
Marans
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- mojo
- Welsummer Cockerel
- Posts: 16199
- Joined: 13 Apr 2005, 22:02
- Location: Ancient Male at GLENAY north Deux Sevre FRANCE
hi
as you know i live in france home of marans.....the bantams eggs are not as brown as the full size and ask to see eggs before buying birds............. here they say the best colour eggs come from the blackest birds...certainly my black/copper gives eggs the colour of mahogoney but the two bantam black/coppers only give dark brown eggs so if egg colour is important check before you buy.............mojo 

Give a smile away every day to a stranger............and a hug to a friend
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"If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world" - Nikola Tesla
"Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts" - Nikki Giovanni
''The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.'' - Albert Schweitzer
"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." - George Washington
"A nation can survive its fools, but it cannot survive treason from within." - Cicero
Marans
We have recently bought a copper-headed Maran, which we've called Ginger. (Don't have any piccies yet). She is gorgeous and a real character- first out of the run to free-range, last back at night and we had a 4oz double-yolker egg the other day. We bought her at point of lay, and the eggs are a warm brown, rather than mahogany, but with mahogany speckles. Are the eggs likely to be darker as she gets older, or does it just depend on the individual hen? (Think Mojo might know the answer to this one)
Thanks

Thanks
Re: Marans
I'm not sure that her eggs will get significantly darker as she gets older - a very great deal depends on the exact strain of Maran you've got. Just like you get almost 2 different 'types' of one breed (i.e utility and show versions of say, Light Sussex), there's a great deal of variation in the egg colour of Marans as a whole. The Copper/black Marans are meant to lay the darkest eggs, but to know what your birds are likely to lay, you really need to have hatched them yourselves at the least to have an inlking of what egg-colour the mother laid, and better still if you can see a tray of eggs at the breeder to get an idea of what their flock as a whole lays. Some breeders have better (i.e, darker egg laying) strains of Copper/blacks than others.eejay wrote:We have recently bought a copper-headed Maran, which we've called Ginger. (Don't have any piccies yet). She is gorgeous and a real character- first out of the run to free-range, last back at night and we had a 4oz double-yolker egg the other day. We bought her at point of lay, and the eggs are a warm brown, rather than mahogany, but with mahogany speckles. Are the eggs likely to be darker as she gets older, or does it just depend on the individual hen? (Think Mojo might know the answer to this one)![]()
Thanks
PM me if you want some photos of the eggs my Copper/blacks are laying, and let me know if you want any hatching eggs.
Attila
Attila,
can you post pics of your eggs here??
I agree, the egg colour is to do with the strain of the parent bird. If you want really dark eggs you should ask the breeder to show you eggs from the mother bird.
My Maran loves lovely dark eggs, she does have odd days of lighter colour but still chocolaty.
can you post pics of your eggs here??
I agree, the egg colour is to do with the strain of the parent bird. If you want really dark eggs you should ask the breeder to show you eggs from the mother bird.
My Maran loves lovely dark eggs, she does have odd days of lighter colour but still chocolaty.
Okay, have never tried to put a photo in a post before, so bear with me!

Apologies it's not terribly in-focus, but at least the colour's clear enough. This was the first egg one of my marans laid - since then she's still popping them out every other day or so. Strangely her sisters haven't bothered yet apart from one accidental, lonely egg... will post another photo of a half dozen of her eggs once the film's developed and I can scan it (yeah, I know, I should be using the digital camera... but I've lost the lead that connects it to the computer... doh
)
Attila

Apologies it's not terribly in-focus, but at least the colour's clear enough. This was the first egg one of my marans laid - since then she's still popping them out every other day or so. Strangely her sisters haven't bothered yet apart from one accidental, lonely egg... will post another photo of a half dozen of her eggs once the film's developed and I can scan it (yeah, I know, I should be using the digital camera... but I've lost the lead that connects it to the computer... doh

Attila
Last edited by Attila The Hen on 12 Jan 2006, 10:18, edited 2 times in total.