I personally have dealt with Mr Kermit Blackwood,,and I must say this man knows more about the genetics and the expected progeny outcomes of crossing them in poultry,than anyone I have ever spoken with. The Marans breed of chicken is a mess. I doubt seriously if a pure strain of any variety of Marans poultry can even be found in France.Let's face it,eons ago whatever genetics was present in these founding birds,was mixed with other birds for whatever reason the flock owner decided. I doubt many even had seperated the varieties,or knew there was a diffrence,they probably all realized these chickens just laid an exceptionally dark egg. And by breeding stock that laid this dark egg,to a nice looking rooster the neighