to expect from each.

If you’re getting the BCMs as hatching eggs then you may have some idea of how dark they will lay as adults. But if you are getting them as chicks, then you won’t know, and it may be a little riskier to keep a male, not knowing how dark his egg genes potentially could be. Like NatJ mentioned, you can test the ameraucana to ensure he has 2 blue egg genes but for the BCM, it is more complicated. There is some variance in blue egg genes as well, but I don’t feel like it is nearly as pronounced as it is with Marans.

You may also want to keep feather color/pattern in mind too. If you have a FBCM roo, assuming your australorps are black too then you will end up with lots of black chicks, probably with copper leakage. Whereas if you have a different color ameraucana, like splash, then you will end up with a lot of blue chicks. You could get an ermine ameraucana roo and then end up with lots of paint chicks and black chicks which would be fun. You could get cuckoo marans hens and using a solid color male over them would give you sex linked chicks.

If you use a marans roo, then you will have a lot of feather footed chicks, but with an ameraucana you will have clean legs. Just something to think about, if you care about any of that at all. There are lots of fun options to consider!

 

[wrathsfarm]

I'll just suggest keep both....
Ameraucana's and BCMs for pure chicks and loads of fun creating Olives with both roosters.