Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[dheltzel]

Do all the various lines of Black Coppers lay eggs with meat spots? Our BCM's produce such a high percentage of eggs with meat spots that we don't include them in our eggs for sale, but consider them "culls" and eat them ourselves. I have about given up on them in favor of the Welsummers, but if someone has a line that does not have the meat spot problem, I would like to hear about it.

 

[GaryDean26]

We kept a record of meat spots over a two month period and found meat spots in every breed of chicken that we owned. White egg layers, light brown egg layers, Blue egg layers, Marans, etc. I don't remember exactly what the results were, but it seemed like we got round 30% of the Marans eggs with Meat spots where the breed with the next highest percentage was only about 15%. The lighter the shell color the lower the number of meat spots.

I think that if you kept records of which hens were producing the most meat spots and which were producing the fewest meat spots that you could reduced the meat spots over time by only breeding the hens with the fewest number of meat spots. This would be a pretty involved project. I could see some of the commercial companies that specialize in "Heirloom Egg" working on this, but the hobby breeders don't work on a large enough scale to make something like this happen. Again...every breed that we had during our three month test period had some meat spots. That included hatchery white leghorns, hatchery RIR, Cream Legbars, etc. Meat spots are something that farmers live with. Your egg customers are not used to them and I know that when they go from seeing one meat spot every 7-8 dozen to 3-4 eggs per dozen that they freak out. I know originally that Marans eggs were considered gourmet because of its XL to Jumbo size and the thick shell that keeps it so fresh. If your egg customers value that then stick with the Marans, it not, then go with a white egg breed because the white eggs breeds are the ones that we found that were consistently less prone to meat spots.

 

[dheltzel]

I haven't made exacting records, and don't check the ones we sell (most of them), so this is anecdotal, but with the Marans eggs I can almost count on a meat spot every egg or 2. I have never found a meat spot in our Welsummer eggs, but then again I've cracked very few of them because the local demand for Welsummer chicks is very high so I incubate nearly every egg they lay (so my evidence is with a small sample set of Welsummers). I've eaten a lot more of the Marans eggs because the chicks are not as popular (since the Welsummers can be sexed at hatch). If I used a more scientific sampling I might see the results similar to yours.

If your results are generally true, don't you think 2x the percent with meat spots is something to actively breed out?

Do you have other colors of Marans beside the Coppers? I wonder if Cuckoo's (silver or golden) have the same percentages.

 

[Sylvester017]

I haven't made exacting records, and don't check the ones we sell (most of them), so this is anecdotal, but with the Marans eggs I can almost count on a meat spot every egg or 2. I have never found a meat spot in our Welsummer eggs, but then again I've cracked very few of them because the local demand for Welsummer chicks is very high so I incubate nearly every egg they lay (so my evidence is with a small sample set of Welsummers). I've eaten a lot more of the Marans eggs because the chicks are not as popular (since the Welsummers can be sexed at hatch). If I used a more scientific sampling I might see the results similar to yours.

If your results are generally true, don't you think 2x the percent with meat spots is something to actively breed out?

Do you have other colors of Marans beside the Coppers? I wonder if Cuckoo's (silver or golden) have the same percentages.

Our Cuckoo gave nice eggs inside but only about #4 on the egg-chart. One time one of her eggs had a tiny bloodspiot. Another weird thing about our Cuckoo (other than her nasty temperament) is that she never layed the same pattern shell twice. One day the egg would be light brown all over, next day medium brown, another day light brown with small dark speckly dots, the next day light brown with large dark splotchy spots, the next day half the egg was brown and right in the middle faded to light brown the rest of the way, etc. No 2 eggs looked like they came from the same chicken. She was our only brown layer so I know they were all her eggs. After we re-homed her because of her poor production (2 eggs/wk) and nasty temperament I was going to try a Welsummer but personally decided against getting any more dark egg-layers. Besides Wellies I also considered Barnevelder or Langshan for some deeper brown color eggs but all these breeds were too heavy for my small/medium lightweight flock.

 

[happyfrenchman]

Finally got out there with the camera. This is my flock. 2 Roos. 22 hens. The eggs are steadily getting darker. Still a few generations to go I think.

 

[happyfrenchman]

Dheltzel... I used to have Rhode Island reds and now I have the Marans but as far as blood spots, I have not seen an inordinate amount in my eggs, for either breed. I will tell you the RIRs will out lay the BCMs by two to one. (in my experience). I see blood spots in some of my eggs but thus far, they are very small. I would imagine it is hard to candle for that with the darker shells. Pete

 

[Chooks man]

Hi Happyfrenchman you have a lovely Flock of BCC. I m impressed . need more photos of your chooks close up .I like to see a close up shot of the chooks so i can evaluate them .

be proud of your flocks. you have some gorgeous chooks.

One question .what the meat spot on the eggs you guys are talking about.can some body explain t to me a photos will be nice?
Cheers chook man

 

[happyfrenchman]

Well thank you Chooksman. I have to get out there while it is still light and have the phone/camera. I generally drop that thing when I get in from work. I will try to get more pics.

The meat spots are small pieces of the hens egg tract that break loose during the egg formation process. The blood spots are from tiny bleeds during the same process.... they are incorporated into the egg itself during formation and are visible when you break the egg. (Also when you candle the eggs). Some chickens have big problems with excess spots inside the egg. Commercial egg operations consider such eggs as less than first class. That is one reason a lot of commercial eggs are white. It is easier to see such imperfections. I have read that these imperfections are to some degree an inherited trait. I sometimes see tiny blood spots.... I just scramble them up and they are delicious. But I have never encountered a really good size one which might be pretty gross.
Pete

 

[Red Banks]

Go over to the Marans of America Club. http://www.maransofamericaclub.com/ ( click on "more" for good articles on the breed). they stress an educational approach to the breed. Other clubs do too, but it is a special aspect of MOAC. Also, join the French Marans Club. http://www.marans.eu/accueila.htm . They send out a stunning high gloss newsletter in April, August and December each year. And they have a great online forum where they discuss all the different varieties. T great stuff. esp. now that the Google Translate will instantly translate blocks and pages for you into English. makes it easy to communicate with the French-speaking members.
Best,
Karen

This is one of my favorite sites. Really made things so much clearer. I will check into the FMC. Thanks for the information.

 

[chickengr]

Hi Happyfrenchman you have a lovely Flock of BCC. I m impressed . need more photos of your chooks close up .I like to see a close up shot of the chooks so i can evaluate them .

be proud of your flocks. you have some gorgeous chooks.

One question .what the meat spot on the eggs you guys are talking about.can some body explain t to me a photos will be nice?
Cheers chook man

Well thank you Chooksman. I have to get out there while it is still light and have the phone/camera. I generally drop that thing when I get in from work. I will try to get more pics.

The meat spots are small pieces of the hens egg tract that break loose during the egg formation process. The blood spots are from tiny bleeds during the same process.... they are incorporated into the egg itself during formation and are visible when you break the egg. (Also when you candle the eggs). Some chickens have big problems with excess spots inside the egg. Commercial egg operations consider such eggs as less than first class. That is one reason a lot of commercial eggs are white. It is easier to see such imperfections. I have read that these imperfections are to some degree an inherited trait. I sometimes see tiny blood spots.... I just scramble them up and they are delicious. But I have never encountered a really good size one which might be pretty gross.
Pete

I would use simple words to explain meat spots: brown spots inside the egg. I am surprised people talk about meat spots in marans eggs. I have never seen any.