Dark brown eggs at chain store

[McSpin]

I've notice that BJ's Wholesale has been selling a dark brown egg in bulk. These are darker than your average brown egg layer, which has me wondering if anyone knows what production breed is laying these?

It seems that the market has turned to being able to charge more for brown eggs and someone has put in the effort to produce mass amounts of brown eggs that are quite dark. They are certainly darker than many of the eggs produced by average or slightly below average Marans and Welsummers.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I'll bet the cheaters are dying them! Or...they have a humongous flock of cuckoo maran.

 

[Tiramisu]

Is there a way to find out on a website or labeling? If you really wanted to know guess you could call or send them an email

 

[EweSheep]

I would not be surprised if they were some kind of a Maran sex linked type.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Sounds like you're used to hatchery "Cuckoo Marans" and Welsummers.

True Black Copper Marans have VEERY dark eggs, trust me. And if someone is selling them in that fashion, they may just be. I know I'm going to do that this summer. If I don't have too many hatching eggs sold, that is.

 

[josh44]

They are red sexlinks, my frien bought some chicks form a hatchery, Some red sexlinks,Production reds lay nice rich terracotta brown eggs

 

[McSpin]

Quote:
These are some eggs my Welsummers have produced.

Mine are above average in color. I said the ones in the store were average or below. My Cuckoo Marans are a shade lighter.

True Black Copper Marans have VEERY dark eggs, trust me. And if someone is selling them in that fashion, they may just be.

I didn't say anything about Black Coppers. I'm very aware of how dark they can be, but this is not what my post is about.

I doubt BJ's has any info on the hatchery producing the eggs. I even wonder if the company packaging the eggs has any specific knowledge. The egg is a reddish brown with no specks on any of them. Because of the reddish color, I guessed they weren't out of Marans and because none had speckling I figured they wouldn't likely be Welsummers. I suppose it possible they dye them, but the color shades were fairly diverse, so that doesn't seem as likely. Without going to the trouble of researching the egg company and calling them, I thought someone here may have some specific knowledge about what they're using.​

 

[Kittymomma]

My red sex links lay a dark terra cotta type egg. They're not Marans dark, but are much darker then my other brown egg layers. I'd bet that they have a similar strain of sex links for their commercial flock.

 

[McSpin]

Quote:
That does sound like them. They produce a very attractive egg that I guess would sell very well. Thanks,