Welsummer and/or Cuckoo Marans?

[kcravey]

My wheaten eggs are being shipped today. So hopefully

this week I will be setting them . Ive got some quail eggs in the bator now but thinking about ditching them (I have a 0% success with bobwhites for months - they are to be thanksgiving birds now), so I can sterilize it and give them the freshest possible start. Ive had great success with hatching my own chicken eggs - about 95+%. These will be my first "shipped" eggs to try.

I tried cuckoos and learned a valuable lesson - never bring home adult birds from someone you dont know! I then discovered not all cuckoos will do dark eggs and I dont need another light brown layer. So I ordered the darkest eggs i could find (on ebay) from a npip certified breeder with a nice web page full of marans facts. Plus I thought the wheatens were realllly pretty. I would also like the black copper but have read there is great difficulty hatching those, especially when shipped.

I wouldnt mind welsummers also. I dont sell eggs or chicks - I just use them for our own family and friends. Sounds like welsummers are what I really need - but I hear Marans have the best taste....

 

[McSpin]

I have both and I much prefer my Welsummers. The Cuckoo marans I have don't lay as dark an egg as my Welsummers, they eat more , their eggs are smaller and they don't lay as many. I suppose a lot has to do with the particular line you get. I hear the cuckoo marans eggs aren't as dark as some marans varieties and it certainly holds true for mine.

Some of my welsummer eggs - mid year color:

Good looking birds too: