Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[pinkchick]

Hi Everybody!

Nice Eggs EVERYONE!!!!

Marquisella~
Cruised by your blog and love love love the braclets that you make. Do you make other things and have more photos?





BTW: We have pippage and hatching going on in the new 'bator. Welsummers are getting busy but the Marans are taking their time as usual.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Kim,
What eggs do you have in the new bator that are now pipping? I have a long wait til the 19th.................LOL

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Karen!

I have Welsummers and Marans in there. #3 Wellie just popped out...so far, the only eggs to have pipped and 3 hatch, are the 4 darkest Wellie eggs in there, the first one that pipped yesterday is still just a pip. The last one to pip was the first to hatch. Still have 14 Wellie eggs and 11 Marans eggs to go. I mis counted the other day and thought there were only 10 Marans but after counting whilst fully awake their is 11.

The darkest Wellie eggs I would have mistaken for lighter Marans eggs if I had not caught the Welsummer hen that laid them in the act. My thumb prints are in a couple of them because I took them from her while still wet. She is also my oldest hen....funny all eggs prior to the molt she just finished were not colored like this, they were lighter and more speckled. They are now smooth and very dark. Weird! I think I will band the ones from this girls eggs and keep them. Girls only of course, I seriously do not need any more roosters, but I know that is going to change soon.
Had a talk with my nephew last night, whom I raise excess cockerels for, about investing in his meat source a little more than he does, purchasing more fencing for a new and bigger cockerel grow out pen, paying for my time to take care of them and paying for any sundries that they will need. The reason for this is because he asked me to grow out more that I am currently doing and he has a friend who would like some as well and is going to split the cost with him.
The nice thing is, I get to watch them grow and take my pick of which boys I want to keep if there is a prospect of a good breeder in there that I want to test and I don't have to pay to feed them.

Tell the Marans eggs to hurry up will ya! I can't take it.....they are some first generation crosses with Gnarles and a couple of the GFF girls. There is also the first egg from Bill and a GFF girl in there, but I didn't mark any of them this time, I know whose egg is whose in there, maybe I'll just watch them and grab 'em after they pip for giggles....really just wanted to test out the new 'bator.

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Thanks, I do a range of other jewelry, necklaces, earrings, etc. That I am trying to get up on my Etsy site. I can do the coin in a necklace as well. I love the hen with chicks on it.
I just started putting things up on Etsy, but other things get in the way so I only have a few up. I put my Etsy shop link here.
Sue
http://rarechickens.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Zosio

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
GOREOUS eggs!!!!!!!!

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Its been my experience that when you cross lines, you do lose egg color.

I didn't believe it, so I did it. What I got were some really nice pullets, god awful cockerels, some pullets with mossiness, and lost egg color on the resulting crossed pullets. I still had some pure lines that I didn't cross.

What I did, was breed the nice pullets back to a rooster that wasn't crossed and was from my original line, Davis, and went from there. I culled all the mossy birds, and hoped for the best.

Now, 2 years later, I'm back with dark eggs, and no mossiness, and some of the best roosters I ever bred. Did the crossing help? I'm not sure. I didn't lose type or size, probably got a little more vigor. Was it worth it? I don't know. It wasn't worth the loss of egg color though, that was a big dissapointment for that time.

My advice would be, if you want to try to cross lines, just do it with a few of your birds, not all. Then see what you get. I thank my lucky stars that I had kept a few birds alone, and had a rooster that I could breed the crossed hens to to bring them back to again to the Davis line with just a little bit of the other line I crossed with.
Sue
http://rarechickens.blogspot.com/

This subject came up on the Marans Yahoo blog, Bev Davis responded and said egg color was affected when lines were crossed. She added that no one knew why this happened.

My advice would be to keep your existing line and your new blood line separate and create a third line using birds from the two lines .... assuming you have space for a third line.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Quote:
GOREOUS eggs!!!!!!!!

Thank you!!

 

[berkeleysprings]

ive had crossed lines for over 2 years on wheaten and saw no egg color loss , after all wheaten came from crossed colors or sports
Quote:
Its been my experience that when you cross lines, you do lose egg color.

I didn't believe it, so I did it. What I got were some really nice pullets, god awful cockerels, some pullets with mossiness, and lost egg color on the resulting crossed pullets. I still had some pure lines that I didn't cross.

What I did, was breed the nice pullets back to a rooster that wasn't crossed and was from my original line, Davis, and went from there. I culled all the mossy birds, and hoped for the best.

Now, 2 years later, I'm back with dark eggs, and no mossiness, and some of the best roosters I ever bred. Did the crossing help? I'm not sure. I didn't lose type or size, probably got a little more vigor. Was it worth it? I don't know. It wasn't worth the loss of egg color though, that was a big dissapointment for that time.

My advice would be, if you want to try to cross lines, just do it with a few of your birds, not all. Then see what you get. I thank my lucky stars that I had kept a few birds alone, and had a rooster that I could breed the crossed hens to to bring them back to again to the Davis line with just a little bit of the other line I crossed with.
Sue
http://rarechickens.blogspot.com/

This subject came up on the Marans Yahoo blog, Bev Davis responded and said egg color was affected when lines were crossed. She added that no one knew why this happened.

My advice would be to keep your existing line and your new blood line separate and create a third line using birds from the two lines .... assuming you have space for a third line.

 

[pinkchick]

Well I my girls' eggs do not hold a candle to Ms. Marquesilla's girls' but I thought I would share some pic's of my Dark Eggs from 3 breeds. I took these photos outside this morning in full natural light with out flash, it was perfect outside for taking photos, no need for flash, anyway, far right of the 1st photo middle row is one of yesterdays Welsummer eggs, below it is Miss Stephanie's (Barnevelder) egg and the rest of the eggs are from Blue Coppers and Black Coppers. Some have that milky chaulky purplish or rosy hue to them....but under that the egg is a nice color. The one in the photo where you can see I wet it is very nice under there, this is from one of my Blue Copper hens, a daughter of my very dark Blue Copper roo Bill. The speckled one is the #3 egg from a Black Copper pullet.

 

[cherylcohen]

Quote:
beautiful pink!