Red Dorking and Cuckoo Marans eggs

[Arklady]

I am getting 6 Red Dorking eggs a day, I am asking 2.50 an egg.

I am getting 6 Cuckoo Marans eggs per day. I paid 4.50 per Marans egg for these birds. I am offering them up at 3.50$ per egg.

These are pure bred chickens, the Red Dorking is still needing conformation work and color but I am getting good sized birds from these girls.

Warning to Marans breeders: Marans eggs do not ship well, and so I cannot be held responsible for broken air cells. Each of the birds I hatched out has suffered a hard life and are very hardy, with the weaker ones dying off. I am of the opinion that the strong survive in this world. So each of my surviving Marans eggs I have hatched out the chicks virtually pop out of the shell. As they should for strong chicks.

The Red Dorkings are in a process of working out the color and confirmation bugs but the size is also important. Breeding for a Very large Rooster of at least 10 lbs is normal with the hens weighing in at 8. The shipping of Dorking eggs is unknown to me and so any information you can give me in return is welcome for my breed studies.

Email me for any other information you may require.

Arklady

I will post pictures of my birds by the end of the day.

 

[Picco]

I'm interested in the marans eggs. Could you post a pic of the eggs too?

 

[Arklady]

At this time I am not as concerned with the egg color as I am in increasing my pure marans flock to a usable quality bird flock. The egg color breeding program will come next year when I have enough quality birds to work with. Here is the eggs I have...

http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=21417bKEsK&i=1034709

These hens have only been laying for 2 months and the egg color will get darker as they get older.

If you can't view this image email me and I will send the link.

Arklady

 

[Llysse]

I was told that the egg color gets lighter as they get older, so I shouldn't expect my hens to keep producing the same deep color as they do when they first start to lay... that it should stabilize, ideally, around six or seven (on the Marans color chart). Was I told wrong?

Edited to add:

I don't think I'm mistaken; I just looked up the color chart again here (http://marans-club.club.fr/echllang.htm#echelle) and the text reads that the darkest eggs, 8 and 9 on the chart, are usually accidental and found when the hens first start to lay. It says several times in the text that the first 20 eggs a hen lays will usually be darker.

 

[Arklady]

When my Marans hens started laying they were the color or Rhode Island Reds eggs. So who knows any more. As I stated before, my egg color isn't as important RIGHT NOW as the pureness of the bird. I will work on the egg color later.

All of the eggs I hatched from the guy I got them from were pretty dark, about midway on the scale and huge. So from that I can calculate that his hens were at the very least over a season of laying. He did not work on the egg color.

As I stated before, regardless of what the papers say and I have read them all, there is room for improvement, WHEN you have pure marans to work with. And I do. Next year after they have settled in their new home. I will then work on egg color and breed colors.

For NOW I am only interested in increasing my flock. These birds came from a CLOSED flock. They are from pure French Marans stock. That is what I am selling a pure French Maran bird. Some day I will be able to offer all the colors. For now I am happy to be able to offer pure stock.

Arklady

Here are the eggs I spent 110$ on:

http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=21417bKEsK&i=803579

 

[kstaven]

I would like to add one thing to this discussion. Often people get too hung up on egg color and the quality and confirmation of the bird that laid it just isn't there. This is becoming all too common with marans. great eggs with really bad looking birds. So I tend to agree on the side of getting good birds that fit the profile and then build egg color.

The first season of laying marans, tend to lay lighter eggs. The second season they are almost always darker. Has held true with almost every young bird I have had. Eggs do tend to get lighter as the season progresses with mature hens.

You are on the right track arklady.

 

[Llysse]

I understand that you can't have all things in your birds, and I'm one who wants to select, actually, in favor of personality as opposed to conformation, egg color or anything else aside from health. But if you're suggesting the information about egg color is wrong on the French Marans Club site, should you contact them or notify them that they've got it wrong? While they do state that egg color is not everything, they are also very clear that eggs get lighter as the hens age. One would think that they know how it works, but anyone can be mistaken, I suppose... even the people who developed the breed.

