Pictures of Black Copper Marans around time of laying first egg

[vehve]

Quote: Not in this yard. The neighbors think we're crazy enough already.

 

[vehve]

Well, looks like at 19 weeks and 2 days the wait is finally over. Wilma had been pondering egg laying for quite some time, and today she finally decided to go ahead and do it.







The coloring leaves room for improvement, but maybe that will develop with time. It weighed 37 grams.

 

[cluck13]

 

[Farmer Viola]

Well, looks like at 19 weeks and 2 days the wait is finally over. Wilma had been pondering egg laying for quite some time, and today she finally decided to go ahead and do it.







The coloring leaves room for improvement, but maybe that will develop with time. It weighed 37 grams.

Hooray Wilma!

That is a lovely first egg!

 

[vehve]

Quote: Yeah, she did a really good job. The whole flock chimed in on her egg song and everything, it was a real group effort.

Anyone have any experience with how the outermost "paint" develops with age? Or is she going to put this greyish brown speckling on them forever? I was sort of hoping for a darker color in the spots.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Yeah, she did a really good job. The whole flock chimed in on her egg song and everything, it was a real group effort.

Anyone have any experience with how the outermost "paint" develops with age? Or is she going to put this greyish brown speckling on them forever? I was sort of hoping for a darker color in the spots.

I think that greyish color is the bloom? I'm not sure, but mine have that too in certain light.

One of my BCM hens is still making splatter paint eggs (see photo I posted previously, 3 splatter eggs from the same hen).
One hen switched from splatter to solid dark brown within 1 week, and she still lays the darkest eggs.
The third BCM hen lays an egg not quite as dark as Bertha's, but slightly darker than a Welsummer. Hers is the bottom left egg in this photo:

bottom center is welsummer; bottom left is the ligher BCM egg color, 3 splatter eggs; 2 very dark Bertha eggs near the top. yes it is slightly crazy that I can identify each hen's egg (according to my husband anyway

)

ooh here is a photo showing that same greyish bloom on the darkest, Bertha eggs.

The cracked one in the top was my fault, slipped right out of my hand!
far right on the bottom row is a storebought egg.

 

[vehve]

Quote: Those are pretty. I was somehow expecting this 80% cacao chocolate colored blooming on it, since she arrived to us in an egg with that. On this one the blooming is lighter than the egg shell itself. The rooster is 50/50 BCM Cuckoo though, so maybe that's affecting it. Or then it will darken with time. I'll have to compare her next egg to this one.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Those are pretty. I was somehow expecting this 80% cacao chocolate colored blooming on it, since she arrived to us in an egg with that. On this one the blooming is lighter than the egg shell itself. The rooster is 50/50 BCM Cuckoo though, so maybe that's affecting it. Or then it will darken with time. I'll have to compare her next egg to this one.

Interesting, I will definitely be looking for tomorrow's egg pic.

There is another weird thing with BCM eggs. The color will sort of wipe off if you collect it very soon after it was laid, and the bloom is still wet. I found out by wiping the material off the egg on my pant leg, and no color was left behind! Sometimes the wet paint effect makes little scratches from the nesting material into the egg color, it looks odd when it happens.

 

[vehve]

Wilma took her time with today's egg, spent about an hour in the nest. And loads of egg songs to be heard every 5 minutes, she riles up the whole flock to join her in her serenade. Today's effort saw a nice gain in size from yesterday, we got a nice 42g egg, that's almost a small! The color is much more to my liking today, although the flowering is not very substantial yet. It has however changed color from yesterdays grey to a nice dark brown.

Yesterday's 37g on the right, and today's 42g on the left. I had a little trouble getting a good light, the base color appears a lot lighter in the picture than with the naked eye.

 

[vehve]

Wilma finally decided to lay today again, after a pause of 6 days. I had saved the previous egg for color comparison, and it certainly is darker this time. Weighed in at 45 grams.