Hi all - I know you seem to be a bit short of quality stock up there, but you are really no different from anywhere else in the country and there is a dearth of Marans which have been specifically bred to produce good eggs so when it comes to breeding on your stock you will have problems. If you are interested in overcoming these obstacles there is a large unfulfilled demand for quality stock laying dark brown eggs.
If anyone already has female Marans which are laying tinted rather than dark eggs and they get one of the spare males from the batch of chicks I sent up he should help darken the egg colour.
There at least 13 genes involved in creating dark shelled eggs, and these have not been properly researched so it is hit and miss. The best advice is to breed dark egg laying females to males hatched from even darker eggs, but this is easier said than done. My line is already closely bred which is not ideal but was the only way I could do it with the lack of suitable outcrosses
To use a completely unrelated outcross is a very scattergun approach if you already have reasonable egg colour. I would not like to work out the potential combinations between two lots of 13 genes, but it is certainly going to reduce your chances compared with a part outcross
For the moment I would suggest you try buying hatching eggs from Kevin Bowkett at Barrels Farm Poultry, he is interested in the egg colour and we have swapped stock at various times so there should be some link between the birds. Now I have given up he is going to try posting out more eggs, but do bear in mind that the postal journey to Scotland will do them no favours.
One of the best ways to start a good flock is to buy in a couple of Marans hens which are still laying well coloured eggs in the late summer. This proves that the egg colour is maintained rather than just a few dark eggs in spring, and also proves that they are reasonable egg producers. If you then breed these to a male you have hatched yourself from a very dark egg at least the genetics are then, then it is just luck as to how the genes mesh
If you do find a pair which "clicks" then keep repeating the mating and hatch as many eggs as you are able. You will only know this if you can identify which birds produced the dark egg laying pullets (not an easy task) Then breed these dark egg laying pullets back to their father to strengthen the genes, and if all goes well the grandaughters back to the original male.
Don't breed brother to sister and dont continue this line breeding for more than a couple of generations
And definitely don't ever breed anything which shows any signs of weakness, illness or deformity, but presumably I don't need to tell you that. There is nothing wrong with nursing back to health some sickly chicken, but do make 100 percent sure that this NEVER gets into yours or anyone else's breeding stock as you will only be storing up problems for yourself and others in the future.
