Question about Black copper maran eggs

[MamaFix3]

My Black copper Maran hen has just started laying, I have gotten 2 eggs from her so far. My question is will her eggs get darker? Right now her eggs are lighter brown in color then my brown sexlink hens eggs. Is she only laying such pale colored eggs because she just started laying or did I just wind up with a hen that doesn't lay the chocolate colored eggs? Thanks

 

[Pyxis]

Where did you get her? Hatchery BCMs don't lay that dark. I have one and I can't tell the difference between her eggs and the wyandottes' or the buff orp's. I have two very nice ones from a breeder that I'm waiting on to start laying. Getting them from a breeder is the only surefire way to get the dark eggs.

 

[Kelsie2290]

X 2, hatchery Marans usually do not lay that dark. Eggs generally get lighter as hens get farther into their laying cycle. It sounds like you wound up with a Marans that does not lay very dark eggs. Breeders really have to breed for and select for that dark egg color or it is lost.

 

[MamaFix3]

I did not buy her from a hatchery. I bought her from a local guy who breeds chickens.

 

[Pyxis]

Do you know where he got his? He may have gotten them from a hatchery. A marans egg cycle starts out with the darkest egg first, and then they lighten up until they stop for the winter. Then they are dark again in spring.

 

[MamaFix3]

No I do not know where he got them from, he had a huge chicken farm and did his own breeding. The reason I bought them was because I wanted chocolate eggs which is what I told him when I bought them. I am really upset! They are extremely light brown eggs. So they wont darken at all then, She should be laying the really dark eggs already?

 

[Kelsie2290]

If she is going to lay dark eggs, she would normally start out laying them, they usually do not get darker, they get lighter as they keep laying. Sounds like he is not paying enough attention to egg color in the BCMs he is breeding. If you want dark eggs you preferably need to see eggs from the flock you're getting chicks from, they will vary according to where they are in their laying cycle, but they shouldn't ever be light brown.