Colorado

[Percheron chick]

I'll keep that in mind. I'm always reading about how "hatchery" Welsummer and Marans don't lay the nice dark eggs. It's nice to know that's not the case for everyone. I like the idea of getting from hatcheries or feeds stores so you can get a variety of breeds. Plus I want an egg basket full of different color eggs. I've already got white, light brown, and blue. Now I need green and a dark brown.

I have yet to see a hatchery cuckoo maran lay anything other than an average brown egg. My welsummer lay a nice medium dark red brown with lots of concentrated pigment spots. Some of the OE pullets I have hatched out of these eggs also have the dots on their green eggs. The eggs are not as spectacular as the pretty pictures.

 

[lomine]

I have yet to see a hatchery cuckoo maran lay anything other than an average brown egg. My welsummer lay a nice medium dark red brown with lots of concentrated pigment spots. Some of the OE pullets I have hatched out of these eggs also have the dots on their green eggs. The eggs are not as spectacular as the pretty pictures.

Interesting. I'd love a speckled egg. I guess it is hard to breed for those dark eggs. Honestly, I prefer of the look of Welsummers over Marans anyway so that's okay with me. I got a Barnvelder with my other chicks to give me a dark egg but unfortunately she died. She was my favorite too.

I think I'd like to try getting another.

I'm planning on moving in spring so that I can have land and legally keep my cockerel. When that happens I want to hatch some of my eggs. I would get B/B/S Ams and EEs. I'd like to see what EEs come from my SLRW. My cockerel is an AM so I could potently breed for OE if I had dark layers.

 

[luckied]

Well I was hoping to get some nice dark brown eggs from my cuckoo marans that raised as a hatchling, but as we now know and you can see, this she is a he!! I plan to try again next spring with a few more. I'm happy with what I get but some color variety would be nice, 6 different breeds all produce the very similar light brown egg.

 

[Percheron chick]

I don't have good examples right now. 2 hatchery welsummers and a homegrown OE

My cuckoo maran is not laying. The other varieties of maran do lay darker eggs.

 

[lomine]

@luckied Oh no! Yep, defiantly not going to get dark eggs from that bird. Are you going to keep him? If you got a blue egg laying hen you could breed some OEs.

@Percheron chick Those are cool looking eggs. I wouldn't mind a couple that looked like that in my egg basket.

 

[uzisuzuki]

From what I've been able to find on the boards & here, this is pretty normal for frostbite? With this happening, I feel silly getting panicked over the super mild frostbite Memnoch had last year. The blistering was over the entire top of Lucien's comb last night, so that seems better today.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Uzi,
I am not an expert by any stretch but it does look to be healing. My best guess is that bird one will lose all points and maybe a bit of the main comb. Bird two looks more like the frostbite my leghorn had. She lost the tips only. Bird three is harder for me since the comb is naturally black. I do believe there is improvement though.

I feel bad for your boys. I wish I knew more so I could help.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Uzi,
I am not an expert by any stretch but it does look to be healing. My best guess is that bird one will lose all points and maybe a bit of the main comb. Bird two looks more like the frostbite my leghorn had. She lost the tips only. Bird three is harder for me since the comb is naturally black. I do believe there is improvement though.

I feel bad for your boys. I wish I knew more so I could help.

Yeah, I feel terrible that Memnoch will most definitely lose his points. Was super not prepared for how cold it got - although, I don't think anyone was totally prepared for it to get down to -20 here! Lucien's comb was a surprise for me because of it being naturally black. When the blistering happened, it was a shock. He honestly didn't look like it was that bad in the beginning. None of them have stopped eating/drinking & are behaving normally, so I'm trying to remain as hands off as I can. Just putting the plain neosporin on the areas of the comb/waddles when the skin cracks. Live and learn!

 

[coop410silkies]

Hey, Uzi (and boys), I remember last year when you were so upset over the tiny little bit of frostbite Memnoch achieved, knocking yourself out because you didn't do the ventilation right. I have a number of large combed roos (Light Sussex), and last winter their combs and large wattles took some big hits. None got infected, but I think it really hurt when they tried to stick their heads into the feeders. My thinking about frostbite at the time was that single combed roosters MIGHT get frostbite, but that it could be prevented given the right husbandry. Since then, I've come to believe that single combed roosters WILL get frostbite, no matter what you do, short of heating the coop to above freezing. So i guess you could say I'm sort of resigned to it - but it's a subject of interest to me, and I'll keep researching it. Right now I'm at the point where I believe I should have chosen a breed more suitable for this climate. I love my LS Roos, they are perfect in almost every way; but they suffer from frostbite every winter. (My other single-combed roos seem not so vulnerable) If ever I wanted to show any perfect progeny, I would have to house them in winter-heated shelters, I am sure. I guess one thing I could do is attend some poultry shows and ask the breeders how they keep the combs so pristine. Or get some information from a 4H chicken raiser. I know your heart bleeds for your boys - 'cause mine hurts for mine - and if I find out anything I think useful, I will let you know. Meanwhile, good luck and happy Solstice.

 

[COChix]

Yeah, I feel terrible that Memnoch will most definitely lose his points. Was super not prepared for how cold it got - although, I don't think anyone was totally prepared for it to get down to -20 here! Lucien's comb was a surprise for me because of it being naturally black. When the blistering happened, it was a shock. He honestly didn't look like it was that bad in the beginning. None of them have stopped eating/drinking & are behaving normally, so I'm trying to remain as hands off as I can. Just putting the plain neosporin on the areas of the comb/waddles when the skin cracks. Live and learn!

Hi been awhile since I posted, don't beat yourself up. Our BO roo almost always gets frostbite on his giant waddles and his comb. He lost his points his first winter, there isn't much you can do about genetics, some breeds seem more susceptible. The first roo in your picture will likely loose those tips (great, no frostbite on tips in the future and the second one is hard to tell given his coloring....