Description

Breed History:

Every flock needs an olive egger. An olive egger is not exactly a breed, but a cross of two breeds. It is so interesting how the genetics of egg colors in chickens work. The blue color permeates the shell so a blue egg is blue both inside and out (you will have to scratch off the membrane on the inside to see the blue). On the other hand, a brown egg results from a pigment that is painted on the outside of a white egg. Both the blue and brown egg genes are dominant so if a chick inherits copies of both, it will have a blue egg base with a brown paint on top, resulting in a green egg. The best olive eggers are created over multiple generations crossing strong blue egg layers with rich dark brown layers. The frustrating part is that while you can quite consistently get a light olive from the first generation the our favorite olives come from the 2nd/3rd generation and these birds have a 50/50 chance of laying brown or olive (Emoji of an angry face) Most large hatcheries don’t get a nice rich color because they don’t or can’t carefully control the breeding stock.

Stats:

Eggs- Olive. Roughly 150 -250 eggs per year

Dual Purpose- Yes. Males average 8lb and females 5.5lb