The short answer is around 24 weeks old. The long answer is that you may see eggs as early as 20 weeks old or she may hold out until 28 to 32 weeks old. It often depends on the number of daylight hours she’s exposed to (which is influenced by season) and how well she’s been fed. Let me share some tricks to help hurry up the process and show you the egg colors you may get when she does come into lay!
When do Olive Eggers Start Laying?
Most Olive Eggers are going to come into lay between 24 and 28 weeks old (6-7 months old). This is slightly slower than average for most standard size chickens. Why? It is believed the Marans ancestry, which is commonly used to create Olive Eggers, slows this hybrid’s laying down. Marans tend to come into lay at 6-7 months old and their Olive Egger hybrid offspring tends to inherit that same timing. But there are some things you can do from the start to hopefully encourage your girls to begin laying closer to 24 weeks!
Feed for Eggs from the Start
If you’ve got Olive Egger chicks in the brooder, make sure they are on a minimum 20% protein chick starter crumble. If you can get 22-24% protein starter, use it! Do not use 18% chick starter. ALL of my Olive Egger hens who came into lay right at 24 weeks were on 20% protein minimum chick starter. My absolute earliest layers at 20 weeks-to-the-day old were fed Scratch and Peck brand starter mash which is a ground whole grain chick feed. (Afflink) Some breeders have discovered that feeding the chicks a premium whole grain starter mash or 24% protein for just the first 10 weeks of life can help them lay larger eggs and come into lay on time.
Supplement with Light
While pullets will generally come into lay by 28 weeks old (7 months), she needs a minimum of 15 hours of exposure to light entering her eye and triggering her pituitary gland to begin ovulation. When her body begins ovulating, or releasing yolks, egg laying begins shortly after. Having an electric or solar garden light in the coop that stays lit from sunset until it turns off 15.5 hours after that day’s sunrise can help. (I have a pair of floodlights on the back of my house that point at my coop, which I flick on at sunset and turn off when I go to bed.) Painting or lime washing the interior of the chicken coop in white is believed to help bounce light around earlier in the morning and later in the evening. It’s an old chicken keeper’s trick that has been used for centuries.
Reduce Shade
If it is a pleasant time of year and your flock does not need shade cover from the scorching summer sun, consider removing any tarps or shade cloth. The increase in sunlight streaming into the coop and run for just a bit longer each day will help ensure enough light is entering her eyes.
Entice Her Appetite
A pullet who is eating well, getting an abundance of fresh greens and hearty bugs is going to have everything her body needs. Food intake and body warmth are primary needs, while reproduction is a secondary need. She won’t come into lay early if she’s malnourished in any way. I use homemade chicken scratch blends to keep my pullets interested in food and actively eating, especially when they seem bored with their grower crumbles around 16 weeks old. Feeding the flock commercial feed in the morning when they’re hungry and topping them off with scratch grains, meal worms, or other healthy “treats” in the evening is a great way to ensure your Olive Eggers are getting plenty of body-building protein.
Calcium in and Eggs Out?
You may be in a hurry to feed your pullets flaked oyster shell, which is a fantastic source of calcium for laying hens. Sadly, the extra boost of calcium does not cause an Olive Egger pullet to begin laying. However, the naturally present calcium in backyard weeds and common clover is an excellent, bio-available source that chickens benefit from. You can give her as many green weeds as you care to pick! The phytonutrients in plants rush good nutrition to her entire body, including her reproductive system. It won’t force laying but excellent nutrition ensures her body has all the building blocks needed to begin ovulation. (Afflink)
Bullied Olive Eggers Start Laying Later
If your Olive Egger pullet is being pecked away from the food bowl by higher ranking hens, she isn’t getting the optimal nutrition she needs. Hens who are not eating enough won’t be early layers. Worse, pullets who are not consuming enough feed will never lay large sized eggs. They seem to forever lay USDA Medium sized gems. This is bad news if you are hoping to hatch big, robust chicks from her eggs.
