()relics :
I have a small barnevelder flock (standard) as well as a few, bantams....The bantams are kind of rare, I guess, and are still very random as far as size, color, and egg,shape,size,color...but we are working on that...I have found that some of the hatchery birds that I have seen have that V marking on their heads...I really don't know what that means as far as adult coloring, mine both standard and bantam have the solid dark heads....
The V marking means that they were probably crossed with Welsummers at one point. It can produce birds that are not double laced and have rosy breasts, light feather shafting, peppering and poor body type. The egg color can become too terracotta too.
In my opinion, Barnevelders should lay a different shade of dark egg than a Welsummer or even a Marans. Some Breeders have outcrossed with Welsummers, Marans or Penedesencas to darken egg color and that can throw off type as well as egg color. Barnevelders eggs should be a nice oxidized brown (some with speckles), shiney and more round than pointed.
Here is some information I've borrowed off of the:
http://groups.google.com/group/american-barnevelder-club?hl=en
A picure of Barnevelder eggs from Tasmania: from Paul Healy, who claims to have found surviving original Barnevelders from early Dutch settlers in Tasmania.
A Quote from an article about heritage Barnevelders:
Paul Healy, Tasmania:
"The best eggs were highly glossed, and of a colour which
varied from ochre through to burnt umber, often blending
various shadings of rich red mahogany. It is important to
note that the true Barnevelder egg was not the
duller, dark brown, almost chocolate coloured
product of the French Marans fowl, which
many modern strains of Barnevelder in Europe
and Australia now produce.
The Marans egg is a lovely feature, in its own
right, but the Barnevelder egg must be a predominantly rich,
glowing, vibrant shade of red brown, in some eggs seeming
as though the pigment had been oxidized. Some eggs are
also speckled with darker spots which, by themselves, can
seem to be chocolate in colour."
