Hatchery Marans Egg Color

[rosyposyosy]

I have a cuckoo marans pullet, from mypetchicken.com. She is not going to be laying for a long time, because it will take another 8 weeks, and by then its winter, while my other chickens have already stopped laying. I was curious to see what color a cuckoo marans egg color would be, from a hatchery. Thanks for any replies I get.

-Rose

 

[mdbucks]

Mine are darker than the rest, but not the Dark chocolate that I would like

 

[serendipity22]

Yea, I agree with MdBucks. My cuckoos eggs are freckled or darker than the other chickens eggs. But it varies on the egg. One might be OK dark, and the next one will just be freckled. Although, they definitely have character...

 

[Windy Ridge]

Keep in mind, too that the eggs of all brown egg layers (not just Marans) tend to lighten up as the hens get into the groove of laying. This is because the brown pigment that is deposited on the outside of the eggshell may have less time to be deposited as the hen starts laying faster and with regularity, and also (it is thought) because the eggs of mature hens are usually bigger than pullets' eggs... so the same amount of pigment is deposited over a larger area.

 

[rosyposyosy]

interesting. then with banty eggs, since there is a small surface, how come they come so light? nevermind. i get it now. brown eggs come from the blood, green eggs come from bile (coloring). with a banty bird, they give the same percentage of their coloring, since the egg is smaller, just like the bird. does anyone have a picture of their hatchery maran's eggs?

 

[Windy Ridge]

As I recall, actually, the blueish color in an egg is from bile--you're right--and goes all the way through the shell. It's the brown color laying over the blue that makes eggs look green, though. That's why EEs can lay green eggs; those that do have genes for both blue and brown egg laying.

I would guess that green eggs may get slightly lighter-looking and possibly bluer looking as the hen gets older, but I don't know how easy it would be to tell with the brown laid over the blue.

 

[ginasmarans]

The ywo eggs in the middle are a normal brown and a white-for contrast

 

[rosyposyosy]

ooooh! pretty! thank you! it's nice to know that i'll have dark eggs still!

 

[bjcoop]

Here's a mix of eggs from this year's hatch. The darkest eggs are the marans. They do seem to vary by size and color by the day, but seem very pretty to me overall. This pix was taken about a month ago. Now I'm getting some robin blue eggs in addition to the military green.

From 31 hens I am getting 9-11 per day.

--bjcoop

 

[rosyposyosy]

VERY PRETTY! did you get those eggs from a breeder?