Best hatchery for Marans

AinaWGSD

Crowing
13 Years
Apr 2, 2010
1,582
514
336
Sullivan, IL
I would like to add some cuckoo marans to hatch my own dual purpose black sex links. My first choice would be a breeder, but cuckoo seems to be a harder variety to find and I'm considering the possibility of going with a hatchery as an alternative. I am really interested in this cross as a meat bird for my personal uses (and being able to sell pullets locally to people who want laying hens) and I know that hatchery birds are often not as strong in the meat qualities. I've found four hatcheries who have cuckoo marans advertised on their sites; Privett, McMurray, Cackle, and The Poultry Hatchery. I've not heard of the fourth one at all, and Privett is farthest from me so I am a little more concerned about time in the mail if we went through them. Has anyone had any experiences with marans from any of these hatcheries?
 
I ordered five cuckoo maran pullets and one cockeral from Cackle in 2011. They have been my best free range layers. The roo is very gentle with his girls, keeps a great watch over them, and is not aggressive. I had huge, dark eggs the first year. But now I can't tell them from the other brown eggs except by size. One of the hens was very broody and hatched out about 10 mixed breed chicks her first year in two clutches. She was an excellent mother. In between clutches she would take away the chicks from other hens and raise them! She hasn't tried to hatch out any since that first year. My marans are also the top of the pecking order (marans, doms, EE (they live off my themselves very feral like), mixed breed, australorps, orpingtons). I have five more on my spring order this year.
 

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