Has anyone crossed a Prairie Bluebell with a Starlight Green Egger?

[NinjaGamer2022]

In the future I hope to breed chickens and I'm wondering if anyone one here has crossed a Starlight Green Egger with a Prairie Bluebell? If so photos of the offspring and their eggs would be appreciated.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I haven't done that cross, but I can say from working with blue/green/olive eggers, the apparent genetics of crossing the Starlight Green Egger with the Prairie Bluebell will get shades of green-blue eggs since both carry the blue shell gene, and it only takes one gene to create the blue shell....and you've got blue on both sides. Since the SGE also has some brown tone (brown is covered by about 13 genes, and brown wash over blue shell creates green), with some brown genes being passed forward, you should have shades of light green-blue on all progeny, possibly fading into more blue each successive generation as the brown genes tend to play out if not repeatedly added back into the line (my experience with olive eggers).

As to what the birds look like, I did read that the Prairie Bluebell carries one blue (feathering) gene and one recessive white. The blue/black gene will be dominant over any red-gold. Recessive white needs 2 genes to present, so only breeding full breed PBs together will produce 50% splash and 50% white. The PB over the SGE will not show white in the first generation as only one of the white recessive will be passed. So keep in mind you will be continually passing that recessive white along until it finally shows up in some chicks.

SGEs are variable plummage, so without seeing your actual birds, I can't say with certainty. The PB blue-black gene overrides red-gold. I therefore should think you will get 50% blue and 50% black chicks over most of the SGEs depending on their shades (as Hoover's line shows mostly red-gold type birds). If there are some black ones, the formula changes:

Over red-gold birds:
bl/bl (no diluter/no diluter produces black)
BL/bl (single diluter produces blue)
BL/BL (double diltuers produce splash).

White/White will produce white over red or black.

So I think your line will cycle through blue, black, and splash with an occasional true white....best guess without seeing the actual plummage of the SGE but assuming red-gold (brown/partridge) types.

Obviously any hackle or saddle color will come through separately.

Hopefully somebody will have actual photos of doing this actual crossing.

LofMc

 

[NinjaGamer2022]

I haven't done that cross, but I can say from working with blue/green/olive eggers, the apparent genetics of crossing the Starlight Green Egger with the Prairie Bluebell will get shades of green-blue eggs since both carry the blue shell gene, and it only takes one gene to create the blue shell....and you've got blue on both sides. Since the SGE also has some brown tone (brown is covered by about 13 genes, and brown wash over blue shell creates green), with some brown genes being passed forward, you should have shades of light green-blue on all progeny, possibly fading into more blue each successive generation as the brown genes tend to play out if not repeatedly added back into the line (my experience with olive eggers).

As to what the birds look like, I did read that the Prairie Bluebell carries one blue (feathering) gene and one recessive white. The blue/black gene will be dominant over any red-gold. Recessive white needs 2 genes to present, so only breeding full breed PBs together will produce 50% splash and 50% white. The PB over the SGE will not show white in the first generation as only one of the white recessive will be passed. So keep in mind you will be continually passing that recessive white along until it finally shows up in some chicks.

SGEs are variable plummage, so without seeing your actual birds, I can't say with certainty. The PB blue-black gene overrides red-gold. I therefore should think you will get 50% blue and 50% black chicks over most of the SGEs depending on their shades (as Hoover's line shows mostly red-gold type birds). If there are some black ones, the formula changes:

Over red-gold birds:
bl/bl (no diluter/no diluter produces black)
BL/bl (single diluter produces blue)
BL/BL (double diltuers produce splash).

White/White will produce white over red or black.

So I think your line will cycle through blue, black, and splash with an occasional true white....best guess without seeing the actual plummage of the SGE but assuming red-gold (brown/partridge) types.

Obviously any hackle or saddle color will come through separately.

Hopefully somebody will have actual photos of doing this actual crossing.

LofMc

Thank you for this valuable info! I plan to post pictures of my Starlight Green Egger(s) and Prairie Bluebell so you can see the coloration.