Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Dave C]

View attachment 1033905 View attachment 1033907 View attachment 1033908 View attachment 1033910 Great day at the farm. The large egg weighed 97 grams TOMView attachment 1033904

There good weights Tom

Mine are about 80g on average.

 

[Dave C]

Hatching out my last batch of the season, there Cuckoo Marans.
I've bought them in to replace my Rooster so it's a bit of a gamble but the blood lines are half bred the same as mine.

I'll be marking the birds from the darkest eggs and keeping 2 roosters from them.

How's your hatches gone this year?

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

Hatching out my last batch of the season, there Cuckoo Marans.
I've bought them in to replace my Rooster so it's a bit of a gamble but the blood lines are half bred the same as mine.

I'll be marking the birds from the darkest eggs and keeping 2 roosters from them.

How's your hatches gone this year?

FBC Marans have been consistent and dark layers so far this year, fertility has always been good with them. I hatched a group awhile back to get some more Roos to eat, I find their meat to be one of the best tasting, and easier carcasses to get inside of and remove the internals.

 

[Bantambird]

At first terrible, but I realized that I had to set my trays in the bottom of my cabinet instead of at the top, it helped tremendously. Now I have 2 chickens and a turkey raising this year's batch of birchen Marans, 14 total currently. 10 are being raised by one standard English black orpington. The turkey hen has 3 chicks that she adores. Last hen managed to keep one, lost three to a maurading neighbor cat. They are over the hardest part now, going on three weeks old. We will see how they feather out.

 

[Dave C]

FBC Marans have been consistent and dark layers so far this year, fertility has always been good with them. I hatched a group awhile back to get some more Roos to eat, I find their meat to be one of the best tasting, and easier carcasses to get inside of and remove the internals.

Yes my extra Roosters end up on the table, real nice flavour to them

I've even crossed broiler meat birds to my Marans for a very meaty bird.
Got 4 about ready, it's been an interesting project.

 

[Dave C]

Last batch of chicks just hatched.

 

[Brada Puhi]

yellow legs with no feathers.

 

[Bantambird]

yellow legs with no feathers.

Those aren't yellow, those are pink. Lack of feathers can be corrected down the line by picking proper mates for them, but if they don't have feathered legs, they just won't win any shows. I'm loving how chunky they are. A lot of cuckoo Marans don't have feathered legs because many are English, rather than french, Marans. I have an English cuckoo Marans myself.

 

[Dave C]

Yes they are English Cuckoo Marans, they don't have feathered legs.

Your correct Bantambird they have white legs.
They are quite chunky, I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

 

[Dave C]

Filling the freezer tomorrow as I have a lot of spare Roosters this year.