Help with Marans egg color

[RIR0BCM]

Hi can you please post pictures of your first black copper marans egg
I have a black copper marans pullet and her first egg was not as dark as i thought it would be

What do you will it get darker with time ?
The lighter eggs are from my rhode island red hens

 

[johanssonmel]

My exact question!

I've got a flock of July pullets that are just starting to lay. I've got 5 ameraucana, 2 polish, 2 marans, and 1 australorp.

I've had a couple blue eggs (from different pullets, I think) on previous days.

Today so far I've got these 5 eggs:





The Australorp should be my only medium-brown egg layer. I am 99% sure the very bottom egg is from one of my marans--she was sitting on that nest for an hour and then set up a racket.

These aren't even close to the dark brown I was expecting from my marans. Is that it?

 

[rainbowrooster]

Usually the first eggs a Marans lays are the darkest and they fade some as the laying season goes on. They molt and take a break over winter and start over with their darkest eggs again. The pictures of your eggs don't look good for Marans egg color. I have never heard of any reputable Marans breeder saying eggs will get darker in time.

 

[johanssonmel]

I have never heard of any reputable Marans breeder saying eggs will get darker in time.

Oh, the breeder has not said that--it was just my forlorn hope. I got these chicks from MMcM, from whom I've always gotten high-quality birds. I guess I'll reserve judgment until I know all 9 girls are laying, but for now I'm pretty disappointed.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Were your birds sourced from a hatchery or breeder, OP? Hatchery stock tend to lack the really dark egg pigmentation due to the breeding stock they come from being focused more on production than color. For the really desirable dark egg color your best bet is to source birds from someone who is breeding with that as a focus of their program.

 

[johanssonmel]

Hatchery :-(

Guess I better start looking for some hatching eggs...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Egg color and shade is like practically any other trait with chickens. Unless the person that selects which chickens get to breed and reproduce specifically target a trait, that trait is generally weakened through the generations. Different hatcheries use different people to select which chicken get to breed. Different individuals are going to use different criteria and different methods in determining which chickens get in their breeding/laying flock. Some hatchery Marans’ eggs will be darker than others.

If you go with a breeder, you need to know what that breeder is selecting for. Some are only going to breed for the traits the judge sees if they are trying to breed grand prize winners. A judge does not see the color or shade of the egg the hen lays. Some breeders do include egg shade and color in their criteria and will consistently produce really dark eggs. If you want dark eggs I’m not going to say “find a breeder”. I’m going to say “find a breeder that is breeding for what you want”. Sometimes it helps to see the color of egg the chick was hatched from.

I fully agree with Rainbowrooster. The darkest egg a hen will lay is either their very first egg when they start as a pullet or the first egg after a molt. The brown color is made from recycled dead red blood cells. That raw material is always available. But for some reason the longer a hen lays the lighter the egg often becomes. It’s as if she stockpiles a certain chemical when she is not laying to convert those dead blood cells and gradually depletes that supply the longer she lays. By the end of the laying cycle and just before the molt some hens will lay eggs that are a whole lot lighter than when they started. Do not expect those eggs to get any darker.

 

[RIR0BCM]

Thats bad news i bought them from a breeder only one pullet and one roo they are very expensive the only reason i bought them was for their egg color

 

[johanssonmel]

Me too. :-(

 

[RIR0BCM]

My BCM hen laid some more eggs but none of them is truly dark but what baffles me is that almost each egg has a different shade

Why is that happening ??