Blue and Green Egg Layers: Ameraucana, Easter Egger, and Olive Egger Prices
The price gap between an Ameraucana and an Easter Egger is real money, and hatchery naming makes it easy to pay one price for the other. Current prices and how to read the labels.
Published July 29, 2026 · figures recomputed from data through September 4, 2026 · by Chick Price Index
Blue and green eggs sell chickens. They also power the most expensive naming confusion in the hatchery catalog: "Ameraucana," "Americana," "Araucana," and "Easter Egger" look interchangeable on a listing page and are absolutely not the same product — the price gap between the first and last is $12.50 per chick today. Current prices for the whole colored-egg family, then how to read the labels.
The family, priced today
| Bird | Median | Range | Hatcheries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ameraucana True APA breed; always lays blue | $19.99 | $3.85–$54.99 | 4 |
| Easter Egger Mixed-ancestry blue/green layer — not a breed | $7.49 | $2.99–$69.99 | 4 |
| Branded Egger Hybrids Hatchery-branded Easter Egger lines | $5.80 | $3.26–$13.00 | 3 |
| Olive Egger Dark-egg × blue-egg cross; lays olive | $7.74 | $3.26–$34.99 | 4 |
| Cream Legbar Autosexing British breed; blue eggs | $10.35 | $8.12–$12.99 | 4 |
| Legbar (other) Legbar varieties beyond cream | $32.49 | $20.48–$69.99 | 2 |
What the price gap is actually buying
An Ameraucana (median $19.99) is an American Poultry Association breed: it breeds true, every variety lays a blue egg, and supply is limited to real breeding programs. An Easter Egger (median $7.49) is any chicken carrying the blue-egg gene — usually vigorous, friendly, and colorful, but each bird's egg color is a lottery ticket from blue through green to pinkish, and offspring inherit none of it reliably. Neither is the "wrong" bird. The wrong outcome is paying the breed price for the mix — or expecting breed consistency from the mix.
How to read a listing
- "Americana" is marketing, not a breed. Where a hatchery's own page describes multicolored birds laying "blues to greens," that's an Easter Egger flock whatever the spelling — this index classifies such listings by what the hatchery's description says the birds are, not by the label. (We've reclassified listings on exactly this evidence; our methodology is on the about page.)
- Blue eggs guaranteed = APA breed. Ameraucana, Araucana, Cream Legbar, Whiting True Blue. Expect breed prices and thinner availability.
- Green/olive is a cross by definition. An Olive Egger is dark-brown-egg × blue-egg genetics; consistent within the first cross, then a lottery again.
- Branded lines price between mix and breed. Hatchery-trademarked colored-egg lines are proprietary crosses — more predictable than a generic Easter Egger, cheaper than an APA breed, and comparable only within the same brand.
Buying notes
The colored-egg family carries healthy pullet premiums (sexed females are what almost everyone wants — the measurement), and the true breeds sell out well before the hybrids in spring. If the goal is simply a colorful egg basket at the lowest price, an Easter Egger plus an Olive Egger covers the spectrum for less than one Ameraucana; if the goal is a breeding program or guaranteed blue, the breed premium is the honest price of certainty.
Prices as of September 4, 2026, recomputed at every daily build. Birds appear in the table only while listed at 2+ hatcheries.