The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: BAKEWELL11 on September 19, 2010, 12:51:14 pm
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Hi all you chicken eggsperts!! (Sorry! :-[)
We get blue, brown and white eggs from our girls, we've only had chooks 2 months, so all pretty new to us.
A farmer told me the eggs taste and quality are not affected by shell colour... just that consumers preferred brown eggs to white for the look.
I have been experimenting.. (Actually, bit sick of egg on toast but trying to maintain consisiency)
The brown eggs from Marans and Dorking are definately nicer/richer/thicker yolked than the white eggs from leghorn, ixworth and bluebelle, and the blue eggs from legbar are in between.
Now.. is this simply an egg colour thing? Or a breed thing? Or am I imagining it all and they all taste the same to you??? :yum:
At some point,(Next year or so) I think we are going to extend our chicken population, and birds for table will be on the menu, along with some "novelty breeds" for my own entertainment, and yummy eggs will be a factor.
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if they are fed the same and they are all healthy the eggs should be the same. i think the looks of the eggs are effecting your taste. we sell the brown eggs in shops and we are adding coloured eggs in mainly blue and various shades of green. we add maran eggs but to get one that has not been scratched is hard.
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......we add maran eggs but to get one that has not been scratched is hard.
We sometimes find that with our dark brown eggs too. Do you think that what the nest box is lined with affects the scratching? Straw v shavings v artificial ?
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my maran eggs are always scratched regardless of what I put in the nest box, I think I have a heavy footed chook that paws it about a bit.
I sell each box of 6 as having 2 white (in the middle) with 2 dark brown one side and 2 'normal' colour the other. the customers love having the mixed box. must admit though, my old mum prefers dark brown so maybe there is something int he dark egg colour psychologically?
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???
I'm convinced they taste better ???
Now I'm going to do a blind folded test....all our girls live together and are treated exactly the same, eggs fried in same pan at same time..
I really suspect it is a breed thing, like Jersey cows having high fat milk?
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you could be starting something here!! you need to copyright any findings that you make ;)
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mm just think what an egg is. they have to be very simular. the only thing that can change an egg is there diet. i suppose a hen laying a 100 eggs a year may produce richer eggs than one knocking out 300+. so i guess there may be a slight diffrence. but it should not be vastly diffrent. well worth doing a blind taste test.
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i recently added two white star hens and 2 blackrocks to my isa's. the brown eggs are much the same once in the pan, but the white ones have paler yolks, but i think they all taste the same.
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I think the Marans eggs definitely have a richer egg yolk both in colour taste and creaminess. I even think I read something about it on the web somewhere, so I shall try and track it down again and do a follow up post.
A couple of years ago I fancied keeping Marsh Daisies, and hatched out a few, they were reared in with that years Marans chicks, so got the same food and conditions exactly. When they started laying eggs the yolks were a much paler colour, and didn't stand up so well from the white. And in my opinion didn't have the rich creamy taste of my Marans eggs.
I must admit that over the years I have only bred from the hens that laid the biggest richest and darkest eggs, so perhaps the strain plays a part as well, but there was a marked difference from these two breeds Needless to say I have reverted to just Marans once more
I love my traditional English Cuckoo Marans - and their lovely eggs Yummy :yum::yum:
All the best
Sue
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Are there Marans which are not cuckoo? I breed Scots Greys which are also cuckoo marked so I want something which is very different to avoid confusion. I have a 'Buff Maran' but to me she looks like a cross with a Welsummer. How does the Maran compare with the Welsummer for productivity, free ranging and hardiness? I have a wide variety of layers but few lay dark brown eggs and I need a few more - what would you recommend? I also need to get some more blue egg layers as my customers like the mixed colour boxes too. Mine are called Columbines but look pretty much like the cream legbars.
That's a great idea to do blind trials of taste - we are told all eggs are the same under the shell, but it's worth checking out for ourselves.
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we have french copper marans and cuckoo. the copper looks simular to a blackrock with featherly feet.
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ok.. I shall have to enlist a lab assistant for blind tests... may get messy otherwise!! :yum:
yolks most definately vary in colour.. so maybe I'm fooling myself on the actual taste being different??
Which breeds lay the biggest eggs? I heard that a big chicken doesn't automatically mean a big egg? our dear old Ixworth seems to have retired... but she's still my fave...no nonsense kind of girl, with a really hard peck! :chook:
Waitrose only like blackrock eggs, my friend keeps blackrocks and gave me a couple of eggs, they were shockingly lovely..
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the older birds lay the bigger egg.
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As I understand and according to my smallholding books the Marran lays a smaller but tastier egg.It is certainly true in our case and from feedback we get.
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our marans and black rocks lay our largest eggs (more often than not double yokers) the bluebell's and speckeldey's have laid smaller ones but they are still quite young..
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My black rocks eggs are scrummy. The Buff-O's are nice too - they have a really deep yellow yolk but a pale shell.
I'm looking forward to getting some Marans from Sue one day :)
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How did the "blind taste test" go?
My most regular layer (an English Cuckoo Marans and laid the eggs in my photo - about 18mths old, in full moult and still laying 3-5 eggs a week) lays an egg which weighs in at just under 3oz (sorry to old for metric eggs)
There are loads of different colours of Marans - in the English Standard (they are clean legged which I prefer as they are cleaner in the nest, and get less mites and scaly leg etc) there are Dark Cuckoo (the most usual) Silver Cuckoo fairly rare and not often the best layers of dark eggs, Gold Cuckoo, White and Black.
In the French Standard, there are all those and even more. The French birds have feathered legs, tend (as far as I understand it, though someone may correct me) to lay fewer eggs and somewhat smaller eggs, and the egg colour between birds can be quite variable
Funnily enough I was speaking to a senior breeder and successful shower of Marans and Welsummers today, and he said a good dark shelled egg Marans should lay around 180 eggs a year, but some Welsummers are down to 80 eggs per year if the shell colour is good (again if someone has better information :))
There are loads of pictures of all the recognized varieties of Marans both English and French on The Marans Club
website just do a web search and it should come up - and of the Dark English Cuckoo on my own website (click on the little icon of the world beneath my egg picture) and there is lots of Marans info also about hatching rearing and feeding.
All the best
Sue
Dark Brown Eggs