Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[maryhysong]

I'm new this site as a poster so I'm not sure the past history of this page, but it sounds heated. I just wanted to get my opinion of this beautiful breed out there. I have a trio of French Copper Black Marans and they are gorgeous to be in no way self serving. I got my trio as a second crop from an original importer. My one hen has the flaw of having naked legs, but I lover her just the same. I have two major issues with my trio though, first my rooster is as violent as a game cock, ex. he took on a young hawk and won, second my hens are both food vacuums and very poor producers, about 160 eggs a year each. Not to mention the hens fight all the time too. These birds are beautiful, and you feel luxurious eating the eggs, they are the eggs James Bond, Sean Connery, eats in three of this movies and they are a fairly expensive in french restaurants, around 10 euros for one as Eggs Benedicta, that was the price the last time I was in country. With all this extravagance its no wonder do me that people who raise them cant help but feel a little posh. That being said, these chickens are not for a beginner and may be their own worst enemy for getting more breeders to raise them.

I'm in my first year, getting ready to set up my first breedings from birds hatched last Dec. Of 4 grown roos, all living together with their hatchmates, I have one that's a total love, easy to pick up and check for problems, doesn't start anything with the other birds. His hatchmate is a bit more stand offish, a little harder to catch and has developed a fascination with pecking my shoes- doesn't jump at me or anything, just wants to peck at them (plain black athletic shoes; go figure). Another boy from a different breeder has been jumping at me some, but not extreme at this time any way; his hatchmate is more stand offish and is the first to come running when I come out with the meal worms.

Aggressive boys around here are called Mean Rooster Soup and the worst I ever had was a hatchery buff orpington.

 

[desertmarcy]

The only issue is my rooster is people aggressive as well as hot tempered toward other chickens as well. He nearly flogged my golden buff to death when he was only half the size of him. I've worked with him and handled him as a juvanile, but he really is a monster sometimes. His offspring are as well, those that I've raise still get mean with the other chicks I run with them. I'm beginning to believe it is his bloodline or because he is so close to the imported line. Though he is show perfect for traits, so whats a guy to do. And letting my 2 year old son interact with him is out of the question. He likes the Golden buffs best anyway.

There is nothing worse in poultry keeping than a mean rooster, IMO. It just makes dealing with them stressful and takes the fun out of it. What good are perfect show traits then? And if you are selling his offspring, the new owners are not going to be happy if the bloodline is people aggressive. I would not keep him, but that is me. Everybody makes their own culling decisions but I think temperament should be high on the list.

 

[Anfan]

I'm going to try and hatch out some new offspring from some hatching eggs and see if I can't get a better tempered roo. And those that bought my babies they only wanted the genetics for their flocks. And i warned those that were using them for children showers about their temperament. My roo can be mean, he has never been to violent to me. So we'll see what the new hatchers do.

 

[Wynette]

I'm new this site as a poster so I'm not sure the past history of this page, but it sounds heated. I just wanted to get my opinion of this beautiful breed out there. I have a trio of French Copper Black Marans and they are gorgeous to be in no way self serving. I got my trio as a second crop from an original importer. My one hen has the flaw of having naked legs, but I lover her just the same. I have two major issues with my trio though, first my rooster is as violent as a game cock, ex. he took on a young hawk and won, second my hens are both food vacuums and very poor producers, about 160 eggs a year each. Not to mention the hens fight all the time too. These birds are beautiful, and you feel luxurious eating the eggs, they are the eggs James Bond, Sean Connery, eats in three of this movies and they are a fairly expensive in french restaurants, around 10 euros for one as Eggs Benedicta, that was the price the last time I was in country. With all this extravagance its no wonder do me that people who raise them cant help but feel a little posh. That being said, these chickens are not for a beginner and may be their own worst enemy for getting more breeders to raise them.

Hi there, thanks for posting!

I'm quite surprised to hear your take on the breed; mine are the gentlest birds on my farm, and are excellent layers. I do not use artificial light to force lay in the off season, but my Marans are always the first to begin in late winter and the last to stop. In fact, all that is laying on my farm now are my Marans and my production birds. My Plymouth Rocks and Jersey Giants have stopped for the season. It sounds like you have a strain that is not prevalent in the U.S., which is really interesting, but sounds like unfortunately, whoever bred them may have ignored disposition in breeding decisions. I have sold pairs, trios, quads to many a young person without any bad results. Of course, in any breed, there will be a nasty bird now & again but, for the most part, these birds are extremely docile.

Welcome to the thread, and I hope that you post pics of your trio!

 

[Nashonii]

Quote: I had asked the question before, how to get darker eggs thus perfecting you breed, and didn't get an answer. Now I re-ask that Q and want to know how to get olive eggers from my breed. What do you mate them to?
I recently wrote that I realized that the Black copper Marans I purchsed is actually a Wheaten Marans, and the two females are Black Marans. I asked if their off spring would look and be desirable. I received a a response that said what I would have would be 'mutts'. Not the wording I would have used to someone. They are still Marans, maybe not show quality as a pure breed, but that was not what I was asking. What I wanted to know was, would the Wheaten coloring come through when the mother is a Black marans?

 

[DMRippy]

olive eggers are a cross of a dark egg layer and a blue egg layer like an Ameraucanas.

to get darker eggs you hatch the darkest eggs and breed pullets back to their sire and males back to the mothers. you usually lose egg color the first year if you add new blood but will come back after a generation or two. I would not use your cross breeds to make dark egg laying Marans but you could use them to make olive eggers.

 

[Anfan]

Color darkness has three variables, diet, age, and genetics. Believe it or not diet can effect the color of your eggs, a higher starch content will result in an egg about 1 shade darker on average. Young hens will also lay lighter eggs on average in their first 3-4 months of laying. After this time they will slowly darken to their settled color to that hen. Older hens near the end of laying will also produce about a months worth of theirndarkest eggs in their life time which signals the end of their highly productive cycles. The down side is these last few dark eggs have a very low fertility and rearly produce a viable offspring. The last factor is genetics which DMRipply stated correctly to continually hatch out your darkest eggs. As for the interesting aspect of olive eggers I find I get best results in breeding a blue egg laying breed roo to a Black Marans hen. In my case I've used a Lavender Americana roo. Hope this helps.

 

[DMRippy]

never heard that about diet. all I have heard about Marans and diet is they need high protein. I don't feed my chickens scratch often. scratch is just candy to chickens and theybdont get it at my farm, they don't need it. in the few years I have breed Marans I have NEVER had eggs darken up after 3-4 months of laying. mine are the darkest when they first start to lay.

just my experience each flock might be different.

 

[Wynette]

The genetics of egg color have not been worked on enough for any research results to be available, unfortunately. Typically in Marans, eggs do not begin lighter for the first 3-4 months and then get darker, it's actually the opposite that's true. There are definitely some pullets that lay a lighter egg for the first 3 or 4 eggs, but they should very quickly get darker, they should not take 3-4 months to do so.

I've never tried using a blue egg laying male over a Marans female, but have always been curious about the results of that cross for olive eggers. I normally pick out a few pretty easter eggers each year and pop a female or two into my Marans pens for my olive eggers.

 

[Anfan]

This has been my experience with the hens from my bloodline for the age effecting factor. Texas A&M is doing some feed studies on nutrient results on colored eggs and what I state is only the preliminary result so far so I woukd just stick with a high protein diet for now before I'd make any drastic feed change for a shade darkening of 1 scale. But I agree that there maybe a difference in bloodline based on age effecting color because my hens eggs always darken to their true colors in about 4 months after they start laying.