Olive egger
STANDARD
Olive Eggers are a hybrid or mixed breed between a brown egg layer and a blue egg layer with the intention of creating a green egg layer. Common breeds used to achieve this include Ameraucanas, Marans, Legbars, and Welsummers. If you cross a first generation Olive Egger (F1) back to a brown egger, you will get a back-crossed olive egger (BC1) that may lay even darker eggs.
Quick Facts:
- Eggs: Green | Large | 180-200 eggs per year
- Olive Eggers can look very different from one another and are not a standardized breed.
- The shade of egg will vary depending on the breeds used and the generation of the Olive Egger (i.e., F1 or F2, BC1 or BC2 and so on)
Now, you really can have green eggs and ham! We’re kidding – the insides aren’t green. However, these eggs are sure to turn heads.
Olive Eggers are a mixed breed and, as such, are not recognized by the APA. These beauties are typically achieved by crossing a dark egg layer, such as a Marans or Welsummer with a blue egg layers, such as an Ameraucana or Legbar. Since the breed combinations can create all sorts of sizes and colors, there is no standard for Olive Eggers.
Your first brown egg layer to blue egg layer pairing will produce an F1 OE (Olive Egger). To pursue darker eggs, you then take an F1 hen and breed her back to a brown egg rooster. This will produce an BC1 (Back-cross) OE with a chance of darker olives. An F1 OE to another F1 OE will produce an F2 OE.. and so on.
We have a dedicated Olive Egger pen that pairs a rooster from our Black Copper Marans line (dark egg layers) to our Ameraucana (blue egg layers) for F1 chicks and eggs. Our F1 hen eggs are a color similar to Khaki green.
We offer hatching eggs and chicks to share these beautiful egg colors with others.