Backcrossed Olive Egger (BC1/BC2)

Description

Backcrossed Olive Egger Pairings

Our olive egger pens are under constant rotation. This Spring we’ve put our resident first gen olive egger birds (i.e. legbar under marans or ameraucana under marans) back under our heavy bloom Black Copper Marans males for a cross often called BC1 for short (first back cross). And we’ve put our resident BC1 birds back under Black Copper Marans for a second back cross (BC2). Back crosses tend to deepen the olive egg color to a rich and darker olive, or can sometimes result in a mauve egger if the blue gene is lost. We’re also experimenting with first gen and later gen hens back under White Legbar and Ameraucana. Backcrossed egg color will generally intensify toward darker olive and bark colors when under a brown-pigment depositing male, or toward spearmint/teals when under a male with genetics for blue egg shells. Note: birds back crossed to our Black Copper Marans can sometimes look very similar to their pure-bred Black Copper Marans cousins, so you’ll want to be careful to not mix them up.