Easter egger and Olive egger. Any difference?

[Chickadees037]

So what is the difference between an Easter Egger and Olive Egger? Isn't the way you get them is breeding an Americana to any other breed?

 

[mccmeadows]

I don’t think they have to be Ameraucana based although I know some hatcheries do go that route.

my understanding is that an OE is just a breed pairing to create an olive egg (ie CCL x BCM) and an Easter Egger is just a barnyard mix of coloured layers that can pretty much lay any colour of the rainbow.

 

[3KillerBs]

An olive egger is an intentional cross between a blue egg layer of some kind and a dark egg layer of some kind.

And Easter Egger is a chicken which *ought to* have blue layer in it's heritage somewhere but which may or may not lay a blue or green egg.

 

[NatJ]

So what is the difference between an Easter Egger and Olive Egger?

Easter Eggers are supposed to lay eggs in some shade of blue or green. The exact shade does not matter.

Olive Eggers are supposed to lay "olive" colored eggs (darker-than-usual green.)
Olive Eggers could be considered a type of Easter Egger.

Isn't the way you get them is breeding an Americana to any other breed?

They all need to get the blue egg gene from somewhere (Ameraucana, Cream Legbar, etc.)

But many Easter Eggers are now true-breeding population (breed them to each other and you keep getting the right egg color.) So there are many Easter Eggers that are not direct crosses.

Olive Eggers can be from breeding a blue-egger to a dark-brown-egger, and at this time many are, but it is genetically possible to have Olive Eggers that breed true as well. I expect within another decade or so those will be commonly available. Various hatcheries claim to be working on them now.