Barred Rock - Olive Eggs

[connorman]

Hi,

Newish chicken owner here and I was surprised to find two of my 8 or so barred rocks lay olive colored eggs. Attached are pictures of the hens. How common/uncommon is this? Maybe they aren't barred rocks? Any insight is greatly appreciated! In the pictures I uploaded are some Rhode Island Reds. It's not them as they are about 5 weeks younger and weren't laying yet when I started getting the olive eggs. All of my chickens except for one are from a hatchery if that makes a difference.

 

[NatJ]

Newish chicken owner here and I was surprised to find two of my 8 or so barred rocks lay olive colored eggs. Attached are pictures of the hens. How common/uncommon is this? Maybe they aren't barred rocks? Any insight is greatly appreciated! In the pictures I uploaded are some Rhode Island Reds. It's not them as they are about 5 weeks younger and weren't laying yet when I started getting the olive eggs. All of my chickens except for one are from a hatchery if that makes a difference.

They look like Barred Rocks, but some must actually be olive eggers (because they lay olive-colored eggs.)

Olive Eggers that look similar to Barred Rocks are fairly common.

You might have a look at all their feet. Barred Rocks have yellow feet (especially easy to see on the soles, if you pick them up and look.) Olive Eggers could have yellow feet too, but they could have some other color. If you find two with non-yellow soles on their feet, they will probably be the ones laying your olive eggs. If they all have yellow soles, then I can't think of any easy way to identify which ones are the Olive Eggers.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

All of my chickens except for one are from a hatchery if that makes a difference.

Welcome to BYC!

The white one in the background looks like an "egger" and would be a top suspect on my list.

 

[connorman]

Welcome to BYC!

The white one in the background looks like an "egger" and would be a top suspect on my list.

That's what I originally suspected months ago! But.. that is my True Blue Whiting. Months ago I was getting one olive egg a day and I was a little disappointed my Whiting was laying an olive egg and not a blue. Then one day I got two olive eggs and was absolutely bamboozled. Did my Whiting lay two eggs in one day? Did I miss the egg somehow? Then..a couple weeks later I went out to my coop and found an olive egg and a beautiful blue egg! So..its not the white one Thanks for the reply!

 

[connorman]

They look like Barred Rocks, but must actually be olive eggers (because they lay olive-colored eggs.)

Olive Eggers that look similar to Barred Rocks are fairly common.

You might have a look at all their feet. Barred Rocks have yellow feet (especially easy to see on the soles, if you pick them up and look.) Olive Eggers could have yellow feet too, but they could have some other color. If you find two with non-yellow soles on their feet, they will probably be the ones laying your olive eggs. If they all have yellow soles, then I can't think of any easy way to identify which ones are the Olive Eggers.

So cool! I can't wait to take a look tomorrow. Thank you for the information! This is so helpful!

 

[chrissynemetz]

You have a couple of sneaky olive Eggers.

 

[Baker1181]

Put a trail camera in your boxes of facing boxes. Should be able to tell. I’ve done a test run with one of my cams and once all 8 girls are laying I’ll put them back out so I can tell who’s laying what besides the ones I already know.