Olive Egger egg possibilities

[Rooski456]

Thankfully, despite my wishes for an olive egg I still have a happy healthy chicken laying eggs. I do have a sapphire sky laying green and two Easter eggers coming up to laying age so will have some variation. I’ll definitely be retrying my luck with olive eggs in the future when I have room for more chickens.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I think it’s so funny how they decide to pop up or not pop up. I bought three Easter eggers from a farmer down the way (expecting just a total backyard mix) and they have them and my little mutt rooster looks kinda like a brown red Ameraucana

My two look very Legbar-y, but no crests, etc. and both with pea combs and slate blue legs turning to willow green.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Thankfully, despite my wishes for an olive egg I still have a happy healthy chicken laying eggs. I do have a sapphire sky laying green and two Easter eggers coming up to laying age so will have some variation. I’ll definitely be retrying my luck with olive eggs in the future when I have room for more chickens.

Are your Sapphire Sky eggs a clear green or an olive?

 

[WingItRanch]

Thankfully, despite my wishes for an olive egg I still have a happy healthy chicken laying eggs. I do have a sapphire sky laying green and two Easter eggers coming up to laying age so will have some variation. I’ll definitely be retrying my luck with olive eggs in the future when I have room for more chickens.

Like mentioned, some places will use EEs as the blue egg layer to make an OE but that doesn't always work if the EE doesn't have 2 copies of the blue egg gene.

See if you can find someone selling Black Copper Marans over Crested Cream Legbars. Those mixes are super cute and much more likely to lay olive (if bred well, a certainty). Best part is they're sex linked so you won't end up with a cockerel.

 

[Rooski456]

Are your Sapphire Sky eggs a clear green or an olive?

probably closer to a clear green but kinda in between. They’re the egg in the first picture on this post.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

probably closer to a clear green but kinda in between. They’re the egg in the first picture on this post.

Beautiful!

 

[LtDanFan]

My two look very Legbar-y, but no crests, etc. and both with pea combs and slate blue legs turning to willow green.

Weird, my olive eggers (CCL roo over Welsumer hens) are more crested than my pure bred CCL pullets, lack the rosey breasts and have quite a bit of barring and the OE are much younger than i’d expect for them to lay. But I am definitely getting blue and olive eggs (although blue more regularly and olive only a couple of days) plus the normal brown/brown speckled to which i have become accustomed from the other assorted hens. So maybe the BYM are laying the olive and olive-speckled eggs and the CCL’s are sharing the blue duty…. and its going to get a whole lot more interesting when they all reach laying age.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Weird, my olive eggers (CCL roo over Welsumer hens) are more crested than my pure bred CCL pullets, lack the rosey breasts and have quite a bit of barring and the OE are much younger than i’d expect for them to lay. But I am definitely getting blue and olive eggs (although blue more regularly and olive only a couple of days) plus the normal brown/brown speckled to which i have become accustomed from the other assorted hens. So maybe the BYM are laying the olive and olive-speckled eggs and the CCL’s are sharing the blue duty…. and its going to get a whole lot more interesting when they all reach laying age.

And when you crack the green eggs, they’re light blue on the inside, right?

 

[LtDanFan]

And when you crack the green eggs, they’re light blue on the inside, right?

I am pretty sure, can’t find the shell of the one i cracked so far. Others haven’t been used quite yet. I think housekeeping may have thrown the shells away not realizing that i save them, because what weirdo saves egg shells?!?!?! Hahaha. <— this weirdo, is the answer to that query
I looked at it and it was definitely light in color on the inside. Blue/whiteish, but not brown if brown would be an option.
The two BYM i have may or may not have hatched from olive eggs and would have come from a BYM roo and OE hen. I incubated 4 brown, 2 olive eggs got 100% hatch and then lost some in the fire we had so I’m not sure who hatched out of which eggs because the ID bands have long since melted or have been otherwise picked off.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I am pretty sure, can’t find the shell of the one i cracked so far. Others haven’t been used quite yet. I think housekeeping may have thrown the shells away not realizing that i save them, because what weirdo saves egg shells?!?!?! Hahaha. <— this weirdo, is the answer to that query
I looked at it and it was definitely light in color on the inside. Blue/whiteish, but not brown if brown would be an option.
The two BYM i have may or may not have hatched from olive eggs and would have come from a BYM roo and OE hen. I incubated 4 brown, 2 olive eggs got 100% hatch and then lost some in the fire we had so I’m not sure who hatched out of which eggs because the ID bands have long since melted or have been otherwise picked off.

For anyone following trying to figure out eggshell colors (chicken geneticists please jump in here as needed):

All chicken eggshells start out either white or blue, same color inside and out. The blue is a result of a genetic mutation long ago (triggered by an RNA virus, if I recall correctly) that produces a shell pigment called oocyanin. This pigment originally was found in some South American breeds, including the honest-to-goodness Auracana and Ameraucana, and now also in Cream Legbars, which were bred partially from Auracanas in order to get the blue egg gene.

If there aren’t any genes for brown eggs in the hen, her eggs will be either white or blue.

If the gene for brown is present, the shelled egg then gets X amount of brown pigment deposited on the outside (only) near the end of the laying process, and the amount of brown pigment determines the overall color. (This process is often jokingly called the “spray paint booth” on BYC.)

If the egg started out white, any brown pigment applied will result in eggs colored pink, beige, tan, medium brown, and up to chocolate brown, sometimes with speckles.

If the egg started out blue, any brown pigment applied will result in green-blue, green, olive green, and up to a deep rich olive green, with or without speckles.

My fascination with this is behind why I’m always asking what color the inside of an eggshell is!