Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[drom]

I am looking forward to seeing pics of eggs and hearing about everyone's methods for maintaining and *increasing* dark egg color in your flocks.

And since the old Marans thread has passed from this world

(RIP) I am going to re-post from it:

This is what I am trying to work toward; inch by inch, egg shell by egg shell. This is the end goal. I saw these at a show 1 1/2 years ago. Not only were they literally the color of coffee beans, but they were the largest chicken eggs I have ever seen. If I hadn't seen them with my own eyes, I probably wouldn't have believed it. They are the ones in back row to the left-not that I needed to point that out.

this second picture here is actually a wee bit over-exposed because of the flash. They were probably closer in color to the first picture above

 

[drom]

Quote:
Well you know one thing I have noticed is that some of my girls will lay an egg with a glossy finish and some will lay an egg with a matte finish. And mine tend to always lay their own type of egg. And I have one girl, whose eggs I don't hatch, that lays a slightly lighter egg which is always dark spotted; as if her little ink jets just always spray unevenly.

I have also noticed that some flocks seem to lay a more maroon/reddish type egg than others. Like some of the really good Wade Jeane birds I've noticed seem to lay a really dark maroon colored egg. From what I've seen of them at least.

 

[mgw]

WOW, drom those eggs are really dark & look extra tasty, will have to check into those breeds. are those hatchery birds or do you breed them for darker eggs?

 

[drom]

With the Marans breed, the ones that lay dark eggs are from small private breeding progams. And the super dark eggs you see in the picture above are extremely rare.
I have heard that some Welsummers from the big hatcheries will lay very nice eggs.

 

[mgw]

I am interested in these breed weve never had one, are they nice birds ie; docile? how many eggs do they ussualy lay per week? are the roosters loud or aggresive, or is it a case by case basis as usual. sorry for all the questions but I find these chickens/eggs very interesting, and have been thinking of advancing my chicken keeping skills and this looks like its right up my alley. T/Y

 

[drom]

Quote:
Well, my Marans roosters crow quite a bit

and I think my girls lay about 4 to 5 eggs a week usually. I think the breed is probably middle of the road in terms of temperament. They aren't flightly or nervous birds at. But my roosters are not lap birds either. There are some good breeders in WA state.

 

[blackdotte]

Welsummers??? Barnevelders??? Pendescencas????

Looks like this thread has been hijacked by 'that breed'.
Were is everybody else??
David

 

[speckledhen]

Yup, David, what about the Wellies and other dark egg layers? Maybe that should be mentioned in the title so folks do not assume this is another Marans thread. Surely someone has some Penedesenca eggs they can post!

Here's an egg from a Welsummer I used to have:

 

[geebs]

Blackdotte Jump in and enlighten us!!! Hey I have no Pene's or Wellies so I gotta post on what I have and get the party started somehow.. Good to see ya... Let's see some of your birds!!!

 

[drom]

Yes, thanks. I don't know anything about the penes and would love to see pictures of the eggs they produce and hear more about them. Tfpets got some and posted a few pics of them over a year ago. The eggs from her birds were beautiful