Ah Luv Olives
Olive-colored eggs that is. Today I found this in the nesting box.
This is my first home-bred Oliver, laid by a pullet hatched from a Whiting True Blue hen covered by an Oliver rooster. I’m so pleased it is green, and not khaki. Here are some other beauties from today’s egg basket.
Breeding Olivers is a bit of an adventure as I never know what the off-springs’ eggs will look like. My Oliver pen has two Roosters that hatched from dark green eggs covering blue-laying hens — Splash Ameraucanas and Whiting True Blues. The chicks hatch out in all sorts of colors and grow-out the same: anything from a blond splash to a soft-grey with muffs and penciled feathers. One of my prettiest flocks, but it’s the egg basket variety that I love. The shades of sage to robin’s egg and the speckles . . . I’ve always had a soft spot for the speckles.
Olive Egger Hatch Dates
“Hey, I purchased Olive Egger hatching eggs from you and the eggs you gave me are blue?! What’s up with that?” or “Hey, I purchased Olive Egger chicks from you and they grew up and are laying brown or blue eggs. What’s up with that?”
”Thank you for asking. It’s complicated.”
A Wheaten Olive Egger is a hybrid of Wheaten/Blue Wheaten/Splash Ameraucanas and Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Marans who will lay lovely medium to large olive eggs, often with speckles. The birds are lovely and sweet, and can have with muffs, or beards, or feathery legs, or all three!
This is the fun part of curating an Olive Egger Flock: selecting the prettiest eggs to hatch and then selecting the prettiest grow-outs to keep for next year’s flock refresh. Right now I have an Olive Egger Rooster and a Welsummer Rooster (dark brown eggs with spots) covering Bright Blue Egger Hens and Olive Egger Hens.
What makes my Olivers special? The birds I chose to start the flock with.
Olive-colored eggs that is. Today I found this in the nesting box . . .
Olivers eggs lay in all the shades of green, from minty to khaki. And the birds are just as pretty as the eggs!
My friend Kristy sent me this pic of an Olive Egger egg with a blue inside — isn’t it gorgeous? Even better, I was able to order some hatching eggs.