I'M SCARED WHY IS MY CUCKOO MARAN LAYING LIGHT CREME EGGS INSTEAD OF DARK CHOCOLATE?

[chickadee101]

well she is not like a barred rock. what types of cuckoo chickens are there?

 

[loveourbirds]

As I understand it, the Marans was just recently accepted as a breed. To actually BE a Marans, I believe the egg it lays must be a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10, as best I remember.

If the bird cannot do this, it isn't a Marans. It's just a speckled, cuckoo bird. My guess, and only a guess. is that given the popularity or novelty of a new breed, there are far too many people selling birds as Marans that simply are not up to snuff, either in appearance nor egg laying. What else is new, I guess.

Just stuff you hear hanging around here. More experienced breeders of true Marans would certainly know better.

I have heard this too on egg color. I have black copper marans and golden cuckoo marans (chicks) and they are both feather legged, from what I can see the chicken in the picture is not feather legged?

 

[3riverschick]

I have heard this too on egg color. I have black copper marans and golden cuckoo marans (chicks) and they are both feather legged, from what I can see the chicken in the picture is not feather legged?

The Marans must lay an egg of 4 or better on the French Marans egg chart to be considered a true Marans. You want to rate your hen on egg color by averaging the 1st 20 eggs she lays in her season ( the average should be 4 or better). In their first season, the eggs may start out light. But they should darken up in plenty of time for you to get a average on the 1st 20 eggs.
If you want, keep the shells from the 1st 20 eggs to compare. Getting correct egg tint in pictures ca be really difficult.
Best Success,
Karen
(Former Director of Archives, Marans of America Club)

 

[3riverschick]

If you can find Kelly Cratty Cuckoo Marans or Fugate strain Cuckoo Marans, they are dark egg laying strains.Now you may find some without feathers on their legs. These are English strain Marans. Same breed. Only in England they yard their poultry in yards. In France, they pasture their poultry in fields. Feathered legs and feet get messy and dirty when yarded in England so they opted to breed out the feathers in the legs and feet. In France, no problem on pasture so they have feathered legs and feet.
It is easy to add in feathers on legs and feet to your Marans. There are veteran Marans breeders in both Marans Clubs who can help you plan this.
Best Regards,
Karen
P.S. another idea is to check the results from the various Marans egg shows. Look and see who is winning in the Cuckoo category and buy from them.Whatever you do, do not cross strains to found your flock. It disrupts the balance of the dark egg genes and will take you generations to get it back again. If you have inbred stock and need to add in new blood, do it from a related flock of the same strain. Add in no more than 1/4 foreign blood at a time and do it thru the female side of the mating. That way if the mating doesn't help your flock, you don't have a male polluting your flock with unhelpful genes. It's just one hen and her kids who can be re-homed.

 

[3riverschick]

It is important the sire of your chicks come from a hen who laid dark eggs. He gets the dark egg genes to pass on to his kids from his mother. Also, ask the breeder to send you shells from the same breeding you are considering. That way you will know how dark an egg your chicks will come out of. A breeder should be happy to do this for you.
Best,
Karen

 

[oesdog]

If you can find Kelly Cratty Cuckoo Marans or Fugate strain Cuckoo Marans, they are dark egg laying strains.Now you may find some without feathers on their legs. These are English strain Marans. Same breed. Only in England they yard their poultry in yards. In France, they pasture their poultry in fields. Feathered legs and feet get messy and dirty when yarded in England so they opted to breed out the feathers in the legs and feet. In France, no problem on pasture so they have feathered legs and feet.
It is easy to add in feathers on legs and feet to your Marans. There are veteran Marans breeders in both Marans Clubs who can help you plan this.
Best Regards,
Karen
P.S. another idea is to check the results from the various Marans egg shows. Look and see who is winning in the Cuckoo category and buy from them.Whatever you do, do not cross strains to found your flock. It disrupts the balance of the dark egg genes and will take you generations to get it back again. If you have inbred stock and need to add in new blood, do it from a related flock of the same strain. Add in no more than 1/4 foreign blood at a time and do it thru the female side of the mating. That way if the mating doesn't help your flock, you don't have a male polluting your flock with unhelpful genes. It's just one hen and her kids who can be re-homed.

Mine is an English Marans - before I had her she used to lay darker eggs but hers have got lighter and lighter since she has been here and I have had her a good 4/5yrs. I think the colour ran out! lol - I never got a really dark egg just deep brown like a very dark PR egg! but no way chocolate! More dirty caramel! lol

Poor old Gerty. I did get her from a really good poultry farmer - yeah he had PRs - Over 500( The fancy hens were his daughters and he needed them re-homed!) so I guess Gerty was encouraged to lay lighter to "fit in"!

Thats my theory and I am sticking to it - peer pressure is a terrible thing! Especially in the chicken world! I was disappointed that Gerty never laid dark dark eggs but it doesn't matter she is just a beautiful bird - that kills every darn chick under her!!! Darn hen

Sometimes when she is in a really good mood she lays me a mid brown egg with dark dark splots on it. UMMM???? There is chocolate in there somewhere!

- I did go back and look at the eggs posted. They are a lot lighter than Gerty's looking at them. Though I don;t think Gerty is a pure Maran - I don't think random splots count?


Oes

 

[EweSheep]

mine looks EXACTLY the same!

only light colored eggs! and she's not even from a hatchery! got her off craigslist

Got her off from craiglist? Well, sometimes you just don't know for sure 100 percent but looks like someone got duped and passed the so called Cuckoo Marans to someone new. Not a very nice thing to do! Even a breeder would have hatchery stock in the background or a generation or two and ended up something like that.

I used to have Marans about eight years ago, and their eggs were a lot darker than the ones pictured.

 

[mstricer]

mine looks EXACTLY the same!

only light colored eggs! and she's not even from a hatchery! got her off craigslist

Just because it came from craiglist, makes me believe it is a hatchery bird. Years ago i bought a bunch of Marans from a hatchery, spent a lot of money on them. Not one laid dark or even close to dark eggs, i culled all of them.

 

[EweSheep]

Just because it came from, makes me believe it is a hatchery bird. Years ago i bought a bunch of Marans from a hatchery, spent a lot of money on them. Not one laid dark or even close to dark eggs, i culled all of them.

LOL! I bet they were McMurray's.....I've heard so many stories about their CM that it wasn't funny anymore. Roughly 7/8 of all the chicks there laid "simple" brown eggs, ranging from tan to medium brown but nothing like the true chocolate Marans eggs.

 

[mstricer]

No a different hatchery. I like the hatchery, don't get me wrong, it just wasn't what I expected. Oh well live and learn.