Brown Eggs

On the topic of eggs, here's an old photo of a mixture of nicely-coloured eggs from cuckoo marans and welbars (dark-egg laying, auto-sexing hybrid between Welsummer and Plymouth rock).

The darkest ones are from the welbar, and also had an unusual, torpedo shape. They were not prolific layers, about every other day for the first couple of years, but the shell quality and colour were very good. They lived to be ten, and all died within a few months of each other of congestive heart failure.

My current 'dark brown' hens are a commercial hybrid, Plymouth Rock crossed wtih Pl/Rock x Copper Maran (black hens shown below). Egg numbers/quality have been good, but the colour has faded from dark copper to ordinary buff colour through the laying season. I will probably order in some more hybrid POL pullets early next year to keep numbers up, and hatch a handful of Welsummers or Copper Black marans if I find I have the time.