I recently received this text which got me to thinking that a post on how egg color works may be in order.

Clearly, her expectation was that the egg color from which the rooster had hatched would immediately have an effect on the color of the eggshell of any egg fertilized by that rooster. (We are not going to get distracted by the fact that her blue-egger hen is laying white/cream eggs.)

That would be awesome if we could get results so quickly! But alas, that is not how it works.

The White One, whom we called Mr. O’Malley, hatched from a lovely green egg, similar to these.

When Mr. O’Malley contributes to a hen’s egg, his green egg genes will become part of his daughters’ egg color recipes. His daughters will lay eggs that are influenced by his egg colors. His hen however, will continue to lay the color that was established in her genetics by her parents.

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.

• Olive Egger Rooster over Bright Blue Egger Hen should give me chicks that will lay bright green eggs.

• Welsummer Rooster over Bright Blue Egger Hen should give me chicks that will lay medium green eggs with speckles.

• Olive Egger Rooster over Olive Egger Hen should give me chicks that will lay mossy green eggs.

• Welsummer Rooster over Olive Egger Hen should give me chicks that will lay dark green eggs with speckles.

You can learn how to reserve chicks from my Olive Egger pens here: How to Reserve Chicks. And, yes, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May your eggs be green!