My first Marans hen and I am super dissapointed. :(

[KBlue]

Yeah, my mom and I were very disappointed too with our first Cuckoo Marans. They came from McMurray (so probably mutts anyway), but the "chocolate brown" eggs they were advertising was no more spectacular than the brown eggs from the Wyandottes.

My mom is now in the search for some real Marans that actually lay dark brown eggs.

So disappointing....

 

[crj]

She looks like my Dominicer (sp?). I have French Black Copper Marans. I have found when the hens are young they lay small eggs. I have noticed that it's the older birds that will lay the large eggs. As for the color. Does it have dark specks? I did have some black copper maran hens that layed brown eggs like that and I gave them away to a friend. The longer the hen takes to lay the egg the darker it will be. I don't know anything about the Cockoo marans. I have the lavendar and french.

 

[speckledhen]

She looks like a Cuckoo Marans, yes, from the white leg color.

 

[Jchantecler]

She does look like a cuckoo maran. The barring pattern is usually kind of blurry, such as in yours. As speckled hen said, the leg color is another clue.

 

[wolftracks]

These are from my FBCMs which were ordered as chicks form Bev Davis and then when they got older, my husband bought them for me.
They keep getting darker.

I only have a camera phone right now, so this pic isn't close to the color. The ones on the other end are a pretty Olive green and they don't come close here either.

Maybe if you want dark, you should get a BCM hen. The hatchery birds lay nothing close.

 

[happytxchick]

Barred Rocks have yellow legs. The difference from Dominiques (commonly miscalled Domineckers) is the comb - Marans and Barred Rocks have straight combs, while the Dom breed has rose combs.


Sorry about your disappointment. I understand. I have a wheaten Ameraucana (hatched from one of the bluest eggs EVER) that is a year old & is either still not laying or lays a pink egg -- it's nerve racking!

 

[birdbrain5]

i went thru this too, still actually. i bought a trio of cuckoo marans and they hadnt started laying yet. i was told they were under a year old so im not sure if they had laid before or not. one hen started laying first and the eggs were huge and not that dark, i was so mad. some days they were darker than others but nothing like what i wanted. then i started getting two eggs and one was SUPER dark. i to this day dont know if it was the second hen that started to lay or the first and her egg just got darker. all i know is one still lays much darker than the other. the lighter egg is darker than that of a RIR but im still not happy about it. i wanted very dark and was sold one so-so hen. all i can do now is hatch out some from my darker egg layer and keep a few pullets to see how they lay, then get rid of my lighter layer. both girls lay a huge egg tho! give her a couple weeks, it may darken because even my lighter layer has darkened some over time.
good luck i hope it was a fluke!

 

[sweeterdeeter42]

Well this is todays egg. or last nights egg, idk. A little redder than the first one, but way smaller. They are the two in the foreground. The ones in the background are my turkey eggs.

 

[ChooksChick]

I know MyABCs3 has both French and clean-legged Cuckoos that lay much darker eggs than that- you might ask her.

 

[birdbrain5]

wow, that sure is light for a cuckoo. even my lighter layer is much much darker than that. is this her first year laying? (sorry that answer might be in your original post) i'd give her a bit to see if they gradually darken, if they dont i would contact the seller. sometimes theres nothing you can do tho, but maybe they will trade you for another hen..