Breeding for Olive eggers! Need help

Hello everyone,
I'm entering into my first adventure hatching eggs soon! Since I have a lovely wheaten ameraucana rooster along with some brown egg laying hens, I'm hoping I can create some olive eggers.

Here is my list of girls:
2 welsummers
1 speckled sussex
1 barred rock
1 EE (lays cream/very light pink egg)
1 EE (but she looks like a black copper marans and lays a dark brown egg??? lol)
1 production red from tractor supply
1 buff orpington/leghorn cross (not laying yet)
1 buff orpington/EE cross (not laying yet)

So, can anyone tell me which combo will give me olive eggers? Will all the offspring lay greenish eggs or half and half?
I'm totally new to chicken genetics. Along with egg color I'm also interested in producing colorful chickens as well! Love my speckled sussex.. can those spots be reproduced by mating with the wheaten ameraucana rooster?

If anyone out there has any adult photos of birds equivalent to the crosses I'm attempting to make I would love to see them!

Thanks!!!

If this helps, here are some pictures of my flock and eggs


This is the girl that I bought as an EE. Doesn't she resemble a BCM? She even has feathered legs and a bit of copper around her neck, although it's not very visible in these photos. Weird!

Beth0202 said:

Hello everyone,
I'm entering into my first adventure hatching eggs soon! Since I have a lovely wheaten ameraucana rooster along with some brown egg laying hens, I'm hoping I can create some olive eggers.

Here is my list of girls:
2 welsummers
1 speckled sussex
1 barred rock
1 EE (lays cream/very light pink egg)
1 EE (but she looks like a black copper marans and lays a dark brown egg??? lol)
1 production red from tractor supply
1 buff orpington/leghorn cross (not laying yet)
1 buff orpington/EE cross (not laying yet)

So, can anyone tell me which combo will give me olive eggers? Will all the offspring lay greenish eggs or half and half?

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Olive Eggers are produced by crossing blue egg layers with very dark brown egg layers. Assuming the Welsummers on your list are pure, they will lay the darkest brown eggs of your hens (often referred to as chocolate eggs) and will give you Olive Eggers when crossed with your Ameraucana rooster. Crossing your Ameraucana rooster with the other hens on your list will give you some shade of green eggs (depending on how dark the brown eggs of the hens are) but not the dark olive green eggs of olive eggers. Whether or not all of the offspring will be green egg layers depends on whether or not your rooster is a true Ameraucana with two blue egg genes (in which case he will pass a blue egg gene to his offspring), or whether he is actually an Easter Egger with one blue egg gene and one brown egg gene (in which case the offspring will likely be about half green egg layers and half brown egg layers). Hope this helps. )

Michael OShay said:

Olive Eggers are produced by crossing blue egg layers with very dark brown egg layers. Assuming the Welsummers on your list are pure, they will lay the darkest brown eggs of your hens (often referred to as chocolate eggs) and will give you Olive Eggers when crossed with your Ameraucana rooster. Crossing your Ameraucana rooster with the other hens on your list will give you some shade of green eggs (depending on how dark the brown eggs of the hens are) but not the dark olive green eggs of olive eggers. Whether or not all of the offspring will be green egg layers depends on whether or not your rooster is a true Ameraucana with two blue egg genes (in which case he will pass a blue egg gene to his offspring), or whether he is actually an Easter Egger with one blue egg gene and one brown egg gene (in which case the offspring will likely be about half green egg layers and half brown egg layers). Hope this helps. )

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Thank you for the response! That is what I needed to know. As for my rooster, I would say he does look to be a pure bred wheaten Ameraucana but I have no way to really know. The person I bought him from claimed he was such but I have no proof other than he looks like one as far as I can tell!
He literally has one white hackle feather and one saddle feather that fades to white at the tip.. these appeared after his most recent molt. About a month ago. Not sure if this disqualifies him as pure bred or not.. I guess there is no way to know until I can see what color eggs his offspring produce.

Beth0202 said:

Thank you for the response! That is what I needed to know. As for my rooster, I would say he does look to be a pure bred wheaten Ameraucana but I have no way to really know. The person I bought him from claimed he was such but I have no proof other than he looks like one as far as I can tell!

He literally has one white hackle feather and one saddle feather that fades to white at the tip.. these appeared after his most recent molt. About a month ago. Not sure if this disqualifies him as pure bred or not.. I guess there is no way to know until I can see what color eggs his offspring produce.

Click to expand...

You're welcome. He could not meet all the SOP standards for a pure Ameraucana and yet still carry two blue egg genes. You will know for sure when his offspring begin laying eggs.