Are you wanting to use Prairie Bluebell Eggers (a type of blue Easter Egger hybrid) to breed olive eggers? We did it and I have egg pictures to show you from multiple crosses! Here is what the pullets lay when creating Prairie Bluebell Olive Eggers.
What Are Prairie Bluebell Eggers?
Prairie Bluebells are a hybrid offered only by Hoover’s Hatchery, who named this cross when they began offering the chicks commercially in 2019. Hoover’s tells visitors the hybrid was created by crossing true Araucanas with White Leghorns to produce guaranteed blue laying offspring who are carrying one blue egg gene from the Araucana parent and one white egg gene from the White Leghorn parent. They are an F1 cross that produces a blue laying Easter Egger. In my experience the hens were medium-large bodied and laid a large egg, with a few laying a jumbo egg. (The Hoover’s website says they lay a medium egg but there was nothing medium about the 70+ gram egg I still get from my Prairie Bluebell who is turning 4 in 2023.)
Prairie Bluebell Olive Eggers
I wanted to breed my jumbo-laying Prairie Bluebell’s HUGE egg genes into my line. Her eggs are the size of duck eggs, her chicks hatch out large and she produces a higher number of females than males. I have used her to breed olive eggers for a couple years. I know the offspring from one Prairie Bluebell hen is not much to go off of but even as anecdotal data, I think it can help backyard breeders who are wondering what color olives they may get.
Egg Pictures
Why Are None of Them Dark Olive?
F1 Olive Eggers are usually a light or medium color olive. Dark olives come from Back Crossing or mating OE roos to OE hens to produce F2 Olive Eggers. But olive eggers made with a Prairie Bluebell mother generally produce tones closer to Easter Egger shades than olive egger shades. Why? Egg color genes are complex (no matter how simple I try to make it appear in my graphics) and I suspect the Leghorn’s genes continue to cause a pastel-like muting to any color overlaid, even in the second generation. Back Crossing any Prairie Bluebell parented olive eggers to a dark egg Marans rooster has been the only way I have found to darken the eggs.
Pretty Good Blue Inheritance
Easter Eggers tend to pass on a muted, weak blue egg gene that makes for poor olive tones that can look muddy, khaki or hardly green at all. But my Prairie Bluebell hen has passed on a pretty decent blue egg gene, resulting in good blue undertones. Maybe it is just her or maybe Hoovers had vibrant blue egg genes in the Araucana stock they began with. Either way, my hen is passing on blue genes strong enough to make olives.
What About Failed Olive Eggers Who Lay Brown?
I had one pullet hatch in 2022 with a straight comb from my Prairie Bluebell hen who was under an F5 Olive Egger roo. I thought it would be great to show the brown eggs she laid. Imagine my surprise when I watched her lay a light bluey green colored egg! I’ve seen her lay twice and crazy as it seems, my straight combed OE pullet is in the tiny, approximately 4% of birds who can hatch with a straight comb but still carry a blue egg gene. Her “olive” egg is not at all olive, it is a shade of Easter Egger light bluey green, which means the tint inherited from the rooster is heavily diluted or was not strongly inherited. Worse, she does not lay big eggs like her mother. (Chicken egg genetics are complex and even when we try so hard to breed for a trait, we can end up disappointed.) You can read more about Brown Laying “Olive” Eggers in this article.
Are Prairie Bluebells Worth Breeding With?
I have enjoyed breeding my Prairie Bluebell hen. I know to expect Easter Egger colors from her offspring, no matter what roo she is bred to. If I wanted the darkest eggs possible, I would need to cross my Prairie Bluebell to a Black Copper Marans who came from a very dark line with speckling. It is the speckling that is more likely to show up than the dark overlay tint, which can make for a fun egg!
Prairie Bluebells might also be useful in breeding bright laying Easter Eggers and Speckled Easter Eggers, which are birds who lay a light background egg with darker speckles that tends to come from Olive Egger breeding attempts.
Give Them a Try!
If you like to experiment and already own Prairie Bluebell hens, try using them to breed olive eggers. If you’re just starting out and are looking for a good homozygous (two copy) blue egg laying breed, I highly suggest Whiting True Blues or purebred true Ameraucanas from a local breeder in one of the breed’s accepted feather colors.
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Great article!
I have a question, though – If I breed a PBE roo with a CBM hen, would I get similar results as those with the Opposite parentage (CBM roo & PBE hens)?
I bought two PBEs that were supposed to be hens, but surprise! One (at 15 weeks) now definitely seems to be a rooster.
I have Copper Black Marans and Easter Egger hens, along with my now one Prairie Bluebell Egger hen + her roo brother and I am considering keeping him, in the hopes of having those beautiful, dark green eggs (and possibly selling their offspring).
Hi Tracey!
It is generally believed (from breeding experiments that have shown pretty reliable results) that if you reverse the hen & roo, using a Black Copper Marans hen under a PB roo that you will NOT get eggs quite as dark. It seems good dark tint overlay genes are best inherited from the father rooster. The F1 crosses of both (BCM x PB) and (PB x BCM) are going to produce sage & light olive layers in the first generation. If you want dark olive eggs, you’ll need to back-cross olive egger offspring to Black Copper Marans roosters. The free Olive Egger breeding guide for newsletter subscribers walks you though all the steps if that helps!