Whenever anyone asks me what breed of chicken they should get I always tell them it depends. It depends on where you live, it depends on why you want chickens, it depends on how often you plan on pulling them in for a face-full-of-feathers, wrestling hold chicken hug.
It all depends.
My first batch of chickens Cheez Whiz, Cuddles, Walnut and Norma were all bought as day old chicks from some random farm in the country where inbreeding ran rampant among the residents. With the chickens anyway. So what I ended up with were chicken mutts that seemed to be part Rhode Island Red and judging by the fact that 2 of them lay blue/green eggs part Ameraucana.
Since the chicks were a gift I didn't have any say in the matter of what kind of chickens I got. I got the ones that were sitting in a cardboard box on my counter. Since getting those original chicks 4 years ago 2 have died and 2 have have survived. Cuddles and Cheez Whiz are still scratching and clucking, although Cuddles hasn't laid an egg since she almost died last summer. Norma and Walnut both died in the past year.
So I decided last summer that if I wanted to continue this chicken keeping habit I was going to have to get more chickens. Sadly chickens up and die on you, usually without much warning. They can live to 12, 13 or even 14 years old but it's not common. Generally 4 or 5 years is when they start to see health problems.
I knew right away what type of chicken I wanted.
If I wanted a friendly chicken I would have got an Orpington. If I wanted the chicken that lays the most amount of eggs per year I would have got a Leghorn. If it was a swashbuckling looking chicken it would have been a Cochin because they look like they're wearing big fluffy pantaloons all the time.
But that's not what I wanted. I wanted the chicken that laid the chocolate eggs.
The Black Copper Marans
I haven't had a chance to show you the eggs I actually get from Josephine my Black Copper Marans. (I also have a Blue Copper Marans, Mabel but her eggs aren't as dark)
Josephine's eggs are pretty consistently the same colour. They're a darker brown than I was thinking they were going to be but not as dark as possible on the Black Copper Marans Egg Scale.
This is the official egg colour scale for the breed, Black Copper Marans. If the hen consistently lays eggs that look like numbers 1, 2 or 3 they cannot be referred to as Marans. They get kicked out of the Marans club.
Which means the hatchery in the US that's selling these eggs as Black Copper Marans hatching eggs isn't really selling what they say they are. They may have come from a Black Copper Marans but the colour of eggs just doesn't qualify them to be labelled as such.
If you're looking to buy a Black Copper Marans, ask to see the hatching eggs from whoever you're buying from. If they look like this and your dream is to have dark brown/russet eggs stay away. Other than the speckles these look like regular grocery store brown eggs.
I'd say Josephine is consistently putting out eggs that are a 5 on the colour scale. Anything around an 8 or 9 is really rare and usually a mistake. So if that's your dream, once you start getting eggs from your Marans it will quickly become your nightmare.
These are my eggs.
So now you want to know if they taste the same as regular brown eggs. Yes and no. More on that curious fact in a post next week.
The one thing I can tell you is they don't taste like chocolate. You need a very special chicken for that.
Those are a nice color! Congratulations on raising them to point of lay. First eggs are always so egg-citing. I have two tiny Black Copper Marans chicks I got from a proper breeder and slipped in with a recent hatch of my own breeding birds (Delawares), and don't know if they're pullets or cockerels yet. Fingers crossed I eventually get pretty dark brown eggs like yours.
Well I got 1 girl out of 5 chicks. NOT a good ratio, lol but at least I got one. I was hoping for at least 2! That's how I ended up going back to the breeder and picking up a blue copper marans pullet too. :) Good luck with yours! ~ karen
Smart woman! Pullets are a very sound investment, all things considered. I'm hoping my breeder friend will "upgrade" me to a couple of her non-breed-worthy pullets if I get stuck with two cockerels. For now I'm enjoying the little white bellies and bums on the chicks. And their funny fuzzy legs. So cute! Peep, peep, peep.
Do you sell eggs? 😬😬 you have a beautiful color of maran eggs!
Can't wait for a Karen prose-poem about the flavour of a BCM egg.
You would be correct, but one of our reds got hawked the other day, literally. First time out of the run this spring. It was either Kung-pow, Cheeseball, or Teriyaki, I couldn't tell those 3 apart. Back to 37, and she's looking for any possible reason to round up to 40, so if we see BCM's, that'd be a good reason!
