>>2855167>contAnother fun fact is that all brown eggs are "painted". The coloring can be scrubbed off. Edges of broken shells and the inside of the shell is white.
Dark eggs (like Black Copper Marans) spend more time developing in the chicken (I call this "the paint shop").
The darker the egg, the longer it takes.
So highly sought after hens that lay the darkest eggs lay less eggs than a medium color.
Blue eggs actually have pigment within the structure of the shell. Broken edges and the inside of the shell are also blue.
Crossing the dark layers and a blue layer give you various olives.
The dark color of the Maran is associated with (believed) 14 genes. 2 of which are on the rooster's side of the genome (chicken genetics are different than humans).
The blue egg is a single gene (believed to be a mutation from a virus originally).
Crossing for an olive egger will give you 100% success with a BC/FBC Maran X Ameraucana.
When you cross that F1 offspring- First generation hybrid) to an F0 (purebred) you can double up on the blue gene (To an Ameraucana) or try to add back some of the 14 genes to the other side (Maran).
You start getting tan eggs, blue eggs green eggs, and deeper olives. But now you are getting duds (tan eggs) along with the darker greens instead of the 100% chance of lighter greens with the F1s.
If a breed is "French" that simply means it has feathered legs and the standard variety is clean legged.
This is only for breeds with the two types, all Favorelles and Cochins have feathered legs but are nit "French".
