Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[Rocky64]

My wheaten marans are still on winter vacation I'm still keeping around 10/12 hens 3 roo. My mixed flock have turned into a egg eater Tried filling eggs with mustard to deture but they loved it shell and all. Any thoughts ?

I've heard of people who put dummy eggs in the nest so the birds try to eat the eggs, but can't and thus stop eating eggs. Another option is to fill a plastic Easter egg with hot sauce and the chickens learn fast not to eat eggs. But not every method works every time, I would try a few methods. My hens ate eggs but suddenly stopped for no apparent reason.

 

[dheltzel]

Hot sauce is not a deterent, in fact feeding cayenne powder to you chickens is often done to promote laying and add vitamins. The active ingredient, capsaicin, has not receptors in birds, only mammals. That is so the that pepper plants get their seeds dispersed because their seeds will survive a trip through a bird's digestive track, but not a mammal's.

A hard egg, wood or something, will deter them because they get no reward and will stop trying, at least that's the logic. I've never known chickens to learn anything easily except what looks like food.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

In addition to keeping a ceramic egg in each nest, I occasionally use the plastic Easter eggs and fill them with sand and salt. They can taste salt and avoid it.

 

[berkeleysprings]

Thanks for all the advice I'll try salt

 

[ronott1]

The OE eggs are from crele penedesenca. The Dark eggs are mostly Partride pene. I have one Wheaten hen and one blue marans.

 

[berkeleysprings]

 

[berkeleysprings]

he's not too bad looking and very little cotton fluff in the trail

 

[Alaskan]

I think he looks very good!

 

[Eggmachine11]

Do regular brown eggers count?

 

[farmhand]

Genetic question regarding the brown coating; if you crossed a dark brown egg laying breed Ro over a white egg layer hen, would you get 100% washed out brown eggs? Or would some hens lay dark eggs and others lay white eggs?