International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[wrathsfarm]

Happy New Years everyone! Blessings to you all!

Happy New Years to you. I hope you have a very good year

 

[TexasBlues]

Those are some good looking birds. I always enjoy the bonus pictures of other breeds that make it into this thread. It keeps the backyard part of the website in this thread. It makes me feel like I’m in with the right class of people. I do love my Marans but I also like all of the colors of eggs and I need some birds that will reliably lay in the winter to help justify the whole concept of raising my own chickens.

What are some other breeds that you recommend? I was thinking of getting some brown leghorns for white eggs. I have whiting true blues for blue eggs.

 

[Bantambird]

What are some other breeds that you recommend? I was thinking of getting some brown leghorns for white eggs. I have whiting true blues for blue eggs.

The funny thing is that a lot of Marans breeders end up with Legbars. I have never entirely figured out why.

 

[chickengr]

The funny thing is that a lot of Marans breeders end up with Legbars. I have never entirely figured out why.

colourful egg basket?

 

[LaFleche]

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2024 with lots of beautifully coloured Marans eggs!

 

[wrathsfarm]

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2024 with lots of beautifully coloured Marans eggs!

Happy New Year to you also !!

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

The funny thing is that a lot of Marans breeders end up with Legbars. I have never entirely figured out why.

What are some other breeds that you recommend? I was thinking of getting some brown leghorns for white eggs. I have whiting true blues for blue eggs.

my four white leghorns are probably my best chicken buy ever. £17.50 or something in that ballpark each, and I’ve had 3-4 white eggs every day since. Their eggs are massive too, biggest I’ve had was 105g (second biggest after a 106g Brahma).
I’m also a personal fan of Wellies, I love the wild type pattern and their eggs act as the bridge between my standard brown eggs and marans eggs (I love organising the eggs so they fade from chocolate to white). I’ve also sound they make good hybrids.
My favourite breed is the Brahma, they come in so many colours and in my opinion their egg yolks trump marans (at least mine do). Their eggs are cream coloured, and they are very winter hardy.

a set of Silver Duckwing Welsummer eggs I sold, two from six hens. Some are dark, some are paler with speckles.

some examples of my eggs, ranging from leghorn, Brahma, red sex links, welsummer hybrids, welsummers and marans. I think some of the paler brown eggs are from my Brahma red sex link cross.

now I have some cream crested legbars, I can start adding the blues on the end after the whites, and eventually crossing them to the brown layers’ roosters to produce sex link (besides the white ones) olive eggers.

Sorry again for a big post that isn’t much about Marans!

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

colourful egg basket?

The funny thing is that a lot of Marans breeders end up with Legbars. I have never entirely figured out why.

I’m not sure if this is true for everyone, but here in the UK we are used to the standard supermarket egg being medium brown, from red sex links. White and Chocolate eggs provide the extremes away from the norm, making them attractive. They also contrast each other greatly.
Some people have told me they are put off by blue and green shelled eggs, others like myself love them. I think the unusual nature of them is the next step up from marans eggs. Legbars are the only autosexing variety of blue egg layers I believe, making them suitable from egg laying hybrids which can be sexlinked on the dark down of the marans.

Edit: I remember my grandma buying white eggs when she could (this was before I got chickens) because it reminded her of growing up when most eggs were white, before hybrids like the lohmann brown were developed and leghorns were still unbeaten layers.
Edit 2: Bantambird, I read your post as leghorn, not legbar, that’s why I’m talking about them.

 

[wrathsfarm]

(I love organising the eggs so they fade from chocolate to white). View attachment 3717114

That is a great looking display

 

[Tstraub]

What are some other breeds that you recommend? I was thinking of getting some brown leghorns for white eggs. I have whiting true blues for blue eggs.

I have only had chickens for around 9 months so I don’t really have enough experience to recommend specific breeds. From what I have read if you want large white eggs leghorns will consistently produce them for you and they will treat you really well in cost to feed them while doing it. And I do personally like the looks of the brown leghorn.