Posted by Laura Hepburn, Mon, Mar 4, 2013; Updated Wed, Mar 15, 2023
One of the most popular chicken breeds is the “Easter Egger,” and I’m not surprised one bit! Not only are they usually assertive, friendly, and comical, but they come in a wide variety of colors and patterns and lay eggs in a wide variety of shades.
While their personalities are second to none, the reason most people add Easter Eggers to their flock is to add some splashes of blue or green to their egg basket. It’s always fun when non-chicken folk see a beautiful blue chicken egg for the first time and say, “Blue? Blue eggs? I didn’t know chickens could lay blue eggs!”
Which chickens lay colorful eggs?
Blue eggs can come from several different pure breeds including Araucanas, Ameraucanas and Cream Legbars. “Easter Eggers” are mixed-breed chickens that have been crossed at some point with Araucanas or Ameraucanas. This means that the body type, comb, and other features will often resemble those of one of these breeds, but the egg color and feather color/pattern can vary widely. This, in my opinion, is what gives Easter Eggers their charm.
Many feed stores, eBay shops or hatcheries will label their Easter Eggers as purebred Ameraucanas. Unless you are planning on showing your birds or you want a blue egg guarantee, don’t be disappointed! There is nothing wrong with having these delightful mutts.
Features you may find in Easter Eggers include muffs, beards, slate/green/blue legs, feathered legs, or pea combs, or they might be rumpless. Color patterns range across the board from black to white, buff to partridge, splash, blue, lacing, and on and on!
Part of the excitement of ordering or hatching out Easter Eggers is waiting with anticipation as they grow up and surprise you with a rainbow of variations. Similarly, Easter Eggers can lay eggs that are light brown, sage green, turquoise, blue, sky blue, light olive green, spring pea green or dark olive green.
One trend that has exploded in recent years is what’s referred to as “Olive Eggers,” which are Ameraucanas, Araucanas, or Easter Eggers crossed with a chocolate egg layer breed such as a Maran or Welsummer. This cross produces an Easter Egger (or “Olive Egger”) that lays a dark olive green egg.
Do you have fun facts or stories about Easter Eggers? Please share them in the comments below! We love hearing people’s personal stories and thoughts, and if there was ever a breed that inspired passion among chicken owners, it’s this one!
Download our complete Chicken Breed poster below to find the perfect breed for your rainbow egg basket!
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Very well written and easy to understand. Finally! Somene has explained the difference in the Easter Eggers and thos other long "A" namers! LOL thanks~!
Completely useless. Had to delete. All spaces for info crytped & looked like !!0lk?PKMNQ or something similar. If you have a usable chart in English, please forward. TY
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I started raising chickens a few years ago after marrying a widower who lives on a ranch and had an old chicken coop. I read a lot of articles on raising chickens and after rebuilding the chicken house we got some chicks. I started with some barred Plymouth rocks, then each year I added a few different varieties like Buff Orpington, Cornish rocks, Rhode island Reds, Americaunas and 3 guineas (2 female and 1 male). Unfortunately earlier this year we had a huge loss of 20 hens in 30 days at our ranch due to dogs and varmints. I was left with one surviving Rhode Island Red pullet. We searched near us for people who had pullets for sale. I found a place called Mini Feet Farm which sold all types of birds, guineas, chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. They were sorry to hear of our loss and offered us a wonderful deal on 6 birds. We were told that they were 5 pullets of the Easter Egg variety and 1 black copper maran rooster. My hens have been laying now for about 3 months and everyday we get eggs of different colors. In December one hen decided to set on 3 eggs. 2 eggs hatched on Christmas day! Unfortunately one chick died and the third egg never hatched but we got one cute little Easter Egg chick which we placed in a brooder coop. (We then purchased additional chicks, 4 black australorps and 4 cuckoo marans, from a hatchery so our chick is not alone.) Since the rooster was a black copper maran we hope that if this chick is a female we may get olive eggs from it! Our Easter Egg hens have great personalities and we love the colorful eggs in our nesting boxes. It has been such a good experience that I have encouraged my friends to try Easter Egg hens.
Kathy, so sorry to hear about your losses! However, its fantastic that you are having such a good experience with your Easter Eggers! Thank you for the comment :)
We had hens in California but recently moved to Ohio. We’ve just ordered chicks from a local hatchery and decided to try 2 Easter Eggers. Since we ordered 12 they gave us a 13th chick called a “meal maker”. They ask if you will raise it and donate their eggs or meat to charity or a needy family. They only tell you that the chick is from one of the breeds that you ordered. Besides the Easter Egger we ordered 2 Blue Cuckoo Marans. The 13th chick was dark so we weren’t sure what she was. They are now 7 weeks old and we’ve decided she is an egger. She is still mostly black but has ear muffs the other 2 eggers are red-brown with black bars, she looks like a red tail hawk and the other is red-golden with black bars. They are all beautiful and have great sweet personalities. We can’t wait until they lay. Definitely they are a 2 thumbs up.!
I currently have five Ameraucanas who look just like your picture above and one Oliver Egger who lays dark olive green eggs. The Ameraucanas lay beautiful turquoise eggs. Of the five, I have two who have gone blind and one more is partially blind. Is this a bad gene in that breed or are my birds just unlucky - they are blind. Of the three, Faith, Hope and Love, Love is a real sweetheart, she comes running as soon as she hears my voice so I pick her up and take her outside to a quiet place and hand feed her. I hold the container and she eats until she is full and then lets me know she is through. I look forward to our time together every morning and I love her so much.