Maran egg color

[alston83]

I recently purchased two 1 year French Black Copper Marans. I was hoping to have the dark, almost Hershey bar colored eggs like I see in pictures. Instead they lay a brown egg, a bit darker than my orphingtons, but not as dark as I expected. The eggs are also speckled with a deep dark brown color. The color of the speckling is what i was expecting for the whole egg. Will the eggs get any darker? Are the deep dark brown eggs kind of uncommon? What can i expect in the future?

 

[mandelyn]

The eggs will darken up at the beginning of a cycle (after a break) and then lighten a little over time until the next break. When they first start laying, they're always darker.

Bloodline and purity play a role. That color needs to be maintained through the breeding, only selecting those birds with the darkest eggs, and using roosters who hatched from super dark eggs. If that trait isn't encouraged, the color can become "washed out" through multiple generations.

The Black Copper coloration of the breed has the darkest colors, but only if that is maintained in the bloodline. Other colors of the breed are gaining better egg color through selective breeding. My darkest Marans eggs come from a Wheaten bird, but my Splash and Blue are pale. So I wouldn't breed my Splash or my Blue hen, but I would breed my Wheaten hen. For example. I haven't owned the Black Copper variety yet, but they're more popular and have been around a little longer and have received more breeder focus.

When ever you buy birds like this, ask to see the eggs from the breeder birds that made those babies, or if they're old enough, the eggs from the birds themselves.

When I buy hatching eggs, I totally skip an add if it doesn't show a photo of the egg coloring. That egg color is the main attraction to the breed.

You have to be careful with Marans... they were so high priced for so long that a lot of people produced as many as they could. Some still maintained strict breeding selection, but others... if it had feathered feet (or not) and looked close enough, it was used for breeding. You want to buy from breeders that retain that egg color.

But you don't know what "true" egg color the hen has until she's fresh into laying at the beginning of a season, or after molt, or when she first starts to lay. Mine seem to lighten about 1-2 shades, but are still dark enough for me to know who laid it. The lightest any of my birds have produced has typically been like a Welsummer egg, but my Splash can get as light as say, a Sexlink, especially coming into this time of year.