My marans aren't marans????

[TheKidAndDame]

Quote:
You may be right, depending on her egg color. We don't know how light they are. If they are no darker than your average brown egg then I think they are mutts. If they are indeed darker, but not as rich as the "ideal egg", then I agree with your analysis. As I said, mine are from the hatchery and they lay a 4 at the beginning of the season and a 3 at the end.

 

[purr]

I ordered a maran from MMH and it looks exactly like your hens.I'll get a pic later if I can find my camera.

 

[Davaroo]

Marans confuse me. Why not just get BR's?

 

[arlee453]

It's all about those chocolate brown eggs, dave...

Now, if they TASTED like chocolate.....THEN I'd be gettin' me some of them too!

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
So if I'm getting this, they are still brown, but a darker shade of brown... as opposed to, say, a lighter sort of brown.
But it varies, sometimes being a lighter dark brown, or on the other hand, a darker light brown, right?
Got it.

 

[MissPrissy]

You got it

 

[robinaggie]

They're pretty. If they're nice, and they make eggs, and you throw the shell away anyway, I don't know why it matters. A predator killed my healthy BR, and I'm left with the runt who is mean and will probably never lay. I'LL TRADE YA!!

 

[Rogue_Woman]

You can get more money for a colorful half dozen of eggs than a uniform color brings at the farmer's market

 

[ginasmarans]

I agree with Arklady, they look as though they are marans,but maybe a mixture of varieties.I have a feather shank hen that looks somewhat like those,but neither of the hens that laid the egg she hatched from do. I bought the original hens from a breeder in Georgia(shipped to me),so I don't know if he mixed color varieties. If you could post a pic of the egg,that would help. People have been mislead(in my opinion) about the color of marans eggs. If you will read about them,you will find that those deep,deep, dark brown eggs are a rarity,even among marans. The usual color is much lighter. Also,sometimes egg color genetics skips a generation. One of my hens laid a light colored egg I considered inferior,even though she hatched from a dark egg. i had to cull her from my breeding pen,but kept her as an egg layer. She still is a consistant layer of large eggs and was my first hen to go broody this year.

 

[tfpets]

Kinda borrowing the thread, but can I ask?

Quote:
What do you consider a "light" colored egg though? And when would you consider the best time in the laying cycle is to decide whether your hen is going to be a consistent "dark" egg layer? The darkest I get any more is terra cotta colored from my hen who has been in seriously stressed out conditions lately, but I still love her and consider her a "marans" although I read somewhere else, if the egg color is less than a "4" they arent even a true marans? Is that true? How confusing.......