If you ever get bored and need a laugh, go to Ebay and search for Marans eggs.
Some current listings that make me roll my eyes:
People selling "show quality eggs"
People listing BCM's as "very rare"
And several very mysterious listings of "Black Copper Marans white mutants". Whatever...
I didn't notice the yellow legs. That makes her even more useless. I'm not sure if that's even a Marans.
I've had several that look like that. That's why I thought it was a mossy Marans (but she may be a Welsumer instead).
Totally useless for Marans breeding, but good for Olive Egger...
Mossy means she's brown instead of blue or black. It's an undesirable off color. You can't use them for breeding, else you'll end up with a lot of culls.
My Marans mature a little bit larger than the average hatchery stock dual purpose breeds. They are very calm and laid back. Most are somewhat aloof, but some individuals are friendly.
That means they have brown markings all over their bodies.
A normal copper will have gold in the neck for the hens, and in the wings, cape and saddle in the roosters.
Mossy is basically brown all over the body. It's an off color copper.
For Marans? Neither one. If you want good Marans, you need to get them from a reputable private breeder.
If you don't mind hatchery quality Marans, I doubt one hatchery is better than another.
I heard back from Cutler. This is what my cost would be.
10 ( $21.95 ) (12lbs) shipping is $21.24
25 ( $49.55 ) (30lbs) shipping is $31.71
100 ( $175.95 ) (79lbs) shipping is $50.92
10 boxes would be more than $4 each!
100 boxes is the cheapest choice, but dang, that would be like $227...
For those who want to use them for shipping chicks, you don't need the pads. I've had private breeders ship them to me with shavings in them instead of the pad.
TSC has some fat shavings that are too big for the chicks to eat, and too big to fly out the little holes, so that is what I'm going...
LOL. When all else fails, read the manual. Or something like that.
I emailed to make sure I would get an accurate quote as opposed to what the shopping cart might say.
Shipping seems to be too high, is this the correct charge?
You are always welcome to e-mail us for an exact shipping quote...
The young culls I keep until they're big enough to eat myself, or to sell to the Hispanics and Asians who come out and buy roosters for butchering. The older culls are already big enough.
I'm not worried about people using the culls for breeding. These guys don't know a leghorn from a cochin...
My BCM's from Meyer hatchery laid about #7 at their very darkest and lightened up quickly.
I've got truly dark egg BCM's now from private sources. Personally, I won't get BCM's from hatcheries any more.