What color eggs do Olive Eggers lay?

**Olive green** — a blue shell overlaid with a brown coating, which reads as olive. Shade ranges from light sage (typical of a first-cross F1) to deep, mossy olive when the bird carries more dark-brown genetics. They lay one color per hen, not a rainbow.

Are Olive Eggers good for showing?

Not as a breed — the Olive Egger is a **hybrid, not APA-recognized**, so it has no Standard of Perfection and no show class. It can win egg-display or hatching-egg classes at fairs on shell color and uniformity, and its purebred parents (Ameraucana, Marans, Welsummer) can be shown in their own classes.

How hard are Olive Eggers to hatch?

No harder than any chicken — **99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch**. The only quirk is candling: the dark, heavily pigmented shell blocks light, so candle in a fully dark room with a strong LED and don't cull eggs that merely look hard to see into.

How do you breed a darker olive egg?

Stack more dark-brown pigment onto the blue base. F1 olive eggs are lighter because the hen only inherited brown-tint genes from one parent; **back-cross F1 hens to a very dark Marans rooster** to concentrate the brown coating. Always select from your darkest-laying brown-egg parents — the darker the brown side, the darker the olive.

Do two Olive Eggers breed true?

No. The Olive Egger is a cross, not a stabilized breed, so mating two Olive Eggers scatters the offspring across blue, green, olive, and brown layers. Directed crossing — blue parent × dark-brown parent, then back-crossing to the dark-brown side — is how you reliably get olive layers.

Which breeds make the best Olive Eggers?

Pair a true blue-egg breed — **Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar** — with the darkest dark-brown-egg breed you can get, usually a **Black Copper Marans** or **Welsummer**. The bluer the blue side and the darker the brown side, the better the olive.

Olive Egger: The Olive-Egg Cross (F1 vs F2)

Verified September 2026Olive eggs

The short version

An Olive Egger is a hybrid, not an APA-recognized breed — it's a deliberate cross of a blue-egg parent (Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar) with a dark-brown-egg parent (Marans or Welsummer). The chick's shell is blue underneath with a brown coating on top, and blue + dark brown = olive. A first cross (F1) lays a lighter, sage-to-light olive; you get deeper olive by breeding for more dark-brown pigment — typically by back-crossing an F1 hen to a dark Marans rooster rather than by breeding two Olive Eggers together. Because it's a cross, there is no standard and no showing for it as a breed.

APA class: Ornamental

Egg color: Olive

Broodiness: Rarely broody

Varieties: 1

Egg-color genetics

An Olive Egger's olive shell is an optical mix, not a pigment of its own. You cross a blue-egg parent (an Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar carrying the dominant blue-egg oocyan gene, which lays blue biliverdin through the full thickness of the shell) with a dark-brown-egg parent (a Marans or Welsummer, whose brown protoporphyrin is painted on top as a surface coating). The offspring's shell is blue all the way through with a brown wash over it, and blue-under-brown reads to the eye as olive green. Depth of olive tracks the brown coating: a first cross (F1) inherits brown-tint genes from only one parent, so F1 eggs are usually a light-to-sage olive; you deepen the color by pushing more dark-brown genetics back into the line, which is why serious olive breeders back-cross to a very dark Marans rather than breed olive-to-olive.

Olive Egger vs Easter Egger — and why it isn't a breed

An Olive Egger is specifically a blue-layer × dark-brown-layer cross aimed at olive eggs, while an Easter Egger is any mixed bird carrying a blue-egg gene that can lay blue, green, or pinkish. Neither is an APA breed: both are hybrids that don't breed true. The Olive Egger is just a more targeted cross — you're deliberately stacking a dark-brown coating onto a blue base to land on olive.

Because it isn't standardized, an Olive Egger has no fixed appearance. Chicks often come out black with muffs or feathered feet when Black Copper Marans and Ameraucana are the parents, but color and type vary with whatever went into the cross. Buy Olive Eggers for the egg basket, not for a show pen.

How to breed a darker olive egg

Depth of olive is all about how much brown coating sits over the blue shell. An F1 hen has brown-tint genes from only one parent, so she lays a lighter olive; to go darker you concentrate the brown genetics. The most reliable route is a back-cross: mate F1 hens to a very dark Marans rooster, which pushes more brown-coating genes into the offspring and yields darker, sometimes speckled olive. Selecting each generation from your darkest-brown parent stock is what moves the whole line toward deep, mossy olive.