I don't think any respectable chicken person would want to mislead buyers, if only for the simple fact that if they're dissatisfied, they're not going to buy hatching eggs or started birds again--and in fact they may tell others their gripes with the product or service. What we have here are two differing opinions on what the egg color "does" as the hens age: one from the French Marans Club, and one from some BYC members from anecdotal personal experience. And that's okay.

I'm only adding in the "official" French Marans Club position because I think it's important for people to know... and because it sounded as if you were new to Marans, Arklady (since you said your hens had only been laying for two months), and I thought you may have been mislead, yourself.

 

[Arklady]

I don't like being a name dropper. Since it is so important to you then I will tell you these chickens were purchased from Bill Braden who is considered one of top 7 of the purest Marans breeders in this country. His flocks have been closed for years. He has been deligent in keeping them separate from contamination from outside flocks and is npip certified.

I have studied for over 5 years to learn the ins and outs of Marans before purchasing these birds. With the exception that I do not read on the ENGLISH Marans as they are slightly different in looks and sizes. The english have always been at odds with the French. So having studied the "official" French Marans website and studied the sop for the breed including egg size, bird shape, bird plumage and frames, I am assured that these Marans I have purchased from Bill Braden, are close to the standard even if they are not totally sop.

I purchased conformation and quality pure birds. The egg color is irrelevant in comparison to the bird perfection. I have all the pertinent information on my computer and regularly check it out for details when necessary. I have images of the conformation that is part of the prerequisite for the french sop, of which I checked my marans by and they fit to perfection.

The coloring of the bird and/or egg is beside the point. I have "issues" with the AMERICAN Marans club, Period. I just don't agree with some of their ideas on birds. Any one with a hundred hens can go through and pick out a dozen great looking dark eggs and have lousy birds.

If this sound hostile I am sorry it isn't my intent to be hostile. If I never sell an egg to anyone it is ok with me because I raise these birds for myself. My intent is to help support my birds by selling enough to provide feed to continue to work on color and size of the bird. I also intend to purchase other marans eggs from other top Marans breeders in the country. To insure that I do not inbreed too much thus causing a smaller Marans.

Vitality is important to me to hatching out healthy strong chicks. Egg color... well if I get it great!

Arklady

 

[Llysse]

The link I provided was to the English language version of the French Marans Club site, which the American Marans Club links to for apparent convenience.

I think if you look back over my posts, you won't find anything, anywhere suggesting that your birds aren't up to standard. That would be silly of me, as I've never seen them. In fact, I don't think you'll even find that I've mentioned that the color of your eggs is bad, good or even average.

Please reread my posts.

The only thing I'm contending is that you may be mistaken in thinking that the color will darken as time goes by and the birds get older. If you have other evidence to show me on that point (other than the anecdotal evidence of personal belief), I would be happy to see it and concede the point that this information is under dispute by the various authorities on the subject.

I'm sure your birds are lovely, but all the evidence (that I've seen so far) seems to point to the fact that ALL Marans--yours, mine, Bill Braden's, Fatty Lumpkin's and the Queen of France's--have a tendency to lay darker eggs at the beginning of lay, growing lighter as the hens get older. This could mean they lay nines and then stabilize at sevens, or that they lay fours and go to twos... or anything in between.

Again, please reread my posts, and I think you'll see that I haven't commented on the color of your eggs or the conformation of your birds... only on whether or not the eggs will get lighter or darker as time goes on.

 

[Arklady]

In reply to your one... question... the answer is both of the pieces of information are correct.

Young marans don't lay dark eggs AT FIRST, they then go into a darker stage. THEN when they get older they lose the ability for dark eggs.

And again I say, the egg color is not revelant to pure birds. Many half breeds or other dark egg layers lay darker eggs. The point is... moot when you are concerned with a breed that SHOULD lay dark eggs but doesn't. The fact so overlooked today is that "if" the Marans are pure there is room for improvement.

If you are wanting more answers regarding French Marans... it is wise to go to the French.

Arklady