Easter eggers

[Abigail Rosette]

can an easter egger lay olive eggs? and if so, is it still considered an easter egger, or is it an olive egger?

 

[swamphiker]

can an easter egger lay olive eggs? and if so, is it still considered an easter egger, or is it an olive egger?

Yes, easter eggers can lay eggs of various shades. They are mixes so the egg color won't be consistent. I have two EEs, one lays a green egg, the other lays a blue egg. There are genetic differences between chickens that lay blue and green eggs, but I'm not sure of the correct terminology.

 

[Ridgerunner]

An Easter Egger is not a breed. An Olive Egger is not a breed. There are no breed standards for either. Those are just names we call a type of chicken and we can't always agree on what the name means.

For some people an Easter Egger hen needs to lay a blue or green egg. Since roosters don't lay eggs they might have trouble coming up with an Easter Egger rooster description. Other people believe an Easter Egger just needs to have a hen in its ancestry that laid a blue or green egg, it doesn't matter what color of an egg that hen actually lays. Roosters can fall under this description if it is based on ancestry.

An Olive Egger can be just as confusing. I think the basic idea is that if the hen were to lay a green egg, it would be expected to be a dark green egg. For some people it would not have to lay a dark green egg if it hatched from a dark green egg but I think most people would expect it to. Different people can have different ideas on what a dark green egg looks like. As you go through the laying season, the longer they lay the lighter the eggs often become. The darkest eggs are usually the first eggs a pullet lays or the first eggs they lay after a molt.

Some people believe you have to make an Eater Egger or Olive Egger by breeding to an Ameraucana or Auracana. You can make one like that if you wish but the Ameraucana and Auracana breeds were developed from the original Easter Eggers from Chile.

Total confusion I know. But you get that when there is no real definition for a word. If you want to call your hen that lays a dark green egg an Easter Egger you can, you'll be as correct as anyone else.