Best Egg Layers That Lay Green Eggs (With Pictures)
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If you’re looking for an excellent egg layer as an addition to your flock, why not choose one that lays beautiful green-colored eggs? The varieties of green depend on chicken to chicken, and will bring your morning basket of eggs some lovely colors.
Let’s find out which chicken breeds are excellent egg layers and will bring you stunning green-colored eggs.
Top 5 excellent green-egg layers
Notable mentions:
If you want to learn more about egg colors per chicken breed, check out our ‘Egg Color Chart‘ where you can find all common chicken breeds sorted by egg color.
Let’s start by addressing some key takeaways:
- Most breeds lay around 240 eggs yearly
- Hardy breeds that can be kept in any climate
- Beginner-friendly and low in maintenance
- Beautiful green eggs
- Very hardy breeds
- Friendly and low in maintenance
- Most are hybrid breeds
- Egg color can vary
1. Olive Egger
An Olive Egger is not a true chicken breed; it’s a mix of a dark brown egg layer and a blue egg layer. Most Olive Eggers are a mix of Marans chicken and Araucanas, where Marans lay dark brown eggs, and Araucanas lay blue eggs.
Egg Color
Crossbreeding these chickens results in a species that lays olive-colored, green eggs. The Olive Egger is a unique hybrid bird that is highly popular due to its excellent egg-laying skills and lovely-looking eggs.
Depending on the strain of your Olive Egger, their eggs can be light green to almost white and very dark avocado color.
Egg laying skills
Olive Eggers are great egg layers, laying up to 3 to 5 eggs per week. All eggs are green-colored and large in size.
They’re not particularly known for their broodiness, which is great if you’re not planning to hatch chicks.
Olive Eggers are quite hardy chickens; they’ll keep on laying during winter months, although egg production may slow down. You’ll be enjoying their lovely colored eggs almost year-round.
2. Isbar (Silverudd Blå)
The Isbar chicken, also known as the Silverudd Blå, Swedish Isbar, Svensk Gronaggsvarpare, is a rare Swedish breed created by the known chicken breeder Martin Silverudd.
It is a fantastic chicken for any poultry keeper with a heart for rare breeds. Not only will you have a unique bird in your flock, but they’re also excellent egg layers, very friendly and hardy birds.
Egg Color
The Isbar (Silverudd Blå) lays beautiful green-colored eggs, ranging from dark olive to light moss green. Their eggs are often speckled, giving them a unique look besides their color.
Adding a Silverudd Blå to your flock means owning the only single-combed, green egg-laying chicken in the world, an excellent addition for any chicken hobbyist.
A true Silverudd Blå should always lay green-tinted eggs. The egg may vary from light green to olive but should never be brown. Brown eggs in a Silverudd Blå means your bird lacks the dominant blue-egg gene and isn’t correctly and purely bred.
Egg Laying skills
Silverudd Blå are good egg layers, laying around 200 eggs per year. That’s up to 4 eggs per week. All eggs are large in size. Being cold-hardy birds, hens will keep laying during the winter; however, egg production may slow down.
3. Green Queen
A Green Queen is a hybrid bird, a mix of several other chicken breeds. It was developed as a new version of the Easter Egger, an egg-laying breed that lays beautiful colored eggs.
Meyer Hatchery created the Green Queen and brought it to its customers in 2020. The hatchery does not specify which breeds were used to develop the Green Queen.
But, because the Green Queen lays green eggs, we can be sure of one of its parents carrying the ‘blue egg laying gene‘, such as Araucanas or Ameraucanas. And because of the five toes on many Green Queens, we’re also looking at the (Salmon) Faverolles bird to be involved.
Egg color
Green Queen chickens are a new version of Easter Eggers, meaning they’ll lay green to olive-colored eggs. However, when it comes to green egg layers, nothing is ever certain until your hen lays its very first egg.
There is a possibility the egg will be cream, tinted, brown, or pink instead of green or olive. Keep this in mind when keeping a Green Queen.
Egg laying skills
Green Queens are excellent layers, as they were developed as an egg-laying breed. They lay up to 4 to 6 eggs per week, more than 300 per year! All eggs are medium to large-sized. As Green Queens are hardy birds, they’ll keep on laying during winter; however, egg production may slow down.
