Marans that actually lay dark eggs

[Oneacre Homestead]

Hi I got my Cockoo Marans from McMurray, and they were very healthy, nice birds who are not at all afraid of us. I even still have one old biddy that I keep around because she is so funny and she will go broody and she is so big that I could put a lot of eggs under her. She will even try to set in the roll out nest with no eggs under her poor thing. If you eat anything outside she comes and tries to get it from you like a poorly behaved dog.
But my eggs were not dark! I got one darkish egg one time and that was it. Sometimes the eggs were speckled with dark speckles that looked nice. They layed okay, not great. I was sad about the not-dark eggs. I read that the dark eggs are really hard to breed for, so I guess you would have to get them not from a hatchery, but a breeder who specializes in them.
So where do I go to get them? I would still like to have dark eggs!

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

yes you will need to get them from a Private breeder... there is several on here that have good dark eggs... go look threw the marans thread and you can see some of the pic's... the darkest eggs i have ever seen where shipped to me from Helen Byers out of TX and i know of at least 3 people with her birds that won egg shows last year...

 

[happymom99]

Would you be interested in a Welsumer? I have a hatchery Welsumer and her eggs are beautiful and dark. Maybe it is easier to find a dark-laying Welsumer than a dark-laying Marans? Or maybe I just got lucky.

Best of luck!

CJ

 

[Illia]

You need to get true French Marans from a breeder.

Hatcheries only sell for quantity and profit, so naturally traits like type and egg color are basically destroyed/bred out. But for true breeders who either go for egg color or a good quality bird in general, there's no beating their amazing deep dark reddish brown eggs.

There are LOADS of breeders of French Marans on BYC here, most of who ship hatching eggs, some who are even local to your area and do chicks and/or adult birds. Your best bet is to look for Black Copper colored Marans.

 

[EweSheep]

x2

You need to get true French Marans from a breeder.

Hatcheries only sell for quantity and profit, so naturally traits like type and egg color are basically destroyed/bred out. But for true breeders who either go for egg color or a good quality bird in general, there's no beating their amazing deep dark reddish brown eggs.

There are LOADS of breeders of French Marans on BYC here, most of who ship hatching eggs, some who are even local to your area and do chicks and/or adult birds. Your best bet is to look for Black Copper colored Marans.

 

[Oneacre Homestead]

Thanks everyone!!

 

[DaveEmily]

Thats some of our average eggs from our Marans...

 

[DaveEmily]

Black and Blue Copper marans with feather legs....nice dark eggs.