Pictures of Black Copper Marans around time of laying first egg

[vehve]

Time for another update. Wilma is 19 weeks today. Just before taking these pictures, she spent 15 minutes inside the nest, but then decided to come out. We are very close. I'm sorry about the bad pictures, but Wilma wasn't up for a photo shoot today.

 

[newchick6]

Does she squat.
One of mine has started squatting so hopefully not too long

 

[vehve]

Does she squat.
One of mine has started squatting so hopefully not too long

Haven't tried if she squats for me, but she is a bit promiscuous. She no longer resists our Coop Casanova, Topi the roo, when he suggest a little tryst in the bushes. Also, for the past few days the nests have been a bit of a mess, and we caught her going in there today, she then spent about 15 minutes in it, so I'd say we'll have a dark brown egg if not tomorrow, the day after that.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Time for another update. Wilma is 19 weeks today. Just before taking these pictures, she spent 15 minutes inside the nest, but then decided to come out. We are very close. I'm sorry about the bad pictures, but Wilma wasn't up for a photo shoot today.

she's so beautiful! great photography as well.

Haven't tried if she squats for me, but she is a bit promiscuous. She no longer resists our Coop Casanova, Topi the roo, when he suggest a little tryst in the bushes. Also, for the past few days the nests have been a bit of a mess, and we caught her going in there today, she then spent about 15 minutes in it, so I'd say we'll have a dark brown egg if not tomorrow, the day after that.

ahaha your descriptions crack me up! Wilma surely will be leaving you a bullet shaped gift anytime now

My Faverolles pullet just laid her first egg today! She's 24.5 weeks old. She has NOT been receptive to the resident cockerel however, she has never squatted in my presence, but he seems to know that she's close. Yesterday she displayed some odd anti-nesting behavior - she emptied out the eggs of the bottom level nest and removed every. last. scrap. of nesting material. It was truly impressive how empty she made it. I refilled the nest with straw today, and wouldn't you know it, she laid in the sand. didn't even try to build a straw nest.

SaraFlav's gift to us, pictured with Marans and Welsummer eggs

Sara herself,

 

[vehve]

Quote: Those are some pretty eggs. Sara has a nice scarf, I'm not crazy about her legwarmers though. We get pretty muddy springs and autumns, and I like the look of bare legs. Sara looks like she's excellent at begging for treats, she has those puppy eyes.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll get one of those spotted brown eggs to add to our colors. Right now we only have two, since Wilma's sister started making olive eggs on Saturday.


Wilma has been reorganizing the nest a bit too, she likes to scratch a hole in the straw, making a 10cm bare plastic spot in the middle of her spot. This has been going on for two days now, so I'm sure we'll have her first egg within a few days.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Those are some pretty eggs. Sara has a nice scarf, I'm not crazy about her legwarmers though. We get pretty muddy springs and autumns, and I like the look of bare legs. Sara looks like she's excellent at begging for treats, she has those puppy eyes.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll get one of those spotted brown eggs to add to our colors. Right now we only have two, since Wilma's sister started making olive eggs on Saturday.


Wilma has been reorganizing the nest a bit too, she likes to scratch a hole in the straw, making a 10cm bare plastic spot in the middle of her spot. This has been going on for two days now, so I'm sure we'll have her first egg within a few days.

Are your Marans French with the feathered legs? Mine are. We get very muddy here too, I'm in Oregon in the NW corner of the US. We are close to the coast, where it never gets too cold or too hot but always rains. Mostly Sara and the Marans' feet will get muddy, but not their legs. And the next day, they're clean again. I'm not sure if they spend time preening their feet, or what. Sara's beard also gets covered in brown on wet days, it's sort of endearing but mostly disgusting

before I cooked the Faverolles cockerel, she and he would preen the mud out of each other's beard. Adorable.

And yes, she sure knows how to work me over. I adore that girl so much, doesn't it look like she's smiling all the time?

