Black Copper Marans & More!

[raylwlsc]

This year I decided to get back into raising chickens for egg production. I bought what I thought were going to be bantams at two different farm supply stores. They were beautiful black chicks! Foolish me, those chicks kept growing & I realized I did not have bantams after all. However, I had no idea what breed of chicken I had until today. Two of the chicks turned out to be roosters and the other nine, hens. The roosters are large, very large & very colorful with copper colored feathers on most of their bodies & black, iridescent tail feathers, large comb & large beards! The hens have black feathers with copper lacey feathers mostly on their breasts and/or upper back. Their combs are predominately red although I have one with a solid black comb and their feet are black. From what I found out today, it looks like I have Black Copper Marans! Their eggs (all are laying now) are different shades of brown & I am getting 7-9 eggs every day so most of the hens are laying daily. These chicks were born in late March so I am looking forward to seeing the changes in the eggs as they get closer to being a year old.

 

[Fowlcraft]

They sound beautiful, do you have any pictures? I am wondering if they might have some silkie in them, because beards are not one of the features of a pure marans, nor are black combs, but both of those things are the traits of the silkie breed. When silkies are crossed with other breeds, their babies tend to have normal feathers.

Do any of them have little crests or an extra toe? If they do have a bit of silkie in them, those would be good clues.