[cammi]

I bought a copper black (hybrid not a pure breed) the other day which didn't lay dark eggs so i took her back to the lady and changed her for another one, but today she laid an egg that is lighter than the other eggs i get!  While i there she showed me what to expect for eggs and they were really just what i would call and to me they looked just like good quality colour eggs to me.

So if any one has any pictures of their copper black eggs i would be grateful.

Don't know what to do now, as sure she will only exchange not refund.

  I'm having hybrids at the moment as only have  limited space and from how i understand things although you get the same total in the end over longer period, when pure breeds get older they don't really produce many eggs if at all.  One day when we move (housing market has got us stuck at the moment) with more space im looking forward to getting a 'proper' marran!

Advice and pic please

I will put a pic of our egg up later when hubby gets home as ive forgotten how! lol

[cammi]

Hopefully i just added a pic!

The copper black egg is the little one on the right next to a rhode rock  (realise they will get bigger lol)

[joyfull]

sadly even pure breed Marans can be different colours as it depends on the breeding.

Araucanas are famed for their blue eggs but the araucana egg chart shows shell colours ranging from almost white, through grey, to a beautiful blue and then onto green - all are from pure breeds. Cream legbars having 1/4 araucana genes will also lay an assorted colours even laying an dark olive green.

Just to also let you know that some hybrids (blackrock for instance) often live to be over eight and still lay the occasional egg, if you want birds that lay plenty of eggs and have shortish lifespan after they stop laying you would be better choosing ones like amberlinks, warrens etc. These lay the majority of their eggs in two years and will often die around the age of 3 or 4 (although the odd ones have been known to live longer)

[wendyg]

The egg on the left is our Copper Blacks first egg (the second one had a soft shell and as light in colour as that on the right .

[Casey76]

The thing is, Copper Blacks do not guarantee a dark egg

[cammi]

The thing is, Copper Blacks do not guarantee a dark egg

No thats fair enough, i knew that but wasn't expecting to be the lightest egg out of my girls!