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?
That was a quote from my recent add for BCM eggs. And I still don't know when a laying cycle is. All I do know is that my birds are now in their second year of laying and for whatever reason, they stopped laying for a few months. We had rain every day for three months solid and now we are having record freezing weather. But, they are laying again and the eggs are much lighter than they were before they stopped laying.
Here's an example - pic taken before they stopped laying:
Pic taken the other day from the recently gathered eggs:
I know I've read that color can be darkened, depending on what you feed them. Mine freerange and I don't feed them anything special to darken the egg color. But even when they were laying daily, I still got light eggs one day and maybe dark eggs the next and so on. So I'm confused also because I've yet to determine if they have a laying cycle and if so, each one of mine must be on its own cycle.
I do know, from the breeder BCMs that I have in separate pens, that I have two hens, banded and marked, that always lay a dark egg - probably an 8 (but don't want to start an argument on that) - every day - no exception - no variation in color. So they don't seem to have a "cycle" at all - if they do, it's always the same color egg.
I also know I bought BCMs simply for the enjoyment of having dark eggs to add to my "Easter" egg baskets of colored eggs. I had no idea it would become such a fad and then a heated topic of competition and rivalry. It seems now that no bird is good enough and no egg is dark enough and no line is pure enough. Gee....they're chickens. I love the variety of color.
