marans question

[sóley]

I'm just wondering, why does some marans hens have feathered feet and some don't? I have cuckoo maran with no feathers on his feet so I'm just wondering if that's how he's supposed to be, my hens are also with no feather feets and lay dark brown eggs like maran do.
but I stared wondering this when I saw a picture of black copper maran flock where some of the hens had feathers on there feet and some didn't and I started also looking at other pictuers where is saw that they can be both featherd and not featherd.

 

[Sneebsey]

According to the French standard, they should have feathery legs, and many breeders have started to follow this as it is seen as more authentic to the history of the breed.

I'm unsure of American standards, but Maran's have been in the UK for a long time (I believe for at least a century) and have been bred to lose this trait, I can only assume due to our wet conditions. The British standard calls for clean legs.

 

[GaryDean26]

The English standard for Marans is clean shanks (i.e. not feathers on the feet). I don't remember what other cuckoo breed had feathers (cochins?) that they though the marans would be confused with, but English Marans are clean shanked and some of the first lines of Cuckoo Marans in North America were from the UK. Clean shanked Cuckoo Marans were all we had in the USA until the 90's. Many of the old time Cuckoo Marans breeders will never switch over to feather legged birds because they like the clean legs better. There have been lots of imports in the past 20 years. Some from France and other parts of Europe and breeders and the APA adopted the feather legged standard and are working to that in the Marans breed. Clean shanked Marans still are a problem in the breed though. As uniformity in the breed increased quality in the breed will increase.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

I started with a BCM rooster with poorly feathered feet ( a few small feathers between his toes) placed him over full feather FBCM hens and 75% of my hatch had nicely feathered feet, the American standard is the same as the French. But they are lovely birds that give yummy eggs that also look nice in the egg basket. So unless you want to show your birds, feathered feet or not is up to your preference, as the non feathered feet are British standard. Just a matter of what you want. Good luck with your flock, they are very enjoyable birds in all aspects.

 

[sóley]

I started with a BCM rooster with poorly feathered feet ( a few small feathers between his toes) placed him over full feather FBCM hens and 75% of my hatch had nicely feathered feet, the American standard is the same as the French. But they are lovely birds that give yummy eggs that also look nice in the egg basket. So unless you want to show your birds, feathered feet or not is up to your preference, as the non feathered feet are British standard. Just a matter of what you want. Good luck with your flock, they are very enjoyable birds in all aspects.

okey, I'm not going to show my birds so I am not going to worry about that then, I was just currius, thank you for your help