Poorly chicken

[Monty14]

I recently bought a POL Cuckoo Marans from a breeder where I requested a dark colour egg layer. She has now started laying eggs which are an average brown colour and are about 1/3 size smaller than all the other hens (even the other pullet bought at the same time started laying full size eggs). I'm not taking her back because she's part of my cherished gang now and at least I know she lays. Will her eggs get bigger over time? Also my 3 yo Speckledy has really taken to picking on her (similar colouring) so any advice appreciated?

Ta

[torgrosset]

With regards egg colour - I've been told that it's the copper black marans that lay the really dark brown eggs and cuckoo marans often lay darker brown eggs than other breeds, but they're not always really dark in colour. Hope this helps?

[Redwing]

It depends on the strain as to how dark the eggs will be. Some breeders select purely for egg colour and so will get more consistent results than someone who just has cuckoo Marans for exhibition purposes or buys in random stock from other strains to breed with for example as their priorities may be different

 

A breeder expecting a chicken to lay an egg colour because 'its supposed to' wont work if they havent done their homework

 

I have two strains of Welsummer, one strain lays a nice terracotta egg as per the breed standard but is incorrectly coloured for showing, the other strain looks perfect but lays a lighter egg - when you are looking for one particular trait in a bird sometimes that will be at cost of other features

 

In saying all of that individual hens can vary and of course there are the legions of marans hybrids out there that look similar but are produced with a completely different aim in mind

[laurmurf]

mostin and I went to a talk last night about MARANS: fascinating stuff.

The cuckoo (also known as the 'English Marans') does lay a somewhat paler egg then the French Marans (copper black, often with feathered legs). I've got one of each and the French lays quite dark eggs (not as dark as you get in shows where they've been selectively bred) and the Cuckoo lays a welsummer dark egg with darker spots on it.

Both very pretty but we'd have to go to the professional egg showers to get an even darker egg layer.

 

Redwing's right too about the show birds vs the egg layers. Show birds won't lay a dark egg.

[Monty14]

Thanks all. Think it's been a bit 'hit n miss' on the breeder side but little Hin now seems to lay brown eggs with some speckling on, a bit smaller than the others but this may change. She is adorable though, jumps up on my shoulder if I kneel down in the garden and eats out of my hand. Mabel Speckledy seems to have eased off bullying a bit although two other hens keep having a go - lucky she's very quick and runs away!

[Valkyrie]

My cuckoo laid nice little brown eggs, medium brown and very speckledy. She's 4 this year and the only one laying and the eggs are a nice size - the largest of the lot, but now they are light brown. They do lighten with age. I'm looking for a French wheaten maran next.

[Scottie]

I've got a Cuckoo Marans who lays quite dark eggs and a Wheaten Marans who lays really dark eggs. They've just started laying again this year (they're both almost 6 years old) and the wheaten ones, although very dark are definitely getting lighter as the years pass. Initially they looked like dark chocolate and were shiny. Now they're matt and more speckled. I did once have a Splash Marans who was gorgeous and her eggs were even darker. Sadly she came to an abrupt end courtesy of a stoat.

[SAB]

My Marans (one Copper and one Cuckoo) both laid paler, smaller eggs at first which got bigger and darker over time. Whenever they took a break from laying they then laid lighter eggs again when coming back into lay, again darkening over time.