I have a flock of Marans, they are a year old. They lay consistiently and what I consider a large egg. Not extra, just large. I have a regular customer that raves about how good they are but on a regular bases complains the are not large enough. I tried to tell him I don't lay them and the girls don't care about his complaints. They are great girls and I'm not inclined to berat them over the size of their eggs. LoL, I charge two-fifty per doz, and for the small eggs from other layers I charge one-fifty per doz. What do you guys think and charge? Also for those of you that have marans, what size eggs do you consider yours to be? Thanks Haystack PLeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeZe
The price of eggs, whats large, whats not?
Tell him to check out the free range, organic or cage free eggs in the store. I have friends who give me thier egg cartons and the price is 4.50 and up. Good grief! Not only that, but the eggs come overpackaged in PLASTIC containers! Give me a break, they worry about the chicken being in a cage, but not the excess landfill caused by their over priced eggs. (Ok, sorry about the rant, back to subject)
I don't charge for my eggs, I just give them to friends, but people who want eggs have been offering me 2.50 to 3.50 a dozen. I consider my rocks, brahamas and orphie eggs all large. People just tend to expect the oversize, half empty , extra large eggs from the grocery case.
what color marans eggs do u sell? r they pures and fertile for hatching? if so send me some pics of the birds and color of the eggs i'm looking for hatching eggs.
thanks,
mar
I am sorry, I dont have any Marans that are pure. (and they are too imature to lay anyway)
But the eggs they came from are large. Not extra large.
And really, 2.50 a dozen is not that much for farm fresh eggs. I think its reasonable and the girls are working hard> Dont tell them about the complaints, it could damage their self esteem. hehehe
Hi Silkie! No they are not fertile, just good for eating. They are very dark chocolate. I do have a friend in town that has a marans roo that she is supposed to bring over to me. Then I will get some fertile eggs. I had a marans rooster but he was so mean I turned Him into nuggets. Haystack
awe, ur killen me,lol. let me know if u get a roo again and what color they r cuz only certain colors i'm looking for. as to size i forgot, the ones i had shipped in were all what i call jumbo sized. have u ever seen really HUGE RIR eggs? standard marans should be that big. my silkie girls can only set on 2 when they hatch them they r so big. if that doesn't help u size wize let me know i'll think what else i can compair too and see if i got egg pics still.
Silkie: My marans are pure, they are the cuckoo marans, look a little like a barred rock, kinda, sorta. The eggs are a very dark chocolate, and some are speckled. I saw pic's of your Silkies, They are gorgeous. They are in my mind the darlings of the chicken world. And on a serious note, I can't figure out how they can see. I have looked at yours and other Silkies websites and I can never find their eyes. Have you ever seen bumper stickers on large trucks? They read if you can't see me I can't see you. I think of that every time I see your Girl's. Are the Silkies what some refer to the show girls? I can't imagine your little silkies sitting on any eggs without falling over LOL. I have Creveceours and I know you do also and I can't find their eyes either. Haystack
yes, that is one of the colors i'm looking for. i lost my cuckoos shortly after winter started due to rats. yes some of mine were speckled to when i got them in to hatch, that is normal.
thank u so glad u like them, i have worked really hard on them with my breeding projects, i'm my own worst critic with my birds,lol so that means alot to hear how others like them. lets me know as a breeder i'm advanceing and doing things right. mine see cuz they always get their crests wet from the waterers, rotfl. although ya can't see them alot they turn their heads to look at ya so they can still see, so they have learned tricks that help them. lol, that would be a great bumper for them!
no a showgirl is what my cotton in this pic is. a showgirl is a silkie with the naked neck gene, it shouldn't resemble a turken in anyway except the naked neck and all other traights should follow that of the silkie standards. the origion cross is turken to silkie then breed many generations back to silkies, cotton is an 11th generation hen but i have them up to 17th generation.
my silkies will hatch anything u give them they have sat as many as 31 silkie eggs at a time under only 2 hens, lol so they r deturmined little girls,lol. i used to raise crevs, i haven't for about 2 years now, i raise polish now and definately can't see them,lol. i lost my crevs due to cold here, they just were not hardy enough here for me
mabe in spring we can do some egg trades if u want, u'll have to let me know what all breeds ya got..
