Egg color

[IamRainey]

OK, I don't suppose there's anything I can do about it but I was expecting 3 distinct egg colors and pretty stoked about a dark brown Barnvelder egg. Here's what I've got and I'm a little broken hearted.

I'll love her and feed her nonetheless but my "chocolate" eggs turn out to be ordinary-grocery-store-brown.

From left to right: the Barnvelder, my Cream Legbar and my Plymouth Rock.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Over the years, the dark egg has been lost in most lines of Barneys. There was a woman in MO that had a line of extremely dark layers. She retired and sold them to a guy in Oklahoma. I think he still has them.
Try some Penedesencas or welsummers.

 

[IamRainey]

Thanks for clearing that up, ChickenCanoe. I have a Black Copper Marans chick on order for June.

And Eggsperanza is really a lovely chicken I enjoy having so I'll forgive her for coming from the wrong family. I think I would have chosen her anyway but it doesn't seem right for the literature to say they lay the dark eggs if most of them don't.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I haven't raised barnevelders but I think that more attention was paid to breeding for show quality (feather color and shape) than selecting for a dark egg.

 

[IamRainey]

I see. She is a handsome lady with her iridescent black neck and double laced feathers!

 

[auntiesocial]

May I ask where you ordered your Marans from? Many hatchery BCM won’t necessarily lay a very dark egg either.

 

[IamRainey]

I've ordered from My Pet Chicken.

Your name is hysterical! Well done!

 

[aart]

I too have been disappointed in egg color.
So far my CCL are blue(not greenish) and the Marans are pretty nice,
but my Welsummer was pretty disappointing.
It's a crap shoot.<shrugs>

 

[oregonkat]

My Black Copper Marans eggs are all in the medium to very dark range, especially at the beginning of the laying cycle in spring. I have had Welsummers that laid a nice standard brown egg but nothing like the Marans. Try a mix and then cross your CCL hen with a Marans roo and get a spectacular olive egg!

 

[aart]

then cross your CCL hen with a Marans roo and get a spectacular olive egg!

7 BMC x CCL one week in under a broody<crossingfingers>