Tehachapi, California
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Egg genetics
For starters, lets talk a little about egg coloring. Egg shells come in two colors, blue or white. The bloom is the protective coating over top of the egg. The bloom comes in various shades of brown, sometimes including speckles depending on the breed. Now lets say a hen has white shell genetics, but lays a heavy bloom, the egg will then be brown. A hen that lays white eggs with little bloom will lay white. Now this is where the fun part comes in, breed a blue shell laying chicken, with a chicken with a heavy bloom, such as a Maran, and now you have yourself a green laying bird. Blue shell, with brown over top, gives you green.
So what are easter eggers and olive eggers?
Green laying hens are known as Olive Eggers and there are may different breeds of chickens that are used to produce these green laying chicks, it's all about figuring out their egg laying genetics. Easter egger, or sometimes referred to as Americana, is a descendent of the Araucana chicken. These new hybrids were created to eradicate a lethal gene that the Araucana can carry which is lethal to chicks in shell. Easter Eggers is more of a broad spectrum term for a hybrid bird that somewhere along the way has that blue laying gene, and some can lay green and tan. While neither bird is recognized yet as an official breed, both make for what we believe to be some of the most fun colored egg baskets. Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers alike come in a wide range of feather color and patterning. We never have any trouble telling these guys apart. Easter Eggers tend to be muffed and bearded, with pea combs. They are known for being a hardy and healthy breed, with blue eggs which are larger in size than their Araucana herritage.
Photos can never do justice the color of these eggs in person
Our Easter Egger's genetics:
Junior and Sweet Girl; our favorite easter egger pair
Of course, we cant guarantee exactly what color eggs you will get from these hybrids. We love the anticipation in waiting for a pullet to lay her first egg. However, from our experience breeding these particular easter eggers, we have a very good idea of what to expect. They are very consistant layers. Our easter eggers have proven over and over that they lay and pass on the blue laying gene. All of the hens lay pure blue eggs, and when we cross them with brown layers, they lay a vibrant olive. As far as looks, they have and pass on to their chicks, muffed cheeks and beards, no matter what we cross them with. They either have a brown body with a black feather pattern across the back, or a white body with black details across the back, with brown seeming to be slightly more common than white. We have a huge soft spot for the white variant, so we have leaned into breeding the whites in hopes of making it more common within our flock.
Coloring:
White or brown bodies with black feathering across the back
Size:
Commonly used for egg production, rather than meat, these birds are agile and lean, with hens weighing 4-5 lbs and roosters weighing 5-6 lbs
Eggs:
Hens are prolific egg layers, laying around 200-280 blue eggs per year
Our birds
Junior lives in a flock with twelve other hens, which lay a rainbow of colors. We've listed this large group as three different categories to choose from.
Junior
Junior
Easter Egger Rooster
Junior, also known as Orion Junior, is named after his dad Orion. Orion was one of our first roosters, and at the time was the friendliest bird of the flock. When you would walk into the run, he was the first bird to jump up onto your shoulder. He truly gave us an appreciation for roosters and the job that they have protecting the flock. Sadly, we lost him to a coyote, but he bravely defended his hens and we didn't loose a single hen that day. Junior is just like his dad, he has never shown any aggression and is friendly and diligent in protecting his hens, thus earning him the nickname "head of security".
Sweet Girl
The Easter Egger Hen
If it made sense to give Sweet Girl an entire webpage dedicated to just her, I would. She is the the sweetest, most docile bird we have ever had. Since she was a chick, you could lay her on her back, hold her like a baby, she didn't care. We've called her sweet girl since she was a chick, waiting until we thought of the perfect name, but nothing else seemed to suit her. When we go out into the run, she just stands at your feet staring at you with one of her many innocent facial expressions waiting to be picked up. You can hold this bird under your arm all day, and when you go to put her down, she pulls her feet up close to her body as if to say "nope id rather just stay with you".
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The Colorful Egg Laying Hens
Peaches
Bantam Buff Brahma
Brahmas are known for a few things; personality, being large in size, and their high egg production of tan eggs. While Peaches is a bantam brahma, brining her down to being just slightly larger than the average hen, she sure has those other two traits down. Peaches is another one of our favorite birds to hang out with in the yard. Shes chunky, fluffy, and calm, making her the perfect bird to cuddle. We think shes more of a cat than a chicken. Chicks from Peaches are likely to lay olive eggs, making them first generation olive eggers.
Legs
California Leghorn
If you've bought large white store bought eggs, they likely came from a Leghorn chicken. These birds are bred to produce eggs. Hens lay on average 290-300 eggs per year. While Leghorn chickens are bred for egg production, the California Leghorn was bred to be a slightly calmer and more docile version of their Leghorn cousins. While Legs is certainly bossy, we have never had an issue with her getting along with the members of her flock. We love Legs' personality, she's not the cuddling type, but she never fails to make us laugh with her zoomies and funky head movements. She got the nickname Legs as a chick, partly for being a Leghorn, partly because of her vibrant yellow legs, and partly because of how she loves to use her skinny legs and bolt around. The name Legs just stuck.
Selene
Olive Egger
Selene is a first generation olive egger, and lays vibrant green eggs. Her dad was a white easter egger, and her mom, a saphire blue plymouth. She is one of Lunas three chicks. Luna was the inspiration behind forming a family owned hatchery, you can read more about her story on our about us page. You also probably saw her baby picture when you first opened the website. She gained many personality traits from her mom. She's friendly, bold, smart, and holds her ground around other birds. Due to the fact she seems more intelligent than the average chicken, she has great survival instincts. She's not a jumpy bird, but when her rooster alerts the flock of a threat, she's the first one to find a surprisingly resourceful hiding place.
We have selected these hens to compliment juniors looks and personality, as well as his his egg laying genetics!
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More from this flock
The hens pictured above lay a variety of egg colors, including green, various shades of pink and cream, all the way dark chocolate brown. Many of which have white, grey, or brown speckling. We've grouped these breeds together as some of the eggs can look similar to one another, so separating their eggs out would be a little tricky.
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Gallery
