Want to add a dark color egg to the mix!

[Crazyhenlady]

Here are my eggs. I want to add a dark color. I had a Cookoo (sp?) Maran a few years ago and she was a crappy egg layer. I'm not sure if I got ripped off and she was old but when she did lay I loved the dark color. Any opinions and/or breed suggestions?

 

[HEChicken]

Interesting - my hatchery Cuckoo Marans is a crappy layer too. And her eggs aren't even that dark. However my Black Copper Marans lays a beautiful chocolate brown egg. Of all the Marans varieties, I've heard that BCM lay the darkest eggs. Welsummers are also purported to lay a dark brown egg.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

My cookoo had really dark eggs and if you scratched it it would take off some of the color..strange.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

Oh Cuckoo..lol oops

 

[PtldChick]

Marans have the darkest eggs, but the following breeds also lay dark (terra cotta) eggs:

Welsummer
Barnevelder
Penedesenca

My wellie and barnie both lay eggs that are a 3 on the Marans scale (4 is the minimum to be considered a Marans).

 

[Happy Chooks]

Barnevelder eggs here in the US are not as dark as they should be. Marans or Penedesenca lay the darkest eggs. Welsummers lay terra cotta (clay brick colored) eggs.

Here are some of my welsummer eggs.


And showing the difference with barnevelder eggs - 2nd row from top, 2 welsummer eggs and 3 barnevelder eggs.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

Pretty eggs!!!..I love all the colors!

 

[jesskoot]

I also have Cuckoo Marans and they are slow layers and the color is not what I had hoped. And they really don't join in the flock - they pretty much isolate themselve and the other hens don't like them much. Won't repeat this breed.

 

[CSWolffe]

I have been drooling over dark egg layers for months now. I have some Wellsumer chicks on the way. Black Copper Marans(the darkest layers available) were just too hard to get hold of.
From what I have been told, the darker the egg, the poorer the layer. It takes time to put on all that pigment, so the more darker the egg, ie the more pigment required to get that dark coloration, the longer the egg must stay in the chicken.
I have an Australorp and a RIR for production, getting a light brown egg almost every day, and I have some EEs and the aforementioned Wellsumers for variety. I fully anticipate the colored layers wont give me more than three eggs a week, at most.
That's just the way it is.
Also, you will get darker layers if you get your Wellsumers or BCMs from a breeder vs a hatchery. Also, Black Copper Marans lay darker eggs than Cuckoo Marans.
Just my two cents.

 

[tsiecz]

My copper marans are pretty consitant layers so far. They only take off one day a week on average.