I have four Maran hens, about six months old now. Just waiting for them to begin laying. Also have Americanas, and some mutt hens. I get $5 a dozen for fresh eggs, and have a waiting list for them. Helps to pay the feed bills.
Well, 10 years ago we used to get $1 a dozen when a customer returned egg cartons but feed bills were considerably lower! Haven't sold any recently but our neighbor gets $2.50 a dozen for RIR eggs and she doesn't size hers. What they lay is what you get!
My Buff Orps lay medium size eggs and the duck of course are extra jumbo!! My DH wants to get a couple dozen ducks this spring. He's planning on digging out a pond for them(I think he likes the ducks better than the chickens)
I watched Claires video...I can see why! Big eggs and cute wittle water babies! hehehe
Love watching them in the water!
Hi Jim D from AZ. Thanks for your reply and I hope you enjoy your Marans as much as I do mine. Beautiful eggs and I get from 6-8 eggs every day from a small flock of eight. 5 Bucks a doz WOW you Rock. Hope to hear more from you and do let us know when your ladies start laying and how you like the eggs. Haystack
I love my Maran hens. I bought a run of them from Randall Burkey, good quality overall. Out of 26, lost only one and that due to an accident. These hens are very popular, so only have four left. Just waiting for them to begin laying. Great hens, nice and heavy, and quite tame.
I have a mixed flock, mostly brown or white egg production hens. I have some Americana's as well, so get blue eggs from them. I have been getting $2.50 / dozen.
I'm amazed at the number of people who don't care where their eggs or produce come from. Farmers Market goes great guns until Labor Day. That is the day everyone quits eating fresh produce!!
Bernie
Maybe they hibernate. Or stor up for the winter! LOL
Sorry, not funny :0
How many dozen do you get a week?
Hi Country Gardens: Really good to hear from you again. When you sell your eggs do you find your customers wanting you to mix up the colors or do they care. How chicks do you have and how is your production average? Thanks for sharing what you charge for your eggs, it's just kinda nice to find out what others are doing! I'm not sure if mine is aracauna or americana, but I get green eggs and some of my customers almost demand a mix of the green and dark chocolate. I heard that some of the americanas lay green and some blue, and some even lay very light brown, Don't know if thats true but thats what I heard. Again thanks for the reply. Haystack.
Hi Jim: Boy I do know what you mean, I had 16 Marans to begin with and now I only have eight left. Some of my neighbors kept talking me out of them, I finally had to put my foot down and now I am wishing I had not sold any of them. There so popular once people see their eggs they act like their possessed. LOL. I'm so happy to hear how much you love your marans and hope they make you very proud with the clutches of eggs they will give you. Haystack
How is everything where you are Haystack? I have been thinking of the poor people over your way affected by the quake and it after math. I am glad to see you are okay.
From what I've read, they are one in the same. We get various shades of Blue & green & also tan, light brown, even white out of them.
I have 125 Gold Star layer pullets hatched October 1, 2008. They should start laying full sized eggs by the time Farmers Market starts. We have around 50 older hens. We are getting 2½ dozen eggs a day. We only planned on a few for the winter, but my step son had to move from a farm & could not take his hens along. So we got them.
Bernie
Hay -FWIW, I don't think a green egg layer can be araucana as the green indicates a brown egg layer somewhere in the genetics...
Quoted from Araucana Club of America
The standard Araucana are rumpless and have tufts of feathers protruding from each side of the head/neck. The Araucana also has a pea comb and they have the distinction of laying Turquoise or blue shelled eggs. There is close genetic Linkage between those two traits so that selection for pea comb is effective in maintaining blue Egg.
Disqualification:
Lack of ear-tufts, comb other than Pea, Rudimentary presence of tail, Stubs or feather on their shank, or more or less than four toes, white skin.
Here's a couple things I found.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/poultry/chickens/araucana/
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/araucanas_americanas.html
http://www.araucana.net/araucana_history.htm
So take what you want from these items.
