To breed an Olive Egger you must combine blue and brown egg genes. A second crossing with dark chocolate egg genes is typically needed to create the deep green tones everyone is after. But around half of the female offspring from this back crossing will lay brown eggs! In this article we are going to focus on the wonderful attributes of these often overlooked ladies and why continuing to breed with them produces some of the most unusual earth tones in the chicken world.
What are Brown Laying Olive Eggers?
A brown laying olive egger or is not a breed. It is a brown-laying hybrid hen that come from olive egger breeding. A brown laying barnyard mix is not quite the same thing. The Brown Laying “Failed” olive egger hen will typically have a Marans, Welsummer or Olive Egger father, she will come from a deliberate pairing intended to create Olive Eggers (not Easter Eggers) but she will only have inherited white egg genes with a tint overlay from both her mother and father and will lay a shade of brown. Her eggs may even be speckled.
The Disappointment of Brown Laying “Olive” Eggers
Your “olive” egger hen, who you’ve raised for months, just began laying brown eggs. This can be disappointing, especially if the eggs are a standard brown shade similar to those laid by dual purpose breeds. Light and medium brown eggs are sometimes the result of attempting to use Easter Eggers to breed Olive Eggers or using roosters who do not carry dark enough egg genes. Most experienced breeders know this and use only dark gene carrying roos. If you’ve purchased chicks from a knowledgeable breeder with good genetics in her flock, even the brown laying hens should contribute something interesting to your egg basket! Sometimes the brown egger’s speckled eggs are almost indistinguishable from Welsummer or #4 Wheaten Marans eggs.
Unique Earth Tones
Failed Olive Eggers can lay shades unlike any purebreds currently available. In F2, F3 and F4 generations their eggs are laid in colors that resemble just-dug potatoes or smooth river stones. Shades can vary widely but it is often noticed that olive egger breeding can mute the pinkish or reddish undertones common among purebred Marans in favor of balanced browns and earthy blooms. The eggs can range from burlap, flax, putty, terracotta and walnut hull shades to remarkably dark, soil-like colors.
How to Breed for Better Browns
If you’re going to end up with some brown layers, you might as well make them as unique as possible! The number one secret is to use a rooster (either a Marans, Olive Egger or Dark Cocoa Egger) carrying very dark egg genes. If you want to add speckling, use a rooster who hatched from a heavily speckled, dark egg who can pass on speckling to his offspring. When bred to Olive laying hens, around 50% of a dark gene rooster’s offspring will be brown laying and the other half olive laying. His rich brown tint should produce daughters that lay either olive or unusual brown tones different than grocery store eggs. Back crossing F2 and F3 Olive laying hens to a dark speckled gene carrying rooster is how some of the neatest “potato skin” egg colors are produced. (The olive laying offspring should lay dark avocado and moss shades.) Crossing a dark brown laying failed olive egger hen to a dark gene carrying rooster can produce darker browns or “Cocoa Eggers” if both are carrying extremely heavy tint genes. Cocoa Eggers are dark brown laying hybrids that lay a deep chocolate egg that is as dark as some of the darkest laying Marans, around a #7-8 on the Marans color chart. They often lack the russet red or maroonish tint of Marans eggs and instead lay colors that are similar to chocolate breakfast cereal.
Breeding for Speckled Layers
Speckled egg breeding in F2 generations and beyond requires that a Speckled Olive Egger rooster be used. He must have come from a speckled father and ideally a speckled laying mother, which usually means you need to have hatched him yourself so you can see what his mother laid and what his hatchmate sisters lay. He can then be bred to any brown or olive laying hens to produce offspring who hopefully lay stunning speckled eggs. My rule of thumb is to “mix, mix, mix”, breeding olive eggers to other olive eggers, as this is how the most interesting egg colors are made.
Mix, Mix, Mix!
It really is no secret that the most striking chicken egg colors are coming from Olive Egger roosters who are being crossed to other olive laying hens. But what happens if you breed an Olive Egger rooster, with his one blue egg gene, to a Failed olive egger (brown laying) hen? You have the same 50% chance of producing olive laying offspring, no different than when doing a back cross. But you double your chances of getting richer toned olive and brown eggs because complex, mixed tint genes are being inherited from both parents. And since the brown laying hen came from an olive egger breeding attempt it is correct to continue with whatever F-number generation is true for that roo and hen pair. You don’t need to start over. If she is an F2 “olive” egger who lays brown and she’s mated to an F2 Olive Egger roo, her offspring is correctly labeled F3, even the offspring who lay brown. (Fun fact: by F4 and F5, most of the birds are laying shades so dark they look cocoa. This is where dark “Cocoa Eggers” come from!)
