Any Midnight Majesty Marans Egg Pictures?

[CountryLife4Me]

I am looking for egg photos of Midnight Majesty Marans (Hoover's Hatchery, TSC or Rural King). I bought one MMM because I wanted a dark egg layer, but my hen is not laying dark eggs. They are tan with the slightest bit of darker tiny speckling on them. I'm wondering if this is just an anomaly or if this is common. I was planning to get more in the spring, but I will look for another "breed" if tan eggs are what everyone else is getting as well. TIA!

The pictures show that the egg color is basically the same between by MMM and my Barred Rock.

 

[CountryLife4Me]

Anyone????

 

[VegaCoyote]

We’ve got one, but she’s not for-sure laying yet. Will get back with photos if I catch her in the act!

 

[CountryLife4Me]

We’ve got one, but she’s not for-sure laying yet. Will get back with photos if I catch her in the act!

Thank you! I'd really appreciate some pictures!

 

[DSJMHenDen]

Mine lays just slightly darker egg than my Buckeye. Not the color I was picturing, but she is my friendliest hen. I'll see if I can get some pictures.

 

[Ponypoor]

@SimpleJenn

Do you have any photos of your hens eggs? Wasn’t she a midnight majesty Marans?

 

[Ponypoor]

I am looking for egg photos of Midnight Majesty Marans (Hoover's Hatchery, TSC or Rural King). I bought one MMM because I wanted a dark egg layer, but my hen is not laying dark eggs. They are tan with the slightest bit of darker tiny speckling on them. I'm wondering if this is just an anomaly or if this is common. I was planning to get more in the spring, but I will look for another "breed" if tan eggs are what everyone else is getting as well. TIA!

The pictures show that the egg color is basically the same between by MMM and my Barred Rock.

Noirans also are a BC Marans hybrid if you can find them where you are.

 

[DSJMHenDen]

Top is MMM
Right is Buckeye
Bottom is Speckled Sussex
Left is Orpington

 

[CountryLife4Me]

Top is MMM
Right is Buckeye
Bottom is Speckled Sussex
Left is Orpington

Thank you! So, it looks like this is their normal egg color. Guess I'll look for another breed in the spring to try for some darker eggs. My MMM is a gorgeous hen though. Absolutely beautiful iridescent black feathers!

 

[VegaCoyote]

Sooo, I’ve been thinking. MMMs are an F1 sex-link hybrid between BC Marans and Barred Rock, right? But I heard somewhere that the really dark-dark brown egg genes are mostly recessive.

So, you generally wouldn’t see those genes expressed in a first generation hybrid, even if your girls were carrying them, right? You’d have to back-cross to BCM or cross two F1 hybrids to see the dark-chocolate egg gene turn up in the next generation- but that loses the sex-link because the barring has to come from the hen side for that to work, iirc.

So, selling a first-gen Marans cross is a little misleading, because people hear “Marans” and think “dark eggs,” but that’s not probably what they’re going to get without some back-crossing in the breeding, right?

… Is there anyone doing a project like that? Back-crossing F1 MMMs to get sex-linked dark egg layers- though it’d have to be, what, every other generation, wouldn’t it, because of the barring swapping sides from the sex-link cross. How would one go about that?

(I’m very new to the topic of chicken breeding. There are so many genetic puzzles I just want to poke with a stick.)