730ec959_chickensonmay8014.jpeg
730ec959_chickensonmay8014.jpeg

Marans

The Marans, or French, Poule de Marans, is a French breed of chicken from the port town of Marans, in the département of Charente-Maitime, in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France.
Overview Reviews (135) Gallery
Leave a rating

General Information

Breed Purpose
Dual Purpose
Comb
Single
Broodiness
Average
Climate Tolerance
Cold
Egg Productivity
Medium
Egg Size
Large
Egg Color
Dark Brown
Breed Temperament
Friendly,Easily handled,Docile
Breed Colors/Varieties
Silver Cuckoo, Golden Cuckoo, White, Copper Black, Black, Wheaten, Black-tailed Buff, and Ermine. MANY colors in development!
Breed Size
Large Fowl
700.jpg

The Marans, or French, Poule de Marans, is a French breed of chicken from the port town of Marans, in the département of Charente-Maitime, in the Poitou-Charentes region of western France. It was created with the local feral chickens descended from fighting game chickens carried from Indonesia and India. Those original Marandaise fowl were "improved" for the table through crossing with imported Croad Langshans. A favourite at poultry shows, it became a dual purpose breed known both for its extremely dark brown eggs and fine meat qualities.

Marans are generally quiet and docile; but they are quite active, taking well to free ranging in rough terrain and are also tough and disease-resistant. Their gentle temperaments and quiet demeanor makes them ideal for suburban backyard chicken keepers, as well as any assorted farm flock as they rarely bully smaller breeds. Marans are historically a dual-purpose bird, prized not only for their dark eggs but for their table qualities as well. Though the original Marans could also be feather legged birds, British breeders preferred the clean legged version, and thus feathered legged Marans are now mainly found in France. The Australian Poultry Standard recognises both feathered and clean-legged birds, while the Marans Club of America only recognises feather-legged birds.

39988813_marans-4158-908647.jpeg
Marans egg

49901dca_BCM_baby1.jpeg
Marans chick

c77b8f2e_IMG_4259.jpeg
Marans juvenile

ea6226fd_IMG_5003.jpeg
Marans hen

1000.jpg
Marans rooster

For more about the Marans breed and their owners' and breeders' experiences with them, see our breed discussion here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-maran.1132230/
  • Like
Reactions: MarciaN, PioneerChicks, dreamerhps and 14 others

Latest reviews

talkinboutchickens
mystic marans
Pros: very pretty dark brown eggs, friendly
Cons: lays really big eggs, which can cause the hen to become egg bound
I've only had one maran, she was a mystic maran. She was very sweet, laid huge dark brown eggs, had a big build, although not overweight. I don't remember her much because she died a long time ago. I think she probably died because she got egg bound.
Purchase Date
March 2019
Lemon-Drop
Cuckoo Marans
Pros: Dark brown eggs

Not a bully

Very beautiful
Cons: Can go broody (good or bad)

A little skittish

Near bottom of pecking order
I love the cuckoo marans, Kiki. She’s pretty sweet, but a little skittish. Right now she went broody for the first time.
Her eggs are currently my favorite in the basket, though they’re not super dark brown. (Attached picture is of my EE, Australorp, and Marans egg)

Overall, I would recommend. In my experience, can be a little skittish, but I still love Kiki to pieces, even if she doesn’t like to be held.
Purchase Price
3.00
Purchase Date
March 2020

Attachments

  • 83E4028C-2812-4039-9CD8-86BCCF131496.jpeg
    83E4028C-2812-4039-9CD8-86BCCF131496.jpeg
    537.8 KB · Views: 61
  • 272A78A7-5808-4793-8B24-DE4828DFB085.jpeg
    272A78A7-5808-4793-8B24-DE4828DFB085.jpeg
    447.2 KB · Views: 62
  • BBFACB96-5BFF-4A1F-A01B-4DE10303ED82.jpeg
    BBFACB96-5BFF-4A1F-A01B-4DE10303ED82.jpeg
    401.1 KB · Views: 72
  • 67F4A8D3-9FD8-4A5A-84B9-2E36D3C646FD.jpeg
    67F4A8D3-9FD8-4A5A-84B9-2E36D3C646FD.jpeg
    320.1 KB · Views: 72
chickenluvin
Pros: Enjoy those dark brown eggs, overall a nice bird
Cons: Not the most productive hens, dark brown is only consistent at the beginning
I really wanted to add dark brown egg layers to my little flock. They are a pretty bird with a fairly even temperament. The first eggs were very dark & they lay quite well. But they didn't have a very long laying spell for a first year chicken. They quit entirely for the winter & are slow to get going in the spring. The dark egg definitely gets lighter & never gets as dark as the 1st summer again... but still darker than the average brown layer. I haven't decided whether to get them again mostly because I find them not terribly productive even at about a year old & that the really dark initial eggs never get that dark again.
Overall.. would recommend trying them for a little colour in your egg basket.
  • Like
Reactions: ChickenGirl300
L
Leahsandora11
I have a few Australorps and they lay brown eggs, winter is just ending and they laid the whole winter, you could try these breeds. They are really good. They've stayed darker brown the whole time!
Read more…

Comments

ron8072
amberflea said:
Just bought a dozen Copper maran eggs... hoping to hatch 50%, but now I'm nervous... anyone know why they are hard to hatch?
Click to expand...
I have never had any trouble hatching Marans. High percentage of roos but that is normal, in my experience with several breeds. Remember to replace roosters from out of your flock every season to keep the gene pool clean.
 