Here is the Punnet square, showing how 50% of the offspring will be olive laying:
Why Can’t I Find More Pictures Online of Failed Olive Egger Brown Eggs? What Colored Eggs Do They Lay?
There are three reasons for this. First, many Failed Olive Eggers are fathered by roos with not-dark-enough egg genes, resulting in the hen laying eggs that are so plain brown, you would not recognize them as being any different than an egg laid by a barnyard mix. Second, their eggs have not been celebrated in the past unless they are speckled, so keepers do not always take the time to photograph them. Third – and most surprising – there is only a 25% chance of producing a brown layer from an Olive Egger x Olive Egger breeding! Yes, you read that right. OE x OE breeding produces 75% olive laying offspring when both the mother and father are known to be carrying one blue egg gene each. A Brown Egger from that cross is actually the hardest to make!
Here is a Punnet square to illustrate an OE x OE cross and how few brown layers it will produce:
Back Crossing to Marans Produces the Most Brown Layers
When an Olive laying hen is crossed with a purebred dark gene carrying rooster, such as a Marans, this is a Back Cross. It is often mis-labeled as producing F2 Olive Eggers but this is incorrect, it should be labeled as a Back Cross 1 (BC1). The offspring has a 50% chance of laying brown or olive and this is where some of the interesting speckled brown colors will begin to show up. Here is a Punnet square showing the outcome of Back Crossing:
Here is an illustration that shows what egg colors can be expected from back crossing an OE hen with a dark brown or Marans roo:
This is also true in the reverse:
Why Easter Egger Mothers Make Disappointing Brown Layer Daughters
When Easter Eggers, with their one blue and one white egg gene, are bred to a dark gene carrying rooster, the brown laying offspring may lay a really common looking grocery-store-brown egg. This is disheartening because they are not very unique. Even more disappointing are their olive laying sisters, whose light sage egg may be so close to an Easter Egger green that it is hardly worth calling them an olive egger. This is because Easter Eggers have been bred for generations to be pastel colored egg layers. The single white egg gene they are carrying – many of them having this from distant Leghorn ancestry – seems to carry additional genes that can have a muting and diluting effect on tinted overlays, which is what helps produce the lighter Easter Egger tones. Many Easter Eggers also have weak blue egg genes and lay faint powder blue shades. None of these genetics help when breeding for dark green laying olive eggers, some of which will end up laying brown. Avoid using Easter Eggers/Hatchery Americanas (spelled with an i) in your olive egger breeding if you are wanting the richest, deepest shades possible.
Breeder Tip: Breed Failed Olive Eggers to Olive Egger Roosters
Many breeders will back cross any Brown Egger to a homozygous blue rooster to produce guaranteed olive laying offspring. Sadly, the rooster’s genes can dilute the tint offspring inherit from their mother and create rather bland light sage layers. You may find that you get much more interesting egg colors by using an Olive Egger roo over the Failed OE hens, which should statistically produce 50% olive laying offspring and generate more unique earth tones among the brown laying offspring.
I always encourage mixing olive eggers together and using speckled olive egger roosters whenever possible. Speckling is created by the egg turning more slowly in the shell gland and seems to be best inherited from the father. But what do you call an Olive Egger Rooster x Failed OE Hen breeding? Believe it or not, it is correct to label this as F2 or whatever filial generation is true for that rooster + hen pairing. After all, the Failed Olive Egger (brown layer) was created by an attempted olive egger breeding to begin with!
I Just Want to See More Brown Laying Olive Egger Egg Pictures!
I’ll continue to add photos of the unique brown tones my Failed Olive Eggers lay as I breed among my own Speckled Olive Egger flock. All of my Brown Eggers are the product of attempting to breed for speckled olive eggers, even if their shells are not speckled.
Brown Layer Roos & Hens
Here is how my failed olive egger roos and hens look. ALL of these birds had either Olive Egger mothers or fathers (or both) and hatched with a straight comb.
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