Olive Egger laying brown eggs.

[MayBerg]

I have a barred Olive Egger. She just laid her first egg today and it is brown with grayish specks. I am very disappointed. This one going in the pot for Christmas. Too many brown egg layers.

 

[AZcluckers]

Can I see a picture? Did you wash the egg? Might be a heavy bloom. Wash the egg and see what color shows. Why don't you want to keep her because of the egg color? I'm just curious.

 

[avjudge]

I have a barred Olive Egger. She just laid her first egg today and it is brown with grayish specks. I am very disappointed. This one going in the pot for Christmas. Too many brown egg layers. We got

Our Olive Egger also turned out to lay brown eggs. However, she has been a reliable layer with eggs that crack neatly so she is definitely a keeper for us!

She is the only one of our original six that is currently alive and laying, and now having molted and resumed laying is keeping up with last year’s two reliable layers.

I would like to get another olive egger with next year‘s 3–4 chicks, with hopes of actually getting olive eggs, but my husband will probably want 2 hybrids (golden comets or similar) so I will only be able to choose one or two and may go with their “Americana” for the certainty of colored eggs. (Our local farm store will order our selection of chicks from Mt. Healthy.)

 

[MayBerg]

Can I see a picture? Did you wash the egg? Might be a heavy bloom. Wash the egg and see what color shows. Why don't you want to keep her because of the egg color? I'm just curious.

Definitely brown ☹ the specks are like a dark maroonish and the speckles are raised. When you touch the egg, you can feel the littlebumps. Weird.

Here it is next to a buff orpington and a frenxh copper maran in the middle. If I didn't see her lay it, I would've thought it was my welsummer that laid it.

I FEEL that I have too many brown layers. Maybe I will change my mind later when the eggs get bigger. But for now, the disappointment is real.

 

[MayBerg]

Our Olive Egger also turned out to lay brown eggs. However, she has been a reliable layer with eggs that crack neatly so she is definitely a keeper for us!

She is the only one of our original six that is currently alive and laying, and now having molted and resumed laying is keeping up with last year’s two reliable layers.

I would like to get another olive egger with next year‘s 3–4 chicks, with hopes of actually getting olive eggs, but my husband will probably want 2 hybrids (golden comets or similar) so I will only be able to choose one or two and may go with their “Americana” for the certainty of colored eggs. (Our local farm store will order our selection of chicks from Mt. Healthy.)

Well, I have 2 Americana and seems like they lay blue, no green. It seems like olive eggs are hard to find.

 

[MayBerg]

Our Olive Egger also turned out to lay brown eggs. However, she has been a reliable layer with eggs that crack neatly so she is definitely a keeper for us!

She is the only one of our original six that is currently alive and laying, and now having molted and resumed laying is keeping up with last year’s two reliable layers.

I would like to get another olive egger with next year‘s 3–4 chicks, with hopes of actually getting olive eggs, but my husband will probably want 2 hybrids (golden comets or similar) so I will only be able to choose one or two and may go with their “Americana” for the certainty of colored eggs. (Our local farm store will order our selection of chicks from Mt. Healthy.)

I have to get a real olive egger unless I breed a few myself with my bcm roo and ccl or get some olive hatching eggs.

 

[avjudge]

Well, I have 2 Americana and seems like they lay blue, no green. It seems like olive eggs are hard to find.

Yes, we have one now and also got one with our first set of chicks, but she dropped dead one day at just over a year old. They have both been nice reliable layers but definitely no hint of green, very blue.

But like yours, all our others lay shades of brown, so the choice is between the certainty of another blue layer versus the possibility of getting olive eggs.

 

[Buckeye Amy]

I have 9 OEs, the Welsummer x CCL cross. So far as I can tell, only one of them lays a green egg, one lays a cream egg and the rest lay brown eggs which look very much like the photo you posted. I am also very disappointed, but it's OK. I've got the breeding stock to breed my own OEs from now on! I won't be wasting money on hatchery OEs anymore.

 

[MayBerg]

Yes, we have one now and also got one with our first set of chicks, but she dropped dead one day at just over a year old. They have both been nice reliable layers but definitely no hint of green, very blue.

But like yours, all our others lay shades of brown, so the choice is between the certainty of another blue layer versus the possibility of getting olive eggs.

So what is your plan?

 

[avjudge]

So what is your plan?

I’ll see what I feel like in March/April when we place the order for early-May pickup!

(Our store has 2 “chick days,” beginning of May & beginning of June, when they receive all the chicks their customers order. We go for the May date.)