Wow, I LOVE that Olive Egg of yours! You are going to have the most colorful egg basket with that combination. Could you post a pic of the hen who laid it? I have a chick who's 9 weeks old right now, her mother was green egg laying Americana/EE (not sure) and her dad was a Marans. I have read that if they have a pea comb, they'll lay olive eggs, and if they have a single comb, brown eggs. What type of comb does your olive egger have?

and does this look like a pea comb to you? it sort of looks like a small single comb to me. I have no pea comb to compare to though

 

[vehve]

I found out yesterday that our Marans isn't completely Black Copper, her sire is a Cuckoo-Black Copper mix. She looks to be more of the British variation, or then she just has an epilator stashed somewhere. The olive egger shares the same sire, but the hen that laid her egg was some sort of (Araucana x ?) x (Silkie x Finnish landrace). The egg she came in was a light blue. Our very own mutt, a regular Heinz 57.

She's a small bird, very gamy in behavior. I think she'll be pretty hardy, the landrace features show through in her behavior and size. The coloring is BCM though, I'd say, but not as much coppertones in her as in Wilma.

Looking at comb shapes in "A practical guide to keeping chickens, ducks, geese & turkeys", I'd say that's a single, but I now nothing of comb shapes.

 

[ShockValue]

Your Faverolles is very pretty. I have 4 of them who are just 20 weeks today. We got them from a hatchery and they're kind of "mutty" looking (lots of black/dark brown bleeding into their feather colors) but I love them anyway. Since they don't have the Internet in the coop they just have to believe me when I tell them they're perfect and beautiful.

BCM's are next on my "to get" list since I want some dark eggs. Eventually I'd like to make my own Olive Egger breed too, so I'll keep one BCM male.

 

[vehve]

Your Faverolles is very pretty. I have 4 of them who are just 20 weeks today. We got them from a hatchery and they're kind of "mutty" looking (lots of black/dark brown bleeding into their feather colors) but I love them anyway. Since they don't have the Internet in the coop they just have to believe me when I tell them they're perfect and beautiful.

BCM's are next on my "to get" list since I want some dark eggs. Eventually I'd like to make my own Olive Egger breed too, so I'll keep one BCM male.

We have a mutt roo of the same mix as the OE pullet. We might try for some different colored OE:s next spring from him, if we have losses during the winter. The coop is pretty much up to maximum capacity at the moment though. We still have a Sussex roo that will probably be rehomed to the freezer, so one more we could handle, but 8 is pretty much the most I'm willing to cram in there.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I found out yesterday that our Marans isn't completely Black Copper, her sire is a Cuckoo-Black Copper mix. She looks to be more of the British variation, or then she just has an epilator stashed somewhere. The olive egger shares the same sire, but the hen that laid her egg was some sort of (Araucana x ?) x (Silkie x Finnish landrace). The egg she came in was a light blue. Our very own mutt, a regular Heinz 57.

She's a small bird, very gamy in behavior. I think she'll be pretty hardy, the landrace features show through in her behavior and size. The coloring is BCM though, I'd say, but not as much coppertones in her as in Wilma.

Looking at comb shapes in "A practical guide to keeping chickens, ducks, geese & turkeys", I'd say that's a single, but I now nothing of comb shapes.

Aha I love her crest! She looks to have a sassy personality. Mongrel chickens are the best.
And I was hoping you wouldn't say single...

Your Faverolles is very pretty. I have 4 of them who are just 20 weeks today. We got them from a hatchery and they're kind of "mutty" looking (lots of black/dark brown bleeding into their feather colors) but I love them anyway. Since they don't have the Internet in the coop they just have to believe me when I tell them they're perfect and beautiful.

BCM's are next on my "to get" list since I want some dark eggs. Eventually I'd like to make my own Olive Egger breed too, so I'll keep one BCM male.

Thank you! I'm sure yours are wonderufl as well, what chicks aren't beautiful to their human counterparts? I have no idea about what perfect SFs would look like, or what to look for. I had wanted to get into the breed, but it turned out my SF cockerel was a real jerk. He attacked and bit me one too many times, had to cook him.

We have a mutt roo of the same mix as the OE pullet. We might try for some different colored OE:s next spring from him, if we have losses during the winter. The coop is pretty much up to maximum capacity at the moment though. We still have a Sussex roo that will probably be rehomed to the freezer, so one more we could handle, but 8 is pretty much the most I'm willing to cram in there.

That would be a project I'd be interested in following. 8 is definitely not enough, I think you need at least twice that.

Time for a coop expansion project?