cuckoo maran egg color

[sóley]

so I own 1 cuckoo maran rooster and 1 cuckoo maran hen.
so this summer I'm getting some cuckoo maran fertile eggs from a man that lives near me, but any way, he only owns 2 cuckoo maran hens and one of them lays brown egg like mine does and one lays light colored egg.
now because my rooster is getting older I'm going to keep one rooster that comes from the eggs and I'm going to try to keep a rooster that gives dark eggs, but how do I do that?
he is not sure what color his rooster gives so if I take a rooster that came from an egg that was dark I could maybe end up with a rooster that gives light egg because he doesn't know what he gives.

it's not like I can find someone else to sell me a rooster because I live in Iceland and there so few people that own this breed here.
I talked to my old breeder and she had to quit breeding this breed last year because she couldn't find a rooster and he old rooster was to related to her hens.
so I went on a icelandic chicken grubbe and asked if some one could sell me some fertile egg and no one anweard, but few weeks later I get a massage on Facebook from a man that I have gotten chickens from before saying that he owns 2 hens and one rooster and he could sell me eggs if I want

so really, he's the only one that I have found that is left owning this breed her in Iceland but hopefully thats not true because I love this breed

so I ask here is there any way to see what color eggs a rooster gives? , some people say you can see it on there comb or earlobes of some breeds, is it possible to see it on this breed to? or is it no way to tell?
I hope I won't end up with alot of light laying cuckoo marans (it's cool to own few) but I want the dark color more and I own few different breeds because I love the different colored eggs


here is picture of my cuckoo maran eggs, not really that dark tho but still a pretty nice and beautiful dark color tho, tho other eggs on the picture are from my icelandic hens (the white and cream eggs) and the green egg from my easter egger

 

[sóley]

also I have a few eggs from my cuckoo maran hen and rooster in the incubator so I don't know, maybe it's best to take a rooster from those eggs
but I have never been sure if the hen that I own I purbreed because she has a little bit of I think it's called crest behind her comb and I know that's not what this breed is supposed to have so even tho she lays these beautiful eggs, she's not purbreed so that's why I want to take a rooster from the eggs I get from the man

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Cuckoos aren't known to lay that dark. As far as hatcheries go here, I haven't really seen any nice color from cuckoos. But then again most of them don't have nice color from their black coppers either. I have had Welsumer that lay just as dark as my Marans.

Selecting a boy from the darkest laying hen will be your best bet. As far as I know the boys will get their egg color from their mother and vice versa for daughters and pops. This is at least my current understanding.

Also... it's OK to breed related chickens for a few generation before you start to see decreased fertility or other issue. It is best not to breed brother to sister for each generation, that would be called "close" inbreeding. Fathers to daughter and mother to son is a good start. You can look up line breeding. In fact, I will share one that I have which happens to be from a Marans website as they were my chosen breed..
http://www.maransofamericaclub.com/inbreeding-chickens.html

Your eggs are beautiful! I just love feeling like a kid everyday when I go collect and see what color I get today.

 

[Percheron chick]

Impossible to tell how dark the rooster's egg gene is until his pullets start laying. I would separate and identify the chicks that come out of the darkest eggs and work with those. Somewhere on here there is a very good explanation of expanding the genetic pool with a very limited number of chickens. The egg color you have is marginal to begin with. Do you have other Marans colors to work with and cross to achieve dark chocolate eggs? Easy to work the barring back in.

 

[Fairview01]

Selecting a rooster who contributes to a darker egg color is a time consuming process - about 7 months or more.

The rooster that mates with a hen now has no influence on the color of egg she lays. The rooster that mated with the hen that she hatched from did. So if you want to know how today's rooster is influencing egg color you will need to wait until the eggs that hatch start laying eggs in 7-8 months from hatch .date.

Also keep in mind that as the season progresses all marans generally lay lighter colored eggs. There darkest eggs occur earliest in the season.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Also keep in mind that as the season progresses all marans generally lay lighter colored eggs. There darkest eggs occur earliest in the season.

And as they age too, so shade might also take into account age if the hens are older.

But I still believe the overall genetics is going to be the same potential for egg color regardless of shade variation throughout the season or declining with age, from that hen.

Both others, good explanation.

 

[Fairview01]

I said it very poorly. The shell color of a young spring pullet just starting lay in early fall can't fairly be compared to an egg from a hen that's been laying all summer. The young pullet will always win.

The eggs that are entered in contests have to be selected from many many hens to get that uniformity in color and size.

 

[sóley]

okey thanks, maybe I should just allow my old rooster to live for little bit longer and let him mate with my new hens, that way I would choose hens that lay dark eggs and then get rooster from them, that way I wouldn't be using brother and sister but a mother and son (saw that was okey to use mother and son and someone mentioned that here also in the first comment).
or I could take a rooster from the egg that are in the incubator now that are from my only cuckoo maran hen, that are only 4 eggs from her there so I will probably get weary few hens, haha
but that way he would be only related to his mom and yes if I would get a hen he would be related to her to but I would just not use him with that hen, he would of cause be a mix tho because his mom is a mix but she lays dark eggs and his dad is a purbreed and I'm only using this breed for myself, I'm not selling chicks or anything so maybe it would be okey

these information have been really help full to me and now I will just decide what to do, maybe I fall in love with some rooster that comes from the eggs from my hen, the eggs from my hen should hatch out after 12 days, I'm so exited

 

[sóley]

I have only 4 eggs from her in the incubator because I have other egg in there as well so I just but few eggs in there with them and there where only room for 4 so that's why I only have 4 cuckoo maran egg in there
but I'm really exited tho for the chicks to hatch out after 12 days

 

[Abriana]

My two lay dark brown with dark reddish brown speckles. Sometimes the speckles are big and sometimes they are small so they look like one color. They are my favorite!