olive eggers
Shades of Green
Olive Eggers are a mixed or hybrid breed with the purpose of creating a hen that lays green eggs. Accomplished through breeding a blue egg layer to a brown egg layer. Common breeds used include Marans, Legbars, Ameraucanas, and Welsummers. Easter Eggers are not an ideal breed to use in an OE project, as they do not guarantee a blue egg gene.
Quick Facts:
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F1 OE: The first offspring of a blue and brown egg layer.
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F2 OE: an F1 OE that is bred back to a brown egg layer for a dark shade of green. Each offspring bred back is a higher F.
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The shade of green will vary as it depends upon the breeds used.
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A hen will lay varying shades through the year.
OUR FLOCK
Who doesn't love a glorious basket of eggs that is a riot of color? The day I discovered that eggs come in shades beyond white and brown, the rest was history. There is no easier way to get my kids (or me!) to run to the coop and collect the day's haul than the thought of 'what will the basket look like today?' Most of the time they forget they are doing chores. The shades of russet, blue, and green just make my kiddos giddy.
Olive Eggers are a mixed breed (not recognized by the APA) typically achieved by crossing a Marans, Ameraucana, Legbar, or Welsummer. There is no standard color or size for an OE as it depends on what breed you start with. You need a brown layer gene bred to a blue layer gene to get an F1 OE (Olive Egger). The pairing will have a wide variety of results and is what makes an OE project one of fascination. The bloom from the brown egg layer, coats the blue shell and produces the green shade. To pursue darker eggs, you take an F1 hen and breed back to brown egg rooster to product an F2 OE. And you keep going.
We have a devoted OE pen that pairs a rooster from our dark egg laying line Black Copper Marans to Ameraucana and F1 OE hens for both F1 and F2 chicks and eggs. We have F2 pullets from this pairing we are growing out to have OE only hens in the pen by fall. Our goal to keep 8-10 OE hens to our rooster as we continue to progress the egg color. We have seen F1 hen eggs be a color similar to Khaki green, but are patiently waiting to see the results from their new dark egg BCM rooster.
We offer hatching eggs and chicks locally to share this beautiful breed with our region. F1 hatching eggs will be blue, F2 hatching eggs will be green.
Here's to the kids at heart that love a beautiful basket! Make 'em green with envy!
x.o.x.o. Farm & Furrow