I told my wife about my comment, and your response. Today we went to get chicken feed, and came home with 2 Jersey Giant chicks, and reserved 6 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 3 Easter Eggers, and 3 Buff Orpingtons for next week. I blame this on you. Our new total will be 37 chickens.
FYI, if you feel like trying to sneak them across the border, TSC in Hanburg (15 minutes south of Buffalo) has tons of Silkie chicks.
*Hamburg*
I hate to tell you this Dominic but according to my count ... you have 38 chickens. Sorry bout that, lol.I notice you didn't come home with a BCM so I'm guessing that number will soon jump to 39 or 40. ~ karen!
Gorgeous eggs Karen. If you ever find one that lays golden eggs let me know :-)
One of my hens died this winter. I went through a Monty Python skit all by myself. She wasn't napping, nor was she pining for the Fjords.. I asked my husband to bring her in to thaw her out to see it would help and he started babbling about not living with zombie chickens.. The organic recycling bin is a respectable burial place when it's -30 right?
In an 8 month-pregnant-fit, I squished a hardboiled egg in my hand, threw it on the floor, and stomped the living crap out of it. It was the 4th out of 12 eggs I was attempting to peel for deviled eggs, and not one of them would peel without 90% of the white coming off with the shell. That was 33 years ago, and now I buy (gasp) already boiled/peeled eggs from the grocery store.
Wonderful post here! And I do agree with everyone that your chickens' eggs look gorgeous - the photos are to die for really. Hope to have a follow up on your chicken adventures (eggventures?)!
Oh I do lots of chicken posts Jordan. :) Too many for some people and not enough for others, lol. ~ karen!
Gorgeous. Do you do art with them? If you were to blow out the eggs (you can still eat the insides - especially if you like them scrambled) then you could make some stunning Christmas ornaments or permenant spring decorations!
Beautiful! Our Ameraucana who hardly ever lays an egg, blessed us with one Easter morning. So long and skinny but pretty. I love the perfect little pink beige our BR lays, and the spots on the RIR. Another couple of inches of fresh snow today, but they are used to it now. Come on spring!!
Beautiful eggs! This gets me soooo excited because we just got our first chicks, seven of them. They are all different breeds, but one is a Cuckoo Maran and I was told she would lay chocolate brown eggs. I can't wait to see what they will look like. Since that's a French breed, her name is Marie Antoinette, but she will not be losing her head. Your chickens posts are my favorite. :)
Gorgeous eggs, and photos! Sorry about the chickens you lost. Love your blog, so interesting! Have a wonderful Easter. :)
Pretty eggs..I want some poached eggs on toast now..
Holy shit. As an avid blogger/blog reader how have I not known about The Art of Doing Stuff before??? I just found you by way of your coop on Pinterest. I am hoping to add a coop and a couple of chickens next year, so am researching coops. And I fell in love with yours. Gonna do something similar (at least in color!). Anyway, now I will be spending several hours binge-reading older posts, which is a good thing because it's raining here today.
Holy shit! Karin! Where have you been? Welcome to The Art of Doing Stuff. ~ karen!
Interesting! Happy Easter Karen. Enjoy your family.
Beautiful eggs! They look fantastic!
We love having a nice mix of chickens, currently there's 24 of them. I think letting the kids name them was the best part. 6 Leghorns (Foghorn, Flip, Flap. Flop, Fatmore, Leghorn) & 6 Red Stars (Nugget, Cheezeball, Kung-pow, Teriyaki, Cupcake, Blackalicious), an Easter Egger(Skylee) a Barred Rock (tweedle dee) and a Cuckoo Maran (Tweedle dum), 3 Cochins (Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, June Carter), a Silkie (Foof), and a Frizzle (Frannie). Then the Roosters, Cochin (Johnny Cash), a HUGE Silkie (DJ) and 2 tiny Dutch Game roosters (Godzilla & Gandalf).
We get a nice mix of eggs, from the tiny cream colored of the Cochins, the pastel blue from Skylee, the varying browns of the reds and the whites of the leghorns. My wife wants more chickens, and BCM's & Wyandottes are in her sights. We used to live in Wyandotte, Mi. Is that a reason to have a chicken? of course.
Well now you've done it. I'm going to have to get a silkie just so I can name it Foof. You think I'm joking. I am not. ~ karen! p.s. any excuse for a chicken is a reason for a chicken. :)