Breeding notes

The F1 cross is the whole recipe: put a pure blue-egg bird (Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar) with a pure dark-brown-egg bird (Marans or Welsummer). Either parent can be the roo. Every F1 daughter inherits one copy of the blue-egg gene plus one dose of brown coating, so essentially 100% of F1 hens lay some shade of green/olive — F1 is where you're guaranteed olive layers.
F1 eggs are usually disappointingly light — a sage or light olive — because an F1 hen only pulled brown-tint genes from one parent. To deepen the color, back-cross: breed your F1 hens back to a dark Marans rooster. Those back-cross offspring stack more of the brown-coating genes and lay noticeably darker, sometimes speckled, olive eggs.
Pick parents for pigment, not looks. The blue side must be a true blue layer (a genuine blue base, not a green-laying Easter Egger, or your math falls apart), and the brown side should be the darkest-laying Marans or Welsummer you can get — the darker the brown parent, the darker the olive.
Expect variability, and don't breed olive-to-olive expecting a fixed result. Because the Olive Egger is a cross and not a stabilized breed, mating two Olive Eggers scatters the offspring across blue, green, olive, and brown layers — roughly a quarter blue, half green/olive, a quarter brown in an F1×F1 pairing. Directed back-crossing to the dark-brown parent is the reliable way to concentrate deep olive.

Showing notes

The Olive Egger is not an APA breed and has no Standard of Perfection, so there is no breed class to enter it in and it cannot be exhibited as an 'Olive Egger' at a sanctioned APA show.
Where Olive Eggers do appear is in egg-display and hatching-egg competitions at fairs and poultry shows, judged on shell color, size, and uniformity rather than on the bird's conformation — a deep, even olive with clean speckling shows well.
If you want a showable blue- or dark-brown-egg bird, exhibit the purebred parents (Ameraucana, Marans, Welsummer) in their own classes instead; the Olive Egger is a production/novelty cross, not a show bird.

Hatching & incubation

No special incubation requirements — treat Olive Egger eggs like any chicken egg: 99.5–100°F forced-air, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch.
The dark shell makes candling harder: olive and dark-brown pigment blocks light, so the air cell and veining are tough to read against a bright candler. Candle in a fully dark room with a strong LED, and don't over-cull eggs that just look 'empty' through heavy pigment.

Recognized varieties

Not standardized — a hybrid, not an APA breed

Frequently asked questions

What color eggs do Olive Eggers lay?: Olive green — a blue shell overlaid with a brown coating, which reads as olive. Shade ranges from light sage (typical of a first-cross F1) to deep, mossy olive when the bird carries more dark-brown genetics. They lay one color per hen, not a rainbow.
Are Olive Eggers good for showing?: Not as a breed — the Olive Egger is a hybrid, not APA-recognized, so it has no Standard of Perfection and no show class. It can win egg-display or hatching-egg classes at fairs on shell color and uniformity, and its purebred parents (Ameraucana, Marans, Welsummer) can be shown in their own classes.
How hard are Olive Eggers to hatch?: No harder than any chicken — 99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch. The only quirk is candling: the dark, heavily pigmented shell blocks light, so candle in a fully dark room with a strong LED and don't cull eggs that merely look hard to see into.
How do you breed a darker olive egg?: Stack more dark-brown pigment onto the blue base. F1 olive eggs are lighter because the hen only inherited brown-tint genes from one parent; back-cross F1 hens to a very dark Marans rooster to concentrate the brown coating. Always select from your darkest-laying brown-egg parents — the darker the brown side, the darker the olive.
Do two Olive Eggers breed true?: No. The Olive Egger is a cross, not a stabilized breed, so mating two Olive Eggers scatters the offspring across blue, green, olive, and brown layers. Directed crossing — blue parent × dark-brown parent, then back-crossing to the dark-brown side — is how you reliably get olive layers.
Which breeds make the best Olive Eggers?: Pair a true blue-egg breed — Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar — with the darkest dark-brown-egg breed you can get, usually a Black Copper Marans or Welsummer. The bluer the blue side and the darker the brown side, the better the olive.

Sources

How to Breed Olive Eggers (F1, F2, and back-crossing for color) — Silver Homestead (Reference)
How to Breed Olive Egger Chickens: 6 Questions Answered — Cackle Hatchery (Hatchery)
Marans + Ameraucana = Olive Egger (parent-breed cross overview) — Fresh Eggs Daily (Lisa Steele) (Reference)

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