DOMINANT DARKSHELL DS 109 is a new program included in the collection of programs called ARTISAN EGGS; these are programs relating to the laying hens with different shell colours. The Darkshell program produces eggs with original shades of different brown eggshells; some hens produce even spotted or mauve. The high percentage of eggs has dark brown shell. The distinguishing feature from the classic hybrids is feathered runners, which is a typical feature of the Marans breed, with the participation of which our DOMINANT DARKSHELL program was bred. It is used commercially as a final hybrid for self-sufficient farms in the Czech Republic and particularly abroad, where it is included in the collection of programs with eggs with different shell colours.
The current laying rate of the final hybrids due to the recent cross breeding with the Marans breed is around 250 to 270 eggs and we will improve with each generation of intensive breeding.
Egg weight about 59 to 61 g.
The attractive black plumage of adult laying hens is complemented by the high lustre and sometimes with admixture of brown marking in the neck and chest. The cockerel of the final hybrids is barred with brown admixture on the neck, chest and wing feathers.
This program is the result of cross breeding the Black DS paternal population and the Barred DS maternal population. Colour sexing is applied when hatching one-day-old chickens using allele of the Barred "B/b" gene, where one-day-old cockerel acquires the dominant allele of this gene "B" from its mother and is barred with a white dot on its head and one-day-old hen acquires the recessive "b" allele from her father, which does not cause barred marking, and consequently the hen is black without white marking on her head.