Easter Egger and Olive Egger confusion

[AMURPHY227]

This is obviously a speculative topic. Neither Easter eggers nor olive eggers have defined breed characteristics from any official entity so anyone with capital and access to a variety of chicken breeds can create a flock that lays colored eggs and call them whatever they want.

People want colorful egg baskets without having to deal with a bunch of flighty and sassy pure-bred Araucanas or the complexity of making their own crosses. And the hatcheries are trying to fill that niche.

It seems that conversationally, folks have created their own definitions and expectations for these birds- but there is no official standard for either, genetically or in terms of conformation.

Well said!

And this is also why Olive Eggers and chocolate/ true blue layers should come from reputable breeders if you’re worried about quality. They are bred for quality by selective breeding.
Some people do not care one way or another. I personally do, because genetics fascinate me

 

[AinaWGSD]

Easter egger and olive egger are general umbrella terms for mixed breed chickens with the potential to lay colored eggs. Both can look like just about anything. Neither is guaranteed to lay a particular color, only that they are likely to lay colored eggs. All olive eggers are a type of easter eggers (mixed breed with the potential to lay colored eggs). Easier eggers can lay olive eggs, but they are not specifically bred for it.

The difference is that olive eggers have a parent with a dark brown egg gene. Common breeds used to create olive eggers are ameraucanas, cream legbar, marans, and welsummers.

I have one of each here. Apollo (left) is an Easter egger, she hatched from a green egg in a BYM assortment. No idea what genetics went into making her, other than her mother had at least one copy of the blue egg gene. Limu (right) is an olive egger from Meyer. Meyer doesn't disclose which breeds they use and they have more than 1 breeding program for their olive eggers, but Limu definitely looks like what you would expect to get from crossing a legbar roo over a welsummer hen.

And I'm pretty sure Apollo laid her first egg(left) today! It's a little more blue than the olive Limu usually lays. But they're pretty similar in color.