Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[bwalden]

   Two good breeds to hatch.  Thinking to myself...yeah I need a couple of welsummers and black copper marans.  Love those dark eggs and love to make olive eggers.  Don't want to get a lot of chicks and don't want to get shipped chicks although I have before, just don't want that many, but can't find black copper marans in our area.  Guess I'll just have to go with the cuckoo marans and blue splash marans.  Even places with a large selection don't carry the BCM's.

Yeah I know what you mean. I got my start with hatching eggs shipped to me. Took me several tries to get a good flock going. But hey if you have a way to incubate some I could send you some

 

[Alaskan]

I got rid of my Marans...two years back now I think.

I was trying to be practical, so I was getting rid of the poor layers...and I hvae too many breeds.

I rather miss the eggs though.... all I have now are white and super light brown. Way better lay rate, but I do miss the occasional dark egg.

 

[bwalden]

I got rid of my Marans...two years back now I think.

I was trying to be practical, so I was getting rid of the poor layers...and I hvae too many breeds.

I rather miss the eggs though.... all I have now are white and super light brown. Way better lay rate, but I do miss the occasional dark egg.

Yeah the are defiantly not the best layers. Mine seen to be every other day layers. I think for the darkness to last that is probably best though. Otherwise they would run out of paint

.

 

[Alaskan]

Exactly right.

The really dark egg layers are almost invariably poor layers.

 

[annie511]

We recently had a tragedy happen in our flock and I want to replace a couple of hens. I would love to add some nice dark eggs to the carton. Are marans cold hardy? I live in wny so I get some pretty extreme weather and do not heat the coop

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Lol

well I kind of knew it was dead just seeing if anyone was still subscribed. Anyone getting ready to do some spring hatching? I need to add some new hens to the flock so I'll be doing a series of hatches soon

I've been hatching a lot of Black Penedesencas from all my flocks.

Exactly right.

The really dark egg layers are almost invariably poor layers.

Penes lay well.

 

[dekel18042]

The lowest temperatures we have had are in the -10* range and we have a few marans (Black copper, blue splash and mixes thereof) and welsummers in our flock and have had no problems. We alsop don't heat the coop or provide artificial light.
By the way, our marans have feathered legs and feet and that hasn't been a problem either.
I did notice people have mentioned the poor laying ability of the marans. The welsummers do lay better Their eggs are dark terra cotta some with freckles. Mostly I want a colorful egg basket. The marans aren't prolific layers but their eggs are dark and beautiful and add color to my egg basket plus they can be mixed with other breeds to get others colors such as green or olive and invariably the offspring are better layers than their purebred mothers.
If you want a different colored egg, go for it.

 

[sassysarah]

yes, marans are cold hardy

 

[Alaskan]

We recently had a tragedy happen in our flock and I want to replace a couple of hens. I would love to add some nice dark eggs to the carton. Are marans cold hardy? I live in wny so I get some pretty extreme weather and do not heat the coop

The ones with few to no feathers on their feet are better...depending on you local humidity levels. High humidity and freezing mud and snow clumps onto feathered feet. Most Marans are light on the foot feathering, so usually not an issue...but it is something to be aware of.

They are a single comb breed, so frostbite on the comb tips is always a risk.

 

[bwalden]

Dead thread?