Olive Egg (or as we like to call them, camo eggs) Layers

I have been crossing & back crossing Black Copper marans and Blue wheaton ameraucanas for about 8 generations now. This is the rooster I kept from last summer's chicks for breeding this spring. He is papa to all the chicks I now have running around, one of whom will be his replacement :) So he needs to move on to a new home. He is a big handsome guy. Very gentle & takes good care of his hens. (I do not keep any nasty temperament roosters because I do not want them breeding). He looks very much like a Blue Copper Marans but he is not. He does not have a pea comb, but I am betting that he still carries the blue gene needed for olive colored eggs. 


He has some slight frost damage to his comb. My coop is not insulated and we had one very cold night here about a month ago. It will probably "repair" itself over time. Right now, since I am trying to keep him in with his hens, he is in one of my Chicken tractors that fits over my raised beds. Most of the year they are more or less free range.

Only one of the hens has some very light feathering on one toe 

Lovely copper coloring with no straw color 

This is the best picture I could get, but the color does not really come thru. 

Winter???? really???

The girls were out for a browse walk last weekend. Warm & sunny & beautiful. Rheba will be the first to kid this year. She is due sometime between March 1st and March 11, so i expect it will start snowing around March 6th :)

Only 1 Buck (front & center) really is the only buck we have right now :) To his right is Ashley, then Coco,& Alyssum, behind them Clarice, then left to right is Lizzy, Lily, Phantom, Daisy, Heidi, Rheba, Annie, Violet and Diamond.

Clarice, Phantom, Heidi, Rheba & Daisy

Getting big....

Coco

Lizzy