Thanks for all the great information. I am also going to hatch some after my incubator empties out so I can see if I can replace this rooster next year. The hens that hatched out had beautiful coloring and this rooster was the one I was keeping on the back burner...sad to say how do dogs always seem to hand pick the stock most valuable to kill. I actually like the egg color of my BC better as they are darker, but the size of these eggs is what is so nice. I like the bigger Davis birds as opposed to the Wade Jeanne I have in my coppers too. I paid 60.00 a dozen for my hatching eggs and unfortunately had very poor hatches with them. I am hoping my own eggs will hatch better, but I am wondering if the difficult hatches are due to the fact the shells on the eggs seem thicker than other shells....could be my imagination too I suposed. Thanks again for the info I am going to go out and see if I can get some more input off the Marans site. I also spent hours looking into the Birchen after you said that but only came up with really silver looking birds as opposed to the blue.
