Surprise white egg !

[Hammy79]

Are you calling that white?

Looks like light brown to me.

The cuckoos aren't known to lay as dark as the black coppers... but that's awfully big looking for it to be a pullet egg unless it is a multi yolker or your bluebell egg is smaller than I think. I'm not familiar with bluebells at all.

Probably just a spray booth error. Sometimes you can tell on the older hens if you know the shape is always the same but it's just a weird shade. It also helps sometimes if you know who lays where, to figure that kind of stuff out.

But if you compare it to say the white on the page where I am currently typing... that's definitely brown.

Many new layer won't have there spray booth completely worked out yet. That's why we wait for consistent laying before deciding if the color meets standard well enough to stay in the flock or not when breeding to that standard.

Your flock is pretty as are your eggs. 

Thanks for your reply , the blue bell egg isn't huge so it maybe from one of the Maran eggs. Also that photo make the egg look much darker than it is to the naked eye . Any way thanks for the response and the compliments . I take pride in my flock so it is nice to here other people complimenting them .

 

[lazy gardener]

If you were seeing a white egg, it would be pure white, like a sheet of paper white. So... no leghorns lurking in your flock that we can see!!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Pictures rarely do justice to color, my daughter and I said yesterday as we peered into a beautiful sky.

And then you add shadows...

Also, don't mean to sound like a snob or grammar natzi. More of a share the fun fact type person ... but did you know that Marans is always with an S even if there is only one chicken?

They are from the port town of Marans in France.

Oh and another one since you have the breed... Welsumer is actually a correct spelling though both (Welsummer) are accepted. Because the are from Welsum. A dutch village in the Netherlands.

I actually have FBCM that I plan on breeding this year. Wow, their size is great. Waiting to see eggs. They are more aggressive boys than most my others. Not hatchery stock. But none are perfect... so I guess I will breed another generation and pick the best of the best and go from there. I cull for faults from my breeding stock but if they are girls they can usually enjoy the egg house a bit.

I have a bantam Welsumer that I like so much I am getting 1 or 2 from hatchery early Feb. Hopefully they will lay their trade mark colored eggs.

Right now I am breeding Swedish Flower as well. But who knows what the future holds!

I enjoy having a mixed flock of many breeds. My breeding purpose and thought and goals have changed with time. The flock is a very dynamic thing. That's what makes it fun.

Enjoy your flock and make yourself home here at BYC, so many great people with lots of experience!

 

[rebrascora]

A others have said, your egg in question is at the very least tint but definitely not white. I would be very disappointed if your Marans are coming into lay and their eggs are that pale. Cuckoo Marans should still be laying a lot darker than a Bluebell even though they are not as dark as a BCM. That said your Bluebell appears to be laying darker than my experience of them, but then you say the photo is showing darker than reality, so maybe not.
I think it is much more likely to be a new layer than a "spray tan" malfunction on an existing layer/mature hen. I would usually expect to see uneven colouring if it was a malfunction. It may unfortunately be that your Cuckoo Marans are poor quality. That is more the colour I would expect from a barred rock but I don't see yellow legs. Having said that, your photos are not very clear. Can you post individual close up photos of the two Marans.
To identify the hen responsible you could paint their vents with different coloured food colouring on a night and see what colour the next light egg is stained with....assuming it wasn't just a one off and you have since found another of the same hue.

Regards

Barbara

 

[Hammy79]

Hi , thanks for you reply , I have not collected the eggs today so I shake see if it was a one of or not , good idear about the food colouring if I get another one in the next couple of days . I'll take close ups of the Marans in a couple of hours once I'm back home . Many thanks stu

 

[Hammy79]

Thanks or your input , and I now know where Marans an welsumers are from , I like interesting facts . Good luck with you flock , I have some Americaunas ( is the grammar correct) in the incubator at the moment so fingers crossed I will have a different colour egg to the collection !

