Marans Owners -- anything "bad" about this breed?

[onthespot]

I heard you can't be a member of the Marans Club and post here. You will be snubbed for slumming because this place is too "hokey" or something. I'd rather have this place than the marans club any day.

 

[dangerouschicken]

gina, I ordered straight run Cuckoo Marans, as there were no other options from Murray McMurray. Yeah, they seem to think it is okay to charge people nearly $4 a chick for either male or female, and all of my males also came with broken toes (genetic, I would think). You can guess I'm never ordering from them again.

I could also tell they were all males by the time they were about 3 or 4 weeks old. They were all silvery grey, and not dark like females should be. Oh well. I will go about it differently next time.

 

[Oblio13]

Accent on the second syllable.


Good:

Hardy.

Calm.

Good foragers.

Eggs tend to be large.

The French say the eggs last longer than others because the shells are thicker and the dark "paint" makes them more impervious. (After all, the breed originated in a port city for the purpose of provisioning sailing ships.)

Nothing looks better in your basket than those terracotta eggs, especially with a couple blue and green ones for contrast.


Bad:

They're expensive - an unfortunate result of being trendy.

There's a lot of dishonesty about them, again as a result of being fashionable. For example, some of the Cuckoos being sold are actually Barred Rocks.

Candling is difficult.

There's no American standard.

American lines aren't as good as European lines, and importation of new genetics is prohibitively difficult.

They're being selected for egg color, not production, so they don't lay as well as some breeds.

The ability to lay dark eggs waxes and wanes.


Interesting asides:

Sometimes the eggs are almost round.

Blacks and Black Coppers tend to lay the darkest eggs.

Wheatens are the most attractive birds. (That's just personal opinion, but I assure you that I have impeccably refined and sophisticated tastes.)

 

[purr]

I ordered my maran from MMH too but I don't know if its a male or a female . I don't even know which chick it is cause there were so many "substitutions" on my paper.
Could someone post a pick of a hen, and Roo won't work cause they are only 8 weeks

 

[Katy]

Quote:
That's not true.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
There's at least one or two prominent BYC contributors who are also on the Marans Club list. I have found them to be uniformly very friendly and helpful.

 

[Ms. Lewis Rich]

I love my Coppers, brooded my BLRW with them all about 5 months old now the Marans are still jumping in my lap for a nuzzle.

 

[amazondoc]

Oh, P.S. --

We may be referring to two different clubs. There also seems to be a club called the "Black Copper Marans club", as well as "American Marans Club" and "Marans Preservation Society". Those I don't know anything about. Perhaps you're referring to one of them.

This club, Marans Chicken Club, seems to be full of good folks who seem serious about getting an APA standard. I can't vouch for the others!

 

[Katy]

Quote:
There are several different clubs...for Marans overall and then different color clubs.

 

[Jenlyn9483]

I ordered two Cuckoo marans from MMH, SR of course. They are both dark and look like my barred rocks when they were chicks, aready showing some barring on the wings at 17 days old. I hope i have one male and one female. I can't tell yet, one's comb is slightly (very slightly) taller than the other. I am crossing my fingers that at least one is female so I can get the eggs! Maybe I can go and post a pic on here today and get some opinions of what sex they are......