Raising Marans for meat.

[kfelton0002]

My male I lost this winter was under a year old and he was massive for something not breed to be eaten. I needed both arms and determination to move him, though to be fair, I am a smaller human too. He also wasn't from a commercial hatchery, so he likely wasn't breed in the pressure to hatch as many eggs as possible

My Marans aren't hatchery either so they are slower maturing but they do get big when fully mature. They are a good dual purpose breed and the hens lay well.

My current solo Marans cock bird has frost bite damage to his comb. He lost it over this past winter. He was about 18 months old at the time of this photo. He has filled out a lot more since this photo. He is now 2 years old.

This is his sire and dam.

 

[Morrigan]

What gorgeous birds.

My marans are hatchery stock and seem rather quick to mature -- lots of crowing at 9 weeks old.

 

[kfelton0002]

What gorgeous birds.

My marans are hatchery stock and seem rather quick to mature -- lots of crowing at 9 weeks old.

Thank you! Mine don't start crowing until around 5 months old or so. Pullets start laying at 6-7 months old.

 

[mandelyn]

I spent 6 years working on dual purpose Marans, after trying 4 different lines I finally landed on some Black Silvers that fit the bill better, needing less breeding work in the table side of things. I was on a mission to improve growth rate, fleshing, SOP traits and keep egg color good. Got pretty far into it before ending up with meaty but poor colored birds and well colored birds without the meat. Then I got distracted by another breed.

This is a whole batch of 18 week old Marans cockerels, they averaged 4lbs.

What helped A LOT was selecting through 5-7 week old chicks for earlier expressions of width and weight. Then later on, after 16 weeks, selecting for length and depth.

These are 16 weeks old, Marans on the left and Bresse on the right. Same exact weight, just different shapes. The Marans had more length. This was at 5 years of breeding effort in the Marans, to get that fleshing all the way down the keel.

Sorting birds by feel is very, VERY important! What they weigh could be a lot of bone. It's the feel of the fleshing and where the meat is that is much more important. If you look at the first picture, there's some lean ones down the keel length. That's what landed them in the shrink bag, for not passing the feel test.

This bird stay small and compact, with a short back. Then a bad attitude developed. So he offered a good view on what the carcass looks like when you get them widely built but lacking in length.

With 3 to 5 generations of hard breeding selection and ruthless culling, you can achieve a LOT of improvements or changes.

This is where the egg color got to when I decided to move on to something else... Every season I'd hatch/grow about 150, to keep 15-20 for the following season.

 

[Morrigan]

I spent 6 years working on dual purpose Marans, after trying 4 different lines I finally landed on some Black Silvers that fit the bill better, needing less breeding work in the table side of things. I was on a mission to improve growth rate, fleshing, SOP traits and keep egg color good. Got pretty far into it before ending up with meaty but poor colored birds and well colored birds without the meat. Then I got distracted by another breed.

This is a whole batch of 18 week old Marans cockerels, they averaged 4lbs.


View attachment 3565371

What helped A LOT was selecting through 5-7 week old chicks for earlier expressions of width and weight. Then later on, after 16 weeks, selecting for length and depth.

These are 16 weeks old, Marans on the left and Bresse on the right. Same exact weight, just different shapes. The Marans had more length. This was at 5 years of breeding effort in the Marans, to get that fleshing all the way down the keel.

View attachment 3565372

Sorting birds by feel is very, VERY important! What they weigh could be a lot of bone. It's the feel of the fleshing and where the meat is that is much more important. If you look at the first picture, there's some lean ones down the keel length. That's what landed them in the shrink bag, for not passing the feel test.

This bird stay small and compact, with a short back. Then a bad attitude developed. So he offered a good view on what the carcass looks like when you get them widely built but lacking in length.

View attachment 3565377

With 3 to 5 generations of hard breeding selection and ruthless culling, you can achieve a LOT of improvements or changes.

This is where the egg color got to when I decided to move on to something else... Every season I'd hatch/grow about 150, to keep 15-20 for the following season.

View attachment 3565380

Thanks, this is incredibly helpful. Do you find you prefer raising Bresses?