Let's play guess that hybrid!

[halfdozenflock]

I purchased an olive egger, americana, and rhode island blue, all of which came from Hoover's Hatchery. All are just over 21 weeks old now. Here's a photo of each of them, along with two of their eggs, in case that helps. The greenish egg comes from the reddish colored chicken, and the brown egg comes from the greyish dotted chicken. The black chicken hasn't started laying yet.

I have my guess as to which is which, but I'm not 100% sure. Plus, I wonder if any are a different breed by mistake. Looking forward to your educated (or random) guesses. Thanks.

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

I purchased an olive egger, americana, and rhode island blue, all of which came from Hoover's Hatchery. All are just over 21 weeks old now. Here's a photo of each of them, along with two of their eggs, in case that helps. The greenish egg comes from the reddish colored chicken, and the brown egg comes from the greyish dotted chicken. The black chicken hasn't started laying yet.

I have my guess as to which is which, but I'm not 100% sure. Plus, I wonder if any are a different breed by mistake. Looking forward to your educated (or random) guesses. Thanks.

I am going to say brown. Is the black chicken the Rhode Island Blue?

 

[JedJackson]

There is no Rhode Island Blue in that group. The brown one is an Easter egger, the black one is an olive egger, and the black and white one is some kind of hybrid. It could be an olive egger that just happens to lay brown eggs, or some other hatchery creation.

 

[halfdozenflock]

Thanks for playing. I ended up reaching out to Hoover's and they responded very quickly with their take on the three. Here it is:

"It looks like the darker one is likely a production blue (that may be the one that you are calling a rhode island blue).

The americana and the olive egger are a bit more difficult to say, as they can vary widely in appearance.

The brown (reddish?) chick looks like it could be one of the variations of americana/easter egger/colored egg layers that are available as well.

The greyish dotted chicken is likely the olive egger, though it may be a bit heavy on the marans mix that they usually use to get the olive colored egg, as it looks quite a bit like cuckoo marans."