How to make a Easter Egger

[Bananabread]

Green egg layers aren't necessarily olive eggers. That's mainly dark green egg layers. Are you saying you want more blue eggs?

Agree. Seems like it would help if you defined the type of egg color you're looking for. Whether by design or reason, the term easter egger has always been vague to me...

 

[Chicken boy 1156]

I’m looking for super light blue or spearmint Egger

 

[Chikyboy]

I’m looking for super light blue or spearmint Egger

With what you have, you wouldn't get light blue, but by crossing the olive egger with the ameraucana I *think* you would get spearmint. But don't quote me on that.

 

[Chicken boy 1156]

Ok we could try that!

 

[NatJ]

Easter Egger is just a slang term for mixed breed chickens that lay colored eggs

Yes, that is how I understand it too.

Ok so we are thinking about starting up a small hatchery next year and we want to sell Easter Eggers in that stock and we have a bunch of different breeds and egg colors so some one pls tell me if I have something that could make an Easter Egger please tell me.

Blue egg layers:
Ameraucana
Americana

Olive Egger


Brown egg layers:
Barred rock
Rhode Island Red
Sapphire splash
Cinnamon queen
Partridge Brahma
Silver laced wyandotte


Roosters:
Black copper Maran
Barred rock
Silver laced Wyandotte
F1 Olive Egger
Sapphire splash



Once again I will ask if you have any info on how to make an Easter Egger with these breeds please share your info


Edit: I change my mind we don’t have a lot of egg colors

If you want chickens that will lay colored eggs (blue, green, olive), then use the hens that currently lay eggs of those colors. The best choice of rooster would be the Olive Egger, but any of the others could work as well.

A hen will lay "blue" eggs (blue, green, or olive depending on how much brown they get) if she has even one copy of the blue egg gene. So a hen that lays blue eggs will pass the blue egg gene to at least half her daughters. If the hen has two copies of the blue egg gene, she will give it to all of her daughters, and all of them will lay blue (blue/green/olive) eggs. The Olive Egger rooster probably has 1 copy of the blue egg gene, so he will also give it to half of his daughters. Using him with the hens who lay colored eggs will make it even more likely that most daughters will lay colored eggs, because any pullet has two chances to inherit the blue egg gene, once from the mother and once from the father.

I’m looking for super light blue or spearmint Egger

For light blue eggs, you want the blue egg gene but not any genes for brown eggs (because brown over the outside of a blue egg makes it look green. More brown makes it darker green that some people call "olive.")

It might be easiest to just get another rooster, one with the genes for light blue eggs (check his mother & sisters) or else a rooster from a white egg breed.

If you do not want to get another rooster, look at the eggs from your hens that are Barred Rocks, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Sapphire Splash. Whichever of those three groups is laying the lightest brown eggs, use that kind of rooster to breed Easter Eggers from your blue egg hens, especially from the hens that lay the lightest shade of blue.

The Marans rooster and the Olive Egger rooster will have the genes for dark brown, which makes the eggs look olive (dark green), so those roosters are not a good choice if you want light blue or light green eggs.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As I understand it, there are really only two colors of egg shells, white and blue (y'all correct me if I am wrong!). You can prove this to yourself by cracking any egg and looking at the shell on the inside. A brown egg is a white egg with a brown outer coating. A green egg of any shade is a blue egg with a brown coating. An olive egg, for example, is a blue egg with a lot of brown pigment on the outside. The more brown coating a blue egg has, the more "greenish" it will appear. The more brown there is on the outside of a white egg, the darker brown it will appear (like a Marans). A white egg with a very light brown coating may appear pinkish, or cream colored.

With this in mind, as you pick your breeders, you'll need to figure out how much pigment your birds tend to deposit on their eggs, as well as what color shells they lay. If you want olive eggs, start with a Marans (lots of dark pigment) and breed to a blue-shell layer like a Legbar. That's what I would do anyway. But if you want clear blue eggs, keep brown egg layers out of your program, is my advice. Good luck, have fun!

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

https://silverhomestead.com/genetics/

 

[loulusea]

Easter Egger is just a slang term for mixed breed chickens that lay colored eggs

Good to know!!