The Olive-Egger thread!

[mamabigbird]

I have an EE hen that is laying olive eggs. My other two EE hens lay blue.
I'll post pics and maybe someone can tell me if I have a true "Olive Egger"

Halo and Weenie before they started to lay.
The whitish one lays the olive egg.

 

[mikeypalone]

that sure looks olive to me but I don't have any of those to lay yet so I can't compare to mine.I would call it olive

 

[DMRippy]

I would not cull just because of combs. That is me.... I would wait and see what they lay first. I have heard too many stories of people with straight combs and blue eggs.... I have two pullets now that I can't wait to see what they lay. Both have straight combs and were the product of a Lavender Am Roo so we will see.

 

[DMRippy]

The olive egg.... it is pretty and looks like a light olive. I would breed that one to a dark egg layer to improve the darkness of that olive.

 

[livin-green]

Okay...getting complicated here with a genetics question. I bred a pure Ameraucana roo to Marans hens. I got an OE rooster that I then put in with my mixed laying flock. For fun, I hatched a couple eggs from one of my Leghorn hens with that OE roo...I ended up with 2 hens. One lays a very light brown egg (probably what people/hatcheries call a "tinted" egg), but the other, which I assumed would lay some sort of light brown or light blue, laid her first egg today. Um, it was greenish olive?!?! Can anyone explain how this could be possible??

Isn't both brown & blue dominant to white? And shouldn't the OE/Leghorn cross produce offspring with 50% brown/white & 50% blue/white egg genes?? I am SO confused.

Here's a photo of her:

 

[Illia]

White basically just pales out whatever you cross it to. I believe the genes that make an egg white are completely separate from all other color genes, so, whatever you breed it to, you get a pale version without ruining the actual original egg color. It's why I use it to out-cross good blue layers with. I don't know how it works, but somehow, when you cross even a green x white, you just get light green instead of light blue, light brown, and light green.

Her egg color may change now and then though. I sold an F1 Olive Egger to relative who lives far off, and she's getting an awesome array from one hen. Anywhere from an almost white tinted green to a deep forest green, and sometimes a slight golden-hue to them too.

Answering the previous question -

Technically if you get an EE from a feedstore, hatchery, whatever source that sells normal run of the mill Easter Eggers, and it lays a green egg, that's basically it. It isn't an actual "olive egger." But you can make Olive Eggers from it, darken its egg, by crossing it to a dark layer such as a Marans.

 

[livin-green]

Okay, I found an awesome article about egg color genes, but...

...it's complicated!! Here's is the best I can condense it for my case.
There are only two egg colors: white (o+) or blue (O). A separate allele determines if the egg will be brown + there are inhibitors that can mask any brown egg allele, as well as modifiers to determine the shade of brown.
My pure Ameraucana should carry O/O (two blue egg genes with no brown egg inhibitor--otherwise you'd still only get blue eggs) and my Marans should carry o+/o+ (technically a white egg) and are homozygous for dominant brown egg allele + brown egg modifiers (which is what makes them especially dark). The resulting OE should be O/o+ (making it a blue egg) and heterozygous for dominant brown egg alleles + brown egg modifiers, which results in olive eggs.

Now, my OE crossed to my Leghorns gets a little more complicated because basically it would produce 50% O/o+ (blue) & 50% o+/o+ (technically white), but you have to factor in the chance of the dominant brown egg alleles and any brown egg modifiers passing from the heterozygous OE, giving you this:
1) O/o+ would also have a 50% chance of getting the dominant brown egg allele which would make the eggs green and the shade of green would also depend on the 50% chance of getting the brown egg modifier to make it darker.
2) o+/o+ would have the same 50% chance to produce brown eggs and again the 50% chance of getting the brown egg modifier to determine the shade of brown

So, this is how I got one OE/Leghorn hen laying a very light brown egg (she must be an o+/o+ with brown egg allele & not brown egg modifer) and one OE/Leghorn hen laying a light olive green egg (she must be an O/o+ with a brown egg allele & most likely the brown egg modifier). Wow! Now I just know you all understand that perfectly, right?

If there's someone that is better at the genetics than someone who just read a couple articles tonight (me), I would love to hear from you...Does this all sound right??

BTW, here's the link to the article: http://marans.org/eggreview.pdf

 

[kathyinmo]

BTW, here's the link to the article: http://marans.org/eggreview.pdf

The author of that article is a BYC member. Tadkerson

 

[DMRippy]

Okay, I found an awesome article about egg color genes, but...

...it's complicated!! Here's is the best I can condense it for my case.
There are only two egg colors: white (o+) or blue (O). A separate allele determines if the egg will be brown + there are inhibitors that can mask any brown egg allele, as well as modifiers to determine the shade of brown.
My pure Ameraucana should carry O/O (two blue egg genes with no brown egg inhibitor--otherwise you'd still only get blue eggs) and my Marans should carry o+/o+ (technically a white egg) and are homozygous for dominant brown egg allele + brown egg modifiers (which is what makes them especially dark). The resulting OE should be O/o+ (making it a blue egg) and heterozygous for dominant brown egg alleles + brown egg modifiers, which results in olive eggs.

Now, my OE crossed to my Leghorns gets a little more complicated because basically it would produce 50% O/o+ (blue) & 50% o+/o+ (technically white), but you have to factor in the chance of the dominant brown egg alleles and any brown egg modifiers passing from the heterozygous OE, giving you this:
1) O/o+ would also have a 50% chance of getting the dominant brown egg allele which would make the eggs green and the shade of green would also depend on the 50% chance of getting the brown egg modifier to make it darker.
2) o+/o+ would have the same 50% chance to produce brown eggs and again the 50% chance of getting the brown egg modifier to determine the shade of brown

So, this is how I got one OE/Leghorn hen laying a very light brown egg (she must be an o+/o+ with brown egg allele & not brown egg modifer) and one OE/Leghorn hen laying a light olive green egg (she must be an O/o+ with a brown egg allele & most likely the brown egg modifier). Wow! Now I just know you all understand that perfectly, right?

If there's someone that is better at the genetics than someone who just read a couple articles tonight (me), I would love to hear from you...Does this all sound right??

BTW, here's the link to the article: http://marans.org/eggreview.pdf

Thanks for posting that!

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

So I kept this boy after all.. They're 31 weeks old. He's so handsome but is a little over-protective of his girls. I dont like the way he looks at me though! lol

One of the girls.

Then there is this girl, I know she has a single comb and is 1/4 cochin 3/4 olive egger and her egg is a light brown (borderline pink some days) but look at that sweet face! A favorite for sure!