K
Hi-
Would someone share where they bought their Black Copper Marans and had a good experience, Please?

thanks
 
frankdust
Have 5, 8 month old French Black Copper Maran's Roosters and trying to decide which 3 to keep. All 5 are beautiful roosters but 2 have solid black chest and other 3 have specks of copper on chest. Which is better solid black chest or lightly copper speckled chest for meeting standard requirements?
 
happyfrenchman
Did you hatch them yourself? At 8 months, you should be able to see what they are looking like. If it were earlier, I would say I favor the darker bird, but that is because I know the copper will come because I have the father and the mother.
 
happyfrenchman
happyfrenchman said:
Did you hatch them yourself? At 8 months, you should be able to see what they are looking like. If it were earlier, I would say I favor the darker bird, but that is because I know the copper will come because I have the father and the mother.
Click to expand...
Are you tryng to accomplish the American Standard. The French Standard is much more fun.
 
happyfrenchman
happyfrenchman said:
Did you hatch them yourself? At 8 months, you should be able to see what they are looking like. If it were earlier, I would say I favor the darker bird, but that is because I know the copper will come because I have the father and the mother.
Click to expand...
Which standard are you wishing to meet. I personally believe the French Standard is much more fun.
 
Tally Chick
Would a Maran be a good rooster for babies to use for eggs and to breed with broiler hens for meat? I'm new to breeding my chickens and want to raise meat birds and would like to have one rooster.
Thanks
 
ldamp
Can you tell me where I can get two Black Marans. I'm looking for older ones, a few months old getting ready to lay eggs.
 
dldolan
Tally Chick said:
Would a Maran be a good rooster for babies to use for eggs and to breed with broiler hens for meat? I'm new to breeding my chickens and want to raise meat birds and would like to have one rooster.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi,
I raise Marans and often keep a smaller broiler hen (the larger ones will die if left to grow out, so I often use the slow-grow meat birds) to breed with the Marans rooster for meat. The cross is slightly slower growing, but the meat is very good. Dawn
 
bonsaiherb
"Axl, my French Black Copper Maran rooster is as close to perfect as one could hope for. If any of my ladies make any sounds of alarm or distress, he is there in a flash. If it's me or my family picking up one of the girls, he will follow us step-for-step until we put her down safely, but he never displays any aggression towards us. He is first in line if I'm handing out treats, but he shares them with his favorites."
Lovely testimonial - just as I was reconsidering this breed. Have three ladies and 3 Speckled Sussex which will be about the same size.
Rooster to be will be a Cookoo patterned Easter Egger who I hope lives up to half your description of Axl.
 
SheppardRanch
One of our all time favorites! Been breeding and selling them for around 5 years and they are an all around wonderful bird with one of the most impressive eggs in the chicken world. Not the most productive layers but not terrible either.
 
Freisian
My experience whilst new is so far marred.
The cockerel was psychoticLy super violent to any humans and completely over mated and shredded the six hens. He has been rehomed with a breeder.
The three marans hens, whilst good big (75-80 gym) dark egg layers, three hens lay two a day currently, have a major feather pecker amongst the three despite free ranging over a large area.
Not sure the nice eggs overcome the negative behavioural traits for me and won’t be getting any more.
I am considering replacing with more friesians due to the less neurotic sweeter nature and higher egg production ( though small) of the latter, and just hope the marans have a broody potential amongst them.
The cock would have been great for house protection if the ranging was not near the house though.
He was a handsome lad though
 
SheppardRanch
Freisian said:
My experience whilst new is so far marred.
The cockerel was psychoticLy super violent to any humans and completely over mated and shredded the six hens. He has been rehomed with a breeder.
The three marans hens, whilst good big (75-80 gym) dark egg layers, three hens lay two a day currently, have a major feather pecker amongst the three despite free ranging over a large area.
Not sure the nice eggs overcome the negative behavioural traits for me and won’t be getting any more.
I am considering replacing with more friesians due to the less neurotic sweeter nature and higher egg production ( though small) of the latter, and just hope the marans have a broody potential amongst them.
The cock would have been great for house protection if the ranging was not near the house though.
He was a handsome lad though
Click to expand...
Sorry you had that experience with your Marans. I know your currently not sold on the breed but if you ever do decide to try again I can tell you we have dozens running in our large "run of the farm" flock and I have 3 little kids, the youngest being 4. If any showed a shadow of what you describe it would be in a pot. Ours have been very docile.
 
C
great chicken extremely nice to chickens it was raised with, can be a bully to other non familiar chickens. Definitely takes the queen position of the coop.
 
cattledogcrazy
I have one, sadly her hatch mate did not make it so I am not sure if that is why she is odd. She is very loud, a complainer and none of my other girls, even the rooster does not like her. She is flighty and not my fav, but with the rooster and other girls putting the run on her she is getting friendlier with me. I had decided to give the breed another shot so i have 2 black copper marans and a silver salmon maran in my young hatch. Hoping these new girls are better.
 

Item information

Category
Chicken Breeds
Added by
Super Admin
Views
136,553
Watchers
39
Comments
168
Reviews
135
Last update
Rating
4.12 star(s) 141 ratings

More in Chicken Breeds

  • talkinboutchickens
    White plymouth rock
    With a super kind temperament and 4-6 eggs per week, you really can't go wrong with this breed!
  • Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies
    Showgirl Silkies
    A showgirl silkie is a silkie with no feathers on their neck.
  • shelbyw
    Olandsk Dwarf
    Bright, social birds. Beautiful Plumage with speckles covering the body. Roosters rarely fight...
  • ChickenWhisperer101
    Wyandottes
    These birds are usually overall friendly, are good layers, and are very pretty.
  • Capto Veritas
    Australorp
    The Australorp is a docile, friendly, and easy going chicken. Several people find them great for...

More from Super Admin

Share this item

Back
Top Bottom