4. Starlight Green Egger
A Starlight Green Egger is not a real chicken breed but a hatchery mix of a Prairie Bluebell Egger and a brown egg layer. It was created by Hoover’s Hatchery and registered as a trademark in 2021.
Starlight Green eggers lay up to 280 medium-sized eggs yearly. It’s an active but easy-going chicken that is beginner friendly.
Egg Color
Starlight Green Eggers lay all varieties of green, from olive and darker green to blue-ish and almost white. It’s impossible to tell what a Starlight Green Egger’s first egg will look like until it’s laid. So you’ll have to be patient and hope for the color of your preference.
This is almost always the case with any chicken breed, especially hybrid breeds. It’s also important to note that around 5% of Starlight Green Eggers will lay brown eggs instead of green.
Egg Laying skills
Starlight Green Eggers are excellent egg layers, laying around 5 eggs per week, up to 280 eggs yearly. They are also hardy chickens, both cold and heat, and rarely stop egg production during winter; however, their egg production can decrease.
5. Easter Egger
The Easter Egger is also a hybrid chicken, a mix of one parent carrying the blue-egg gene. Easter eggers can lay many color varieties of eggs, blue, turquoise, pink, creme, and white.
They differ from Olive Eggers in the sense that Olive Eggers are a specific type of Easter Eggers laying only green-ish eggs, as they are a mix of one parent carrying the blue egg gene and one parent laying brown eggs.
Many hatcheries are currently creating unique mixes of the Easter Egger; one example is the Fibro Easter Egger, a completely black chicken that lays colored eggs.
Egg color
The egg color of an Easter Egger can be very different depending on the type of mix you have in your flock. You won’t be sure of the color of their eggs until they start laying. Easter Eggers lay all sorts of color varieties, from pale blue, to turquoise, to off-white and light brown with a pinkish sheen.
So not all Easter Eggers will lay green-colored eggs, which is something to keep in mind if you’re looking for only green-laying chicken.
Egg Laying skills
Easter Eggers are great egg layers; not only will they bring a rainbow of colored eggs to your kitchen counter, but they’ll also supply 3 to 5 eggs per week. That’s around 200 eggs yearly. They are hardy chickens, meaning they can be kept in colder climates and won’t completely stop egg production during winter.
6. Favaucana
The Favaucana is a designer chicken breed known for its docile nature and distinctive appearance. They are notable for their unique features, including muffs, beards, and sometimes feathered feet with five toes.
They have pea combs and dense feathering, which makes them suitable for cold climates, while their slender body helps them tolerate heat.
As Favaucanas are a hybrid chicken, their appearance may vary from chicken to chicken.
Eggs
They lay medium to large sage-green eggs, with about 1/16th of the breed laying light brown eggs. Favaucanas are good layers and lay around five eggs per week.
How do green chicken eggs get their color?
The color of the egg is mainly defined by genetics and breeding processes. Green chicken eggs are blue eggs with a coating of dark brown pigment. The combination of the blue shell and brown coating turns the outside of the egg green.
To breed an Olive Egger, you need the genes of a brown layer and a blue layer. A typical way to produce Olive Eggers is to crossbreed Araucana or Ameraucanas with Marans. This cross will give you blue eggs with a brown coating, making the eggs look green. The blue color is found all through the shell, which is evident if you look at the inside of the eggs.
Summary
Instead of the brown or white egg layers, why not go for a green egg layer instead? It’ll bring color to your daily egg basket, and there are plenty of green egg layers that are excellent layers. Our top 5 best egg layers that lay beautiful colored green eggs are Olive Eggers, Isbar, Green Queen, Starlight Green Eggers, and Easter Eggers.
If you want to learn more about chicken breeds that lay colored eggs, check out our article ‘10 Popular Chickens With Colored Eggs‘. Some chickens will lay up to one egg per day and, on rare occasions, even two eggs daily.
There are hundreds of chicken breeds! If you want to get to know them all, rare and common, go to our ‘All Chicken Breeds & Types Worldwide: List of 500+ Breeds‘.
