Black Marans pullets early eggs question

[ksRNmama]

This spring we added new chicks to our flock, and we’ve never been super fancy about breed selection, but I’ve always liked to get a variety of egg colors. So I almost fainted when I found a bin of Black Marans at Orschelns in March. They were about 2-3x the price of their usual chicks, so I assumed they were legit. Now they’re a little over 16 weeks and I’m starting to get tiny eggs, but they’re suuuuper light brown, like almost tan. Will they get darker or did I get duped?

Also, of the 6 birds, one is a rooster, and of the pullets, some have completely grey & very small, flat combs and wattles, while others are much bigger and redder (example here, these are 2 of the pullets; the rooster is in the second picture - he’s MUCH larger with long tail feathers already):

So my first question is whether they’re even Marans, given the egg color, and my second is whether it’s normal for these exact same age hens to have such markedly different combs/wattles....

I do love them either way, just wondering if I should give up on my chocolate brown egg dream this time around
Thanks in advance!

 

[MountainWoman73]

The rooster and the pullet with a redder comb look like australorps to me. I have raised one BCM who turned out to be a fine rooster. He already had some copper neck feathers at that age, and feathered feet. Below is him at maybe 16-18 weeks. I think you would be able to see a few copper feathers and feathered feet on the pullets too it they were BCM.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

I have Black copper Marans and none have dark faces like that a 4 mo. old. They have larger red single combs. Black feathers with various amounts of copper neck feathers, they have feathered legs,Their eggs are darkest when they first start laying and lighten the more they lay.

 

[ksRNmama]

I have a 2 yo black Australorp hen, and she is huge, so I was thinking this roo could be a BA bc he’s so big already! But Marans are really big too, right? So I was still holding out hope. (Although I can’t have roosters in city limits so even if he were a Marans it wouldn’t do me any good. And he won’t lay eggs ) I can see green in the plumage on all of them, and purple in the roo’s tail. The red combed pullets are a noticeably bigger than the grey combed ones, so they are probably the ones laying tan eggs which would make sense if they’re BA’s.....

Also, they were sold as “Black Marans”, not BCM’s, so I wasn’t looking for copper.....do you think the grey combed ones are a different breed entirely?

 

[ksRNmama]

Oh my gosh, none of them have feathered feet! I didn’t even realize that was a trait of theirs.....well I guess the mystery is solved.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

I didn't know there were just Black Marans. so Guess I should check on that some.
Here is a picture of a couple first eggs last year. One lays more often than the other and now they both have been broody 2-3 times in the last 2 Months. Didn't know Marans were so broody. Their eggs have lightened up since they first started laying.

 

[Bookmole353]

I have some of the copper marans and they are laying the very dark chocolate eggs. I have some chickens I am not sure what they are, I will take some pictures of them and see if anyone can tell me what they are.

 

[Bookmole353]

Here are my hens I am not sure of the breeds, also there are a couple of chickens that I am not sure if they are Roos or not. I also have a picture of one of my hens that has the feathers missing on her back. Is this indicative of too many roosters or mites and will her feathers grow back? I have several with the same problem and all are the older hens.