We did a thing.. expanding the flock!

[KhalSancho]

I only have one Marans and she lays lighter eggs with spots OR fully dark eggs. She lays a variety! She is a black copper Marans, not the original French but the kind that hatcheries created as sort of a knock off in the US. Her eggs can still be plenty dark!

Your birds look gorgeous!

Wow, that’s pretty cool and encouraging to hear, because the deep brown speckles look great too! Looking forward to seeing how she develops! Thank you so much, we were thrilled to get such a quality pair!!

 

[KhalSancho]

Only time will tell.
The speckles will be nice tho.
How 'strong' are the blues from your Araucana?

working on my patience lol
So we got a flock of Seven Araucanas. The breeder we got them from is trying to improve her line and hole punches a tiny hole in the webbing of their foot if they hatch from deeply saturated blue eggs with genetics she wants to keep. We ended up getting FOUR hole punched out of the seven. Our blue cockerel Sax, both of the black pullets Macadamia and Pepper and one of our lavender gals, Domino. So when we go for the olive eggers we want to put our Araucana Roo with this beautiful Blue Copper Marans and then run Haan, our Black Copper Marans Roo to both the black Araucanas and maybe our blue Araucana, Poppy (she’s the only one not hole punched that we want to breed but her colour and structure are great so we’ll try if her eggs are “deep enough” for my taste). I don’t want to breed our lavender even though she’s punched because I don’t want to mess up genetics for down the road and we’re really focusing on correct birds with deeply saturated eggs.. and I’m too inexperienced to want to take on a lavender project at the moment lol Think I’m on the right track?

(edit: the Araucanas are only about 4 months so they’re a ways away from laying.. but the hole punch indication seems great!)

 

[aart]

and we’re really focusing on correct birds with deeply saturated eggs.. ....Think I’m on the right track?

What do you mean by "correct birds"?
Are your Marans related....so you know how dark of a coating gene the males are carrying? Might just be a crap shoot on the olive eggers, but good blues are a great start. I had a good Marans cock over weak blued Legbars, olives were rather muddy.

 

[AusHen]

Congrats on your new birds, can't say I have heard of Phil Irwin but I'm new to the Marans club (arranged hatching eggs for the new year). Dark eggs are scarce here in Aus which is why I have opted for eggs worthy of the incubator over chicks/chickens, but clearly you're off to a good start. Good luck with your Araucanas and future Olive Eggers, they are a lot of fun to work with

 

[KhalSancho]

What do you mean by "correct birds"?
Are your Marans related....so you know how dark of a coating gene the males are carrying? Might just be a crap shoot on the olive eggers, but good blues are a great start. I had a good Marans cock over weak blued Legbars, olives were rather muddy.

With “correct birds” I mean their structure and colour as far as SOP. And as I mentioned, in Australia, it’s slim pickings with some breeds and it’s just not “there”.. so, to get these guys from this guy, Phil Irwin’s line is a big deal because he shows them and gets awards constantly and he’s very selective with who he’ll sell breeding pairs to (to my knowledge only a few people) so, even though they may fall short in American SOP.. these guys are top notch for Aus and I’d be hard pressed to find better structure and saturation in their colour. There ARE dark fertilised eggs available here, but we don’t have an incubator at the moment..
I’m not sure if they’re related.. I’m assuming somewhere down the line they are because the breeder I got them from had started with just the breeding pair from Phil and now has her own breeding flock five years later from that original pair.. She showed me pictures of the eggs thro h incubation and I’d say they were about 7s on the egg scale and that’s conservative. I can ask if they’re directly related though, if that helps? The breeder I got them from picks out four dozen of the darkest eggs she has each year from her best birds and only incubates those and keeps working her breeding program like that..

as far as the Olive Egger project, that sounds hopeful, because we saw the Araucana eggs at the breeders that came from the hole punched chooks and they were nicely saturated blues!

 

[KhalSancho]

Congrats on your new birds, can't say I have heard of Phil Irwin but I'm new to the Marans club (arranged hatching eggs for the new year). Dark eggs are scarce here in Aus which is why I have opted for eggs worthy of the incubator over chicks/chickens, but clearly you're off to a good start. Good luck with your Araucanas and future Olive Eggers, they are a lot of fun to work with

Thanks, mate! I’d never heard of him either tbh as we’re new to homesteading and even though we’ve had chooks separately in our lives, they were families and not the breeds we wanted or were interested in so when we went about it, it was just about hunting the darkest looking eggs off gumtree and trying to see if the breeders had pullets/cockerels.. BOTH times we got extremely lucky, even though collectively it was 12hrs of road tripping for the flock but when I got the BCMs the lady poured out all this passionate information to me and was overjoyed to share it all. I looked Phil up and she wasn’t lying lol so, we’re just over the moon! We definitely would’ve gone the incubation route, but we just moved to our new spot.. my partner is 8 1/2 months pregnant with our first little baby girl and we just couldn’t justify spending more money on an incubator after we got the flock.. SOON THOUGH, let me tell you where abouts in qld are you? Nice to have another person I know who’s on the same time schedule lol

 

[SurferchickinSB]

So, let me start by saying in Australia.. it tends to be harder to get pure bred chickens that meet the SOP especially where we’re located.. We have our 7 Araucana and it’s always been the plan to find some Marans and bring in deep brown eggs and eventually olive eggers. I was looking on Gumtree (kinda like Craigslist for Australia) and I found a breeding pair for $150.. And yes, I paid it and drove 6 hours total to get them lol Here’s the best part.. these Marans are from basically the MARANS MAN, out here in Australia. The breeder I got them from had been trying to get eggs off of the man, Phil Irwin, for 5 years she said and her pair directly from him cost her double what I paid!! And he’s only sold his line to one other person. He took twelve birds into the last show and walked out with something like 27 awards! So basically, in my flock.. I’ve got the best Marans you can find out here!! And she said these hatched out of eggs that were like conservatively 7/8s on the egg scale for darkness! So let me stop wasting your time and introduce you to Haan and Kip (rooster and chicken in Dutch)

Now you can make your own olive Egger’s! My Marans is constantly broody and she lays around 6 eggs a week!

 

[KhalSancho]

Now you can make your own olive Egger’s!

That’s the plan! Haha, SB, love it!! I’m originally from Santa Maria/Pismo Beach. Sailed out to Australia two years ago.. Man, I miss the METTSICAN FOOD!

 

[aart]

With “correct birds” I mean their structure and colour as far as SOP.

Ah, so you are both perpetuating a pure Araucana line and 'making' olive eggers.
Best of cLuck!!
Hope you post your blue eggs here once those pullets start laying.
Am a bit jeally of the good blues.

 

[ariri30]

Thank you so much!! They’re so chill! And guys, I just went out to feed and... Kip laid her first little pullet egg!! Not the darkest but so beautiful, I’ll take it any day of the week!! Do you guys know if the Marans first few lays are a little lighter, or is the colour you get off the bat usually the darkest they’ll be? Either way.. I’m extremely happy and can’t wait til she’s grown and I can fertilise some!!View attachment 1990173View attachment 1990174

This was my pullet Giant first egg. I miss her dearly. I lost her over the summer when a predator came and took her. I still don’t know what killed her. She was the most sweet pullet I had.