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Stu

I think it is pretty unlikely that you have Ameraucana eggs here in the UK. They are most likely Araucana. Our UK Araucana have tails (they are rumpless in the USA) which makes them look more like their Ameraucana. Some Easter Eggers are sold in the USA as Americana with an i instead of au in the middle. This is, I believe, a bit of a marketing ploy by some hatcheries in the US to con people into thinking they are getting a more rare breed than they are. In the UK we don't really have or recognise Easter Eggers or Ameraucana (however it is spelled) we just have Araucana which have facial tufts and tails and of course we have crosses of them....which is what Americans would call Easter Eggers....it's all very confusing but I think that's the gist of it.

Good luck with your hatch.

Barbara

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi Stu

I think it is pretty unlikely that you have Ameraucana eggs here in the UK. They are most likely Araucana. Our UK Araucana have tails (they are rumpless in the USA) which makes them look more like their Ameraucana. Some Easter Eggers are sold in the USA as Americana with an i instead of au in the middle. This is, I believe, a bit of a marketing ploy by some hatcheries in the US to con people into thinking they are getting a more rare breed than they are. In the UK we don't really have or recognise Easter Eggers or Ameraucana (however it is spelled) we just have Araucana which have facial tufts and tails and of course we have crosses of them....which is what Americans would call Easter Eggers....it's all very confusing but I think that's the gist of it.

Good luck with your hatch.

Barbara

A lot of our feed stores are to uneducated to label their EE correctly. In part, because a lot of the hatcheries still have them labeled as Ameraucana. Both the feed store and hatcheries I'm speaking of use the correct spelling. And the feed store employees would argue till they're blue in the face that they are in fact real Ameraucana. Agreed though, the ones who do use i in the spelling are using a marketing ploy. And the ones who don't are basically being deceptive.

My opinion is that they try to claim this because they may actually have Ameraucana.... that don't fit the breed Standard of Perfection. In other words they haven't done any culling of their stock because the only thing they really care about is those puffy cheeks and beard.

I have actual Ameraucana and EE. One of my actual Am is beautiful.... but has some bleed through of the wrong color. If I got him at the feed store... yep, the extra color makes him look EE. My other Am fit the SOP pretty good though. The bleed through on the AM isn't the only reason I won't be purchasing from that breeder again. There were too many faults in the other breeds I got as well. Such as sprigs and bent toes. My lavender Am are from another source. Nice birds! Hoping to get some other colors this year.... female would be nice!

One way to tell if you are getting real Ameraucana is breeders ALWAYS know what color they are breeding.... ie: black, blue, wheaton, lavender (not APA accepted), you get the idea. If they can't tell you what color they are breeding it's because they aren't!

That being said, I very much enjoy my EE and will probably always have at least a couple in my flock.

It is interesting that different countries have different SOP's. I often read them too. My BCM are bred to the French standard.

I have a mix of eggs in the incubator right now. My first hatch and a test run at that. Getting down all the turning and other things so that when I have eggs that I really don't wish to lose, I will hopefully have better odds. It appears to be going well. Still early so I don't know about development yet, if the eggs I chose were even fertile. But I find experience is the mother of all teachers... And you can read up all you want but hands on is the only way to get actual experience.

 

[lazy gardener]

I love EE, and they are the back bone of my flock. I have 2 Ameraucana's that were hatched from shipped eggs last spring. One of them is an absolute sketch. She's a "self blue". Absolutely gorgeous, first of last spring's pullets to start laying. Her eggs are on the small size, but an absolutely gorgeous shade of blue. She's very curious, always "the first" to be investigating any thing, including hubby's boot laces and the contents of his tool box when he's working on the "honey do" list around the coop. She's the only bird he's ever named. Nellie, as in Nosey Nellie. I'm hoping to hatch a few extra Nellies this spring. Her eggs will be perfect to add to the "gender selection" experiment because they are all the same color, yet different shapes from one day to the next.

 

[Hammy79]

Marans pics

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