Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chrissyr]

Hey all, I posted in the egg laying forum and someone suggested I post my question in this thread.

I have some black copper Marans I got as chicks from My Pet Chicken. These hens are about a year and a half old, and a BIG percentage (more than half) of their eggs have blood spots and meat(?) spots. They are not saleable as table eggs because of this problem.

I know this is common with pullets, but I thought they would have outgrown that problem by now.

What I'm trying to find out is if this is common with Marans, or just that one strain that comes from MPC/Meyers.

I now have some quality Marans chicks from some other sources (*real* breeders, not hatcheries), and I'm wondering if they will have the same egg interior quality. I would like to raise some extra pullets to add to the laying flock just to have a more colorful variety of table eggs, but not sure if I will be able to do that.

Does anyone here add Marans eggs to their table eggs for selling? How is the quality?

Ugh! I was having them too. With this breeding I was getting tons of Blood and Meat spots over the last couple of weeks. I've had marans years back, and they weren't like this. These have only been laying for about 3 weeks. I was hoping it would clear because city people just don't understand it. This week they are far better. Very small if any. I read pullets can have them. Yet if your hens are older it may be genetic, so I'm guessing it won't go away. I often have them here or there in my other breed's eggs. Very small ones. But these new pullets eggs would gross many out with the big spots. Mine are Wade Jean lines. How big are the spots in yours?

 

[ladycat]

People are buying the eggs and know they are fresh from the farm eggs, not from commercially raised chickens, and no one has complained. I do not know why they would not be saleable, those spots are cosmetic only. The eggs are perfectly edible.

You're lucky. People around here are squeamish and get grossed out easy. They get a lot of blood spots, you lose a customer.

A lot of people even refuse green eggs. They are absolutely convinced that something is wrong with those eggs, and no amount of explaining convinces them otherwise.

How big are the spots in yours?

From small to big. MANY of the eggs have multiple spots, like they've been spattered with paint. Some of the "meat" spots are large, and sometimes more than one in a single egg.

These eggs really are kinda gross sometimes. I feed them to the dog.

 

[maryhysong]

You're lucky. People around here are squeamish and get grossed out easy. They get a lot of blood spots, you lose a customer.

A lot of people even refuse green eggs. They are absolutely convinced that something is wrong with those eggs, and no amount of explaining convinces them otherwise.


From small to big. MANY of the eggs have multiple spots, like they've been spattered with paint. Some of the "meat" spots are large, and sometimes more than one in a single egg.

These eggs really are kinda gross sometimes. I feed them to the dog.

So far (knock wood) I have not had any really disgusting eggs. An occasional small speck of blood has been it. I sell eggs at our farmer's market and many people come and ask about the different colors (I have BO, Welsummer, BCM, EE and various mixes) They love all the different colors and specklings on them.

 

[motherhubbert68]

Okay can anyone help me out with identifying this 8 week old. We got him by hatching some Marans eggs that we received with the purchase of our older Black Copper Maran hens. The eggs it came from was a about #6 in color. Also can anyone tell me why some Maran eggs have freckles?

 

[motherhubbert68]

These are some of our 8 - 4 week old chics and there parents trying to learn how to cull the best chic out for bteeding to french standard ... what should I be looking for?

8 week old roo hatchling

Same roo with sisters will be seperating them soon.

One of last weeks hatchlings.

Proud popa , Bo, No relation to breeding hens.

Bo and his lady loves.

 

[motherhubbert68]

Here are some of the eggs we have been collecting .

 

[ladycat]

I'm sure this has been asked a hundred times, but how can I get one of those egg color charts?

 

[Wynette]

How to order Shade Cards

$6.00 for 2 cards

[email protected]

or

mail:

April Howington
PO BOX 1432
Burnet, Texas 78611

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Yep, and that way if I suddenly get the urgent need to stick more eggs in the incubator I can use the freshest I know you aren't supposed to refrigerate hatching eggs, but I figured out our fridge is actually the correct temp/humidity. I have 20 hatching this week that were all done that way.

Is your refrigerator not 40 degrees or below? Do you keep all of your food that you eat in there?

 

[Wynette]

Proud popa , Bo, No relation to breeding hens.



Bo and his lady loves.

I'm sorry to say this, but this male should not be used for breeding.

He has a few issues, one of the most imortant being the "halo" of lighter color toward the ends of his hackles. If you are just wanting pretty eggs, it's fine to use him; but, if you are breeding to standard, cull him right away and please do not use him further. I'm not trying to be mean, but you asked for feedback, so this is my opinion. I am not an expert; this is what I see from the pictures.