I've been searching around for good araucana eggs for a while and found a number of breeders who state specifically that any color not blue is not pure araucana, all of them warning against big hatcheries selling easter eggers as araucanas or ameraucanas. As long as they are good quality birds I don't think it matters, except to those who are looking at them for breeding purposes. Somewhere (can't find it again) someone stated that an araucana would be homozygous for blue eggs (2 dominant blue egg gene ?s) while others would be heterozygous (mixed). Words bigger than I am -I get confused-, but the idea is, if you want to sell anything as araucana be wary as the definitions vary by caliber of breeder and I know you are conscientious.
(sorry for the long post, I've just read so much about people being had by supposedly reputable breeders and don't want to neglect warning those of you who haven't wasted the same amount of time on it as I have! ^_^)
This message was edited Jan 9, 2009 6:01 PM
I noticed in some of the hatchery literature, they say not to be intended for exhibition.
I also read somewhere there are a very few of the pure breed around.
Hi S C: It has been crazy around here. We have had half of Wa State under water, A large portion of the freeways are closed and under water. So many of complete towns had to be evaquated. The little town of Ferndale (5000) many portions of it are underwater. You probably remember Karbear was supposed to bring me a Silkie Rooster two weeks ago, she could not do so because of so much snow. We had four feet here at our house with 5% temps for 3weeks. In two days it never stopped raining (very very hard) Temps went up to 50% melted all the snow and with 5 very large mountains surrounding us there was no where for the water to go but down. Second largest river in the state runs right through the town of Ferndale and flows usually 12 feet below it's banks it broke over its banks and water is everywhere. I have a large 4 wheel crewcab and we used it for almost three days evacuatiing seniors from mobile home parks. However our acreage has a very large creek running through it with 30ft banks so we are high and dry. I have never seen snow and water like this in Seventy plus years. Much of the state is considered disaster area. Its a mess but we are in high spirits and are pleased you asked. We will clean it up rebuild and be grateful that we have such wonderful friends like you and others on this forum. DO WE have babies Yet?
Grownut: Your an angel, thank you for all that great information. I'm so pleased for people like you that go to such lengths to get and share information. It sure did answer a lot of questions for me and I thank you so much. Haystack Thanks CountryGardens: I'm going to study those links you gave me and save the info for future use. WoW You do have a lot of chickens, right now I have 36 and have forty-five more comming on the ninth of Feb. Right now I get about 16-20 eggs a day. I felt very fortunate as with the cold weather I wasn't sure how the girls would lay. I never got less than a doz a day so I thought that was pretty good. Haystack.
Hadn't realized how much trouble you were having -been avoiding the news...
You are very welcome. Did not at all mean to flog you with it, but there's so much conflicting info out there and I DID want to be clear...
WOW! It is really bad. I am learning about earthquakes in class. I did not want to see what disasters happen first hand. I am shocked at the weather that has hit your area. I am glad you are in high spirits still. Keep it up. People need that. That is wonderful that you were able to help with the evacuations. It is so hard for single people and the elderly in homes. Many are just not aware or able. You are a Blessing to them. I just pray all stay safe.
No babies yet. I put the two (UNO and Swimmy) in the hatching incubator with high humidity. I will not touch them anymore. I am concerned that it is a new incubator and it is a still air. I have never used this before. I just have to trust everything will hatch normal. Hens dont have all this technology! and it all works out for them.
They have fluffier backsides...
Well, you have not seen mine. giggle
Perhaps I was making a few false assumptions....stepping away slooowly from this one!!
Okay, I am not sitting on the eggs. That would not be good. I do have a broody hen for the first time. I was afraid to take her eggs from under her. She looked like a lion! Your right they are warm and fluffy. Could not believe it.
Haystack is right it has been crazy around here. My neice and I want to bring a roo up to Haystack but it is a two hour drive and I have been waiting for weather for things to calm down so I know I make it.. We want to go see his chickens!!! Haystack, that is so great that you helped with evacuating people.. It is time for a good old normal winter around here!!!!
Hi Karbear: I'm so happy all is well with you. Has not this been just crazy. I feel so bad for Spokane and all the small towns that had to evacuate. What a mess, and with the economy being so bad. Ummmmm What a terrible loss for some very un-fortunate people. We personally come through it very well but some of the older seniors, especially the women were terrified. When you looked into their eyes you could just see the fear. As I said we will pull together and flourish nonethe less. Haystack Hope this weather clears soon and we will be seeing you.