Do i have an olive egger? or just an easter egger that lays olive-y colored eggs.

[All-I-Want-Are-Chickens]

Easter Eggers are not necessarily a breed per say. They have no standard coloration for their feathers or their eggs. I have heard of them laying light pink colored eggs as well, but most often blues and greens. The closer the eggs are to blue, the closer the bloodline is to the Ameraucana breed to my knowledge. The blue coloration goes all the way through like a white egg. However, brown is deposited as a layer on the egg, and can even be scrubbed off when cleaning. So a green egg actually comes from that blue shelled egg getting a deposit of brown layered on top of it. The darkness/ shade of green will come from both how pronounced the blue is, but mostly the level of brown deposited on it. So, it depends basically on the cross breeding. Long story short since Easter Eggers are not technically a breed, you might still be able to classify the bird as one. However, to my knowledge the only qualification of being an olive egger is to lay olive colored eggs. I think the classifications are even less strict. So you could also call the bird an olive egger. I would say if the bird does not have some distinguishing Ameraucana style characteristics (like the beard) it might be more easily classified as an olive egger. In my opinion you have a couple of cool looking birds, and awesome colored eggs. Plus, a chicken named beef? I love it.

I love your reply! Spot on.

 

[debid]

Thanks for this thread... I was coming here to ask the same question. We have an olive egger (named Olive) who has been laying since about September (March hatch). I've been egg-shaming my one-year-old EE Isabella Bird (same hatch date) because I didn't think she was laying, but maybe she's been laying all this time and Olive has been getting all the credit... Maybe it's time for the lipstick test, lol.

You really can't tell by looking at them what color their eggs will be.

Unfortunately, OE is still new enough as a goal that there are going to be many more misses than there are with EEs missing the blue shell gene.