Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[drom]

Quote:
Thanks Geebs!
I totally agree with with what you are saying about the Presley birds. I have often thought that my birds that are a bit larger with slightly shorter legs and are less (for lack of a better term) rangy looking are influenced by that line. Also, the roosters I have with that type of confirmation seem to have a better tail set.

 

[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.

T/Y for aswering my questions, I am kinda busy right now but have plans to build a new coop when things at work slow down and am home more. One of the old coops will be perfect for a small project, as if I really need anymore hobbies LOL. Will be keeping my eye on this thread and posting more questions for sure,cause I dont know anything and dont have a clue about how to like even hatch an egg other than sitting on it, finding someone to sit on it, or carrying it around in my pocket with a hand warmer rubber banded to it LOL. As you can see I have much to learn. T/Y again this is an interesting thread.

I didn't have a clue about hatching eggs either

but I learned so much from the people on this site. And there is a great section here on Incubation and Hatching eggs that has just about everything you need to know.

 

[drom]

BC Marans chicks and their eggs:

 

[kathyinmo]

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Beautiful, just beautiful ! ! !

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Drom, your hen is splendid. Is that about the amount of red hackle we should aim for? Some of mine are on the sparse side. Would they be culls? (Laying coop culls LOL)

 

[drom]

Thanks guys!!

Rustywoman, I have several that look like this as well. She actually has a little more color on her hackles than you can see in this pic but she is obviously not a bird you would show or anything.

She produced two pullets this spring when I bred her to a more colorful cockerel. One of the pullets is dark like she is, but the other one has really colorful red copper hackles. So I'll put that one in the show pen.
I think maybe that is one of the reasons that Geebs and Snow bird both say they single mate their birds. I am pretty sure that Geebs said she does it to modify/influence the hackle color.

But I suppose many people would say just cull everything that doesn't have a perfect phenotype.


But I have a question for you since you visited France and saw the birds there. How would you describe the hackle color on the BCMs there? Was it mid red-coppery or dark red. Were some of the hens black hackeled?

 

[berkeleysprings]

whats so nice about bev is she is always willing to help any day not just yesterday she was always very friendly .she is so helpful

Quote:

 

[geebs]

How did you get my Daisy or Dehlilia??? ha ha.. That is a carbon copy of my birds...

I single mate to improve the hackle color.... You are correct DROM. You hen would be one I would use an overly red roo on.. That would improve the color... Thanks bev (good advice that worked)... that she gave me a lllloooonngg time ago. I have much more control over the outcome if I know which hen and which rooster produced which offspring. It makes the culling easier... If they don't produce what is useable then that is a cull. I have several this year that cannot produce what is desired so they are available as layers.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Good Morning,

Drom some of mine look exactly like your last hen. Good to know with the proper roo it can possibly be worked around.

I was only able to visit one breeder who belonged to the Marans club of France. His birds were still young he said (translated though)

Also, the Marans would not let me get close to them, they were very spooked. I would say that their hackles were a very nice dark copper color. There wasn't alot of it but it was more than the last hen of yours and less than the first.

The Roo looked like he was coloring up well in the very nice (not brassy) copper.

Some of the had excellent bodies and at least one that I saw had a squirrel tail (unless the feathers were just worn off her back and it only looked that way due to no feathers.)

Overall, the Marans hens that I saw in France in the "Markets" Were very brassy hackled. These would be the typical hens sold for egg laying over there.

It is correct that you just never see a white egg and the shades of brown varied also. On a Marans scale I would say a 3-5 were the average color in the market and stores. I saw no "chocolate ones" anywhere.

These pictures are terrible but it was the best I got because those birds would not hold still and would run and hide everywhere. The third picture is what looks like a squirrel tail to me.

Here are the typical birds sold alive at the Market

And these are the eggs from my new French friends (the eggs look better in person) and they said that people come from all over France to purchase hatching eggs from them at 1.50 Euro per egg which is about 2 dollars American right now (I think):

 

[geebs]

Rustywoman: Was it mahogany or copper??? (the hackles on the females)