Earlier this summer I bought 4 beautiful young pullets - 2 cuckoo marans and 2 Araucana/Ameraucana mixes (also known as Easter Eggers or EEs). One of the EEs was lost during Hurricane Irene (thankfully the only bit of "damage" we had was her running off into the woods never to be seen again as the storms started). The other 3 colorful egg layers have been taking their sweet time, mooching off us, without laying a single egg :-P Until last week!
Here's Bunny - our Araucana mix/EE:
Here's Bunny - our Araucana mix/EE:
Yes, she's supposed to be shaped like that, teehee. Araucanas are rumpless, bearded, and tufted, originating from South America. They have giant black eyes and gray legs. Aaaaand... they lay blue eggs:
See it?! Isn't it fabulous?! Yes, yes it is. See its majesty among the boring old white and tinted/brown eggs (and one kinda cool speckled egg)?! Yeah. Awesome.
And here's one of my cuckoo marans (Marans is the breed, Cuckoo is the barred color pattern):
And here's one of my cuckoo marans (Marans is the breed, Cuckoo is the barred color pattern):
Marans originated in France and are relatively new to the US, still not actually a recognized breed here. They lay "chocolate" colored eggs - kind of the color of an Advil pill, but ideally much darker. The eggs get darker as the chickens get older and are darkest at the end of their laying cycle (just before they molt). So theoretically their first egg is going to be the lightest egg they ever lay... and this was my first ever marans egg:
It got scratched up on the poop board (yes, she laid it on the poop board underneath their roost). The dark color is actually just a coating on a normal brown egg, so if it gets scratched at all, the darkness goes away. But hooray for chocolate eggs! Is it Easter yet? Cause I'm totally ready :)
RSS Feed
