Olive Eggers: Breed True or Stay Hybrid? Why Both Paths Are Worth Considering
If you have a flock of rainbow olive egger layers you know the thrill of collecting a wide variety of greens, olives, pinks, and purples with speckles or blooms and everything in between. For many small breeders, the hybrids they create to lay a rainbow basket of colors is an admittedly addictive avenue for letting the creative juices flow — but the big question eventually comes up:
"Should I work toward creating a true-breeding olive egger line, or should I keep mixing and matching for endless egg color variety?"
The truth is, there’s no one “right” answer.
Path 1: Creating a True Olive Egger Breed
When you decide to “lock in” traits in order to establish a true breed, you’re committing to long-term consistency. That means:
- Choosing Your Traits – You’ll first decide what defines your ideal OE or EE bird. Maybe that’s a specific shade of pink or olive with or without speckles or bloom, a consistent feather pattern, a certain comb type, and a reliable body size.
- Selective Breeding – Year after year, you’ll hatch large numbers, keep only the birds that match your vision, and breed them back into your program.
- Stabilizing Over Time – The goal is to reach a point where breeding two of your OEs produces offspring that all look and lay just like their parents — generation after generation.
Why choose this path?
If you want your work to become a recognized, repeatable strain you might choose this path. There’s a certain pride in knowing that when people see your birds or their eggs, they immediately recognize them as coming from your program. Buyers also appreciate knowing exactly what they’re getting, and that reliability can help you build a strong reputation. For many breeders, it’s deeply satisfying to see a clear “signature look” emerge and hold steady generation after generation.
Potential trade-offs:
The trade-offs are worth considering. To lock in certain traits, you’ll likely have to give up your ability to focus as much on others. For example, some of the egg color diversity that makes Olive Eggers so exciting would be extremely difficult to achieve if you have to lock it in along with certain physical traits.
The process also tends to move slowly, requiring a LOT of hatching, big culling decisions and a willingness to track and evaluate large numbers of birds each year. It can take years before your flock consistently breeds true, and patience becomes an important virtue along the way.
Path 2: Staying in Hybrid Olive Egger Mode
On the other hand, you may decide the real joy is in the variety — in chasing that perfect balance of green, khaki, sage, or deep mossy olive eggs within your flock, without worrying whether every chick grows up with the same comb type, leg feathering, or shade of plumage.
For you, the thrill comes from opening the nest box and never quite knowing what surprising shade of color will be waiting for you to collect. In that case, removing a hen from your program simply because she doesn’t have the “correct” eye color or the ideal feather pattern would feel counterproductive. If her eggs are stunning and her genetics move your egg color goals forward, then she’s an keeper — and you couldn't care less whether her feet are feathered and gray or clean and yellow. When egg color is your highest priority, beauty and variety at the nest often matter more than perfect uniformity in the yard. With a hybrid flock approach:
- You can keep introducing new genetics from different breeds to refresh traits and colors however you see fit.
- You don’t have to reject a great-laying hen just because her feather color isn’t “SOP.”
- You can explore side goals, like creating the richest speckles or the heaviest bloom layers, OR ensuring your flock comes in a wide variety of feather colors.
Why you might choose this path:
Genetically, this is the path of least resistance which translates as "flexibility and freedom" for you as a breeder. If you love the thrill in seeing new colors emerge from year to year, and the ability to pivot your breeding toward whatever is currently in demand without the pressure of specific SOPs, this is the path for you. Here you can enjoy more creativity and freedom in your pairings and selections.
Additionally, this is an ideal approach for someone with limited room in their pens and runs. Your freedom to to mix-and-match roosters to hens for a wide variety of results gives you the maximum return with the least amount of space. Given the current climate and desire for a wide variety of colors in the egg basket, this approach makes sense for most homestead breeders.
Potential trade-offs:
The trade-offs are just as real, however. Offspring from this type of program can vary widely in appearance, comb type, and egg color, making them less predictable for buyers. People who purchase eggs or chicks won’t always know exactly what their birds will grow into or what color their eggs will be. Without a consistent “look” or set of traits, it can also be harder to build a strong brand identity, since your flock’s output won’t be uniform.
The Common Ground
Both hybrid-focused and breed-focused breeders are making intentional choices, and both contribute value to the poultry world. The real difference is in the goals:
- Breed development is about predictability.
- Hybrid programs are about possibility.
And here’s the secret: many breeders actually keep a foot in both worlds — refining a true-breeding project on one side while still playing with fun hybrid crosses on the other.
Closing Thoughts
Whether you’re aiming to create the perfect, consistent breed, or love keeping things wild and colorful, the joy is in shaping your flock in a way that matches your passion. The poultry world has room for breeders committed to improving their chosen breeds by focusing on SOPs as well as people who enjoy expressing their creativity through exploratory crosses — and you get to decide where your work belongs.
For me, the spot I’ve decided to occupy in the poultry world is in creating a mix-and-match palette of true autosexing breeds. My focus isn’t just on producing one fixed strain — it’s on building the tools that backyard and homestead breeders can use to craft their own unique flocks that produce signature colors, and be autosexing. By developing autosexing lines with consistent feathering in a variety of egg colors, I’m making it possible for others to create hybrids with the exact mix of traits they want, while still having the convenience of chicks that can be sexed at hatch. It’s a niche that blends my love of structure with the joy of endless variety, and it means my work can empower others to make their own mark in the world of beautiful, functional chickens.
If you want to follow along on my journey in developing my own true-breeding autosexing rainbow layers — while still enjoying a few “just for fun” hybrid projects — you can follow along at Queen of Coops and join the email list to watch the process unfold.