Spread Out Feed & Treats
If you can, scatter healthy homemade non-GMO scratch and treats widely around the run so everyone gets a chance to have some. Use two feeders if you see bullying going on. An Olive Egger pullet must be consuming enough calories and her fair share of extras & treats (10% of her diet) if she’s to come into lay at 24 weeks. Otherwise her body will take another month to gain weight and attempt to finish growing since she’s been chased away from the feed so often.
Winter Warm Fronts May Help
I’ve noticed that in February, when the temps are still chilly, a winter warm front that blows through and brings our daytime highs into the 50’s for a few days suddenly sparks some hens to begin laying. This seems to trigger both pullets and older hens who had ceased laying for the winter. Likewise, absolutely brutal, droughty August heat when I’m expecting March-hatched chicks to come into lay can horribly delay the pullets. Weather does seem to play some part. Chickens actually enjoy 40°F to 80°F weather and seem most likely to begin laying early when outside temperatures are within that range. (I had the best luck with early October hatched chicks coming into lay in late February during a 2 day warm front.)
Provide Sparkling Clean Waterers
Eggs require water in order for the hen’s body to produce the liquid albumin (egg white) that surrounds the yolk. If she is not drinking for any reason, egg production will drop in already-laying hens and pullets won’t come into lay early. Keep waterers very clean, so the water tastes good and the hens drink deeply. Consistently dirty or frozen waterers will cause a delay in laying.
More Feeding Tips
By now you know that an Olive Egger pullet must be well nourished if she’s going to come into lay by 24 weeks old. If you’re experiencing a particularly bitter cold spell, I offer all my hens suet cakes intended for wild birds. This little dose of fat can really give the hens a calorie boost that helps them stay warm. Again, if her basic needs for food, water, and body warmth are not being met, she won’t come into lay early. Fat and protein are valuable treats in cooler weather if you’re expecting eggs soon. In sizzling summer heat, she needs a wide range of nutrients, trace minerals, and hydration. I use this sweet molasses rehydrating water recipe to encourage deep drinking – and increased egg laying – from my summertime flock.
View Pics While You Wait!
Olive Eggers are always worth the wait! Will her egg be sage, avocado, moss, and hopefully extra dark? Or something even more rare and beautiful? You can view pictures of what our Olive Egger hens have laid on our Labeled Egg Images page, Olive Egger Breeding page and our F3 Olive Egger Eggs page. Eggs laid by Speckled Olive Eggers with Welsummer Mothers are shown, too! Don’t worry about getting a brown “olive” egg layer – their eggs are beautiful, too!
Olive Eggers Start Laying Soon
The wait for those gorgeous, colored eggs takes FOREVER! But I promise beautiful baskets of their earthy colored eggs are always worth the wait.
You Might Also Enjoy Reading:
How to Select the BEST Olive Egger Rooster
How to Breed Speckled Olive Eggers
Chicken Egg Colors by Breed (50+ images with labeled eggs!)
Olive Eggers vs Easter Eggers (with egg pics!)
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I got a Wyandotte from CAL Ranch in the spring when she was a chick. She was supposed to be silver-laced black, but she ended up feathering into a shade of blue with a little lacing around her neck. Winter comes early here, and so I didn’t expect her to be the first of her group to lay.
There was an EE I bought off of a local farmer who looked about ready to lay, and I was expecting her first egg any day. I found a rich olive green egg with darker green speckles in the nest box after the first snow. I was very surprised. I had some olive egger pullets, but they were only a couple months old, and from the F1 generation. I supposed this egg came from the EE, and didn’t think about it again.
When I isolated my Wyandotte because I’d caught her snacking on a broken egg, I put a light brown egg, food and water in with her to see if she was being opportunistic or breaking eggs on purpose. The next day I found 2 eggs, the light brown one and a new dark green egg with near black speckles. Imagine my surprise! I had thought she was a Wyandotte with bad coloring, but no. She’s an olive egger!
(She wasn’t breaking and eating eggs, so she could stay in the flock.)