Dark egg hybrids

[BeardedLadyFarm]

How well do the Pene's lay? I was thinking maybe they could be calmed down a bit by crossing them with a Marans.

It seems that since it's so hard to keep the dark color in the Marans any crossing them to "normal" brown egg layers would quickly dilute the color. Just speculating here...

 

[blackdotte]

In some experimental matings we found Marans X Welsummer pullets laid eggs lighter than Marans but darker than Welsummers.
In a Marans X Langshan hens the pullets eggs were much darker the mothers but varied greatly. They ranged from plum, to dark brown which was about the same as a commercial layer, to one hen that laid a egg indistinguishable from the Marans (about a 6).
David

 

[becky3086]

I have a cuckoo marans x australorp mix (at least I think that is what she is). She lays a darker egg than a normal brown but not nearly as dark as a marans. She does lay almost daily though.

 

[roostercruiser]

What really makes the difference how dark the egg is? That is one of the big things keeping the Marans out of the standard as people are breeding for egg color and they don't judge eggs they judge birds.