Marans Thread for Posting Pics of Your Eggs, Chicks and Chickens

[kathyinmo]

My BCMs stopped laying for a few months and are just now laying again .....

Right now the eggs are light and many are speckled but these are the same birds that also lay nice dark eggs.

I read the above quote somewhere else, and it confuses me. Now, it seems to me, that Marans should be laying their darkest eggs at the beginning of a cycle. And, the beginning of a cycle is right after molt, correct? (As well as the first pullet eggs, if I understand correctly) ....

Can you tell, I have never gotten any Marans eggs yet! LOL

soon ... soon...​

 

[ILOVEFRIZZLES]

I did some reading in my Raising Chickens for Dummies. They are calling my group to egg a Clutch the egg layed before a hen goes brood. Anyway I just want to show off my egg hope someone enjoys them and yes I am hatching them all. I love to hatch. That all for me.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I did read someone had planted an egg bomb .... that is, they filled an egg with (whatever) and added apple bitter (found in the equine or the dog section?). After one taste of this, the chicken never tried it again !

 

[megcpat]

Ha Ha Ha That's hilarious!!!!

 

[megcpat]

How does a person filln an egg?

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Very carefully!

I read that you blow out the egg, through a small hole, and replace the contents with a syringe or the likes.

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Any time I've caught one of my birds eating eggs I've picked them up on the spot and dispatched them, then and there! They, of course, love eggs once they taste them and will teach the other birds to do it. Better the freezer than that.
Luckily I've only had 2 egg eaters in all the years I've been raising chickens. That said, if you've spent a lot of money on this roo and had high hopes for using him in your breeding program it might be worth trying adding apple bitter or whatever into a few eggs. I don't think you need to blow out all of the contents first though, since the egg has an air sac, it would expand just fine. Just use a syringe with a small needle (the size most diabetics use) to inject whatever foul tasting stuff you want. I would isolate the roo though so other birds don't see him do it and get ideas.

 

[geebs]

Freezer camp it is.. that was my first instinct... He will be one expensive supper...... I was so mad I could have killed him right there... and should have...I know where my eggies are going...I like being the one eating the eggies. He is a little better than the one I am using but so what!!!! Thank Goodness he isn't in the marans pen teaching my girls... They do NOT need that lesson...

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
I read the above quote somewhere else, and it confuses me. Now, it seems to me, that Marans should be laying their darkest eggs at the beginning of a cycle. And, the beginning of a cycle is right after molt, correct? (As well as the first pullet eggs, if I understand correctly) ....
Can you tell, I have never gotten any Marans eggs yet! LOL
soon ... soon...

Yea from everything I've read and experienced that doesn't make much sense either! See marans start out with whites eggs and they lay the pigment on as the egg passes through the oviduct. Of course all brown egg layers lay pigment on after the egg is formed but the marans' actually dye their eggs at the very last moment with special glands in their oviducts (that's why the color can be removed so easily when the egg is freshly laid). From what I've read the longer they go without laying the stronger and more intense the dye will be in these glands but although this has been the case with my gals it obviously isn't for everybody!
I guess that's why we love those gorgeous dark eggs so much. They are such a special treat! Well at least they still taste just as delicious. I especially love my marans' eggs for custards, nog and puddings etc. The chalaza (those white pieces that anchor the yolk and keep it centered) seem to be less invasive on the marans' eggs. They separate real easy and aren't as big or as hard as they are in other eggs. So they make delicious custards etc.
Could be I'm just imagining this though. Has anybody else noticed they seem to taste better in these creamy recipes or is it just me?

 

[geebs]

it depends on the bird... Some of them do their best work in the second lay period and some of them do the best paint job in the beginning...I have bl/B/spl that the eggs gets darker through the cycle... Completely backwards of what you hear... Why... IDK I do know that if my best darkies get upset... the eggs turn really really light. Stress changes the color from day to day. Some of them are not that "high strung" and have a consistant color... I am happy to report that my hens overall do a pretty good job all the way through... The spotting is just how some paint and sometimes it is stress related also... A hens egg can be different from day to day... that is what makes it so much fun to get eggs daily...ya never quite know what to expect.