Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[Arielle]

Nice to see this thread up and running, now I will have to take some pics of my eggs my girls are finally laying.

How old are these girls?

 

[mstricer]

Quote: They hatched 2/16. I got them from Nancy (Bargain). The girls have nice feathering on their legs, I had a rooster, but it had a huge absess and we culled him.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: They hatched 2/16. I got them from Nancy (Bargain). The girls have nice feathering on their legs, I had a rooster, but it had a huge absess and we culled him.
Love nice feathering.

I was just looking at my boys while feeding this morning. I have 2 in crates and both have very nice leg feathering, light feathering down the leg. My boys that free range have nubbs, like they break off the feathers cruising around the barnyard and woods all day.

Not easy to find a good rooster, but certainly now and into the fall is the time to find one as everyone is thinning down flocks for the winter.

 

[snowbird]

Hi Don,
I presume you are culling hens which lay eggs with a bloom or is that something the hens out grow as the mature?
Thanks,
Joe

Joe, I have been eating the eggs with the bloom to them. I tried several times to hatch with no luck at all. I have virtually eliminated the white wing, tail and white tail coverts. One more hatch cycle should do it for my Marans fowl.

 

[snowbird]

Joe, I have to say that the Wheatens are the only Marans that I have ever had that lay the odd colored eggs. In the fall will do a couple of matings to see if I can find out what is causing the problem. It could be even the feed or the environment they are in, just do not know at this point. Will report back if I spot something that has an effect on it though.

 

[Arielle]

Don, your last post reminded me of a question I had, yes, another question, about the white feathers. I generally hear that the white will breed forward. My questions is if I"m breeding for type first, and the best rooster has a white feather and choose to use it in breeding, of say, 50 chicks, will every chick have a white feather or only a few, or half . . . ?

 

[Debbi]

Joe, I have to say that the Wheatens are the only Marans that I have ever had that lay the odd colored eggs. In the fall will do a couple of matings to see if I can find out what is causing the problem. It could be even the feed or the environment they are in, just do not know at this point. Will report back if I spot something that has an effect on it though.

Don, you've been holding out on us! I thought you got rid of the Wheatens?? Glad you didn't and would sure like to see what you've got. As for the bloomy eggs, I have two BCMs that lay them. One lays them on a pretty regular basis, and I just hate it! The other only lays one once in awhile. Not sure why this happens, but I think in the future I will be culling out any hens that I find laying them regurlarly. I have yet to be able to hatch a bloomy egg either. Kim, I think it was, has.

 

[snowbird]

Don, your last post reminded me of a question I had, yes, another question, about the white feathers. I generally hear that the white will breed forward. My questions is if I"m breeding for type first, and the best rooster has a white feather and choose to use it in breeding, of say, 50 chicks, will every chick have a white feather or only a few, or half . . . ?

Arielle, Only the best chicks will have the white. Why would you want to breed to a male or female with a DQ in the first. Please do not fall prey to all the talk about working with only type at first. Why worry about type if everything else is a DQ. I work on every thing possible at the same time. Working on fowl such as Marans one thing at a time and you will never get a good SOP Marans.

 

[snowbird]

Don, you've been holding out on us! I thought you got rid of the Wheatens?? Glad you didn't and would sure like to see what you've got. As for the bloomy eggs, I have two BCMs that lay them. One lays them on a pretty regular basis, and I just hate it! The other only lays one once in awhile. Not sure why this happens, but I think in the future I will be culling out any hens that I find laying them regurlarly. I have yet to be able to hatch a bloomy egg either. Kim, I think it was, has.

Debbi, I put two yards of wheatens out on Farms and have several young hatched and growing off real well. Will bring them home in October first. These wheatens lay the chaulky egg also and will see if I can find out what is up this fall. I have set at least a 100 of the chaulky and high bloom eggs with no hatch.

 

[Debbi]

Don, What's the longest you held onto a bird with white feathers? Pip here, will be two years old this month, and he never had a white feather until about 5 months ago. So what happens then? If you had the same scenario where there were no white feathers, and you bred this roo to all the hens, will you end up with white feathered birds down the line at a later date? Do you just cull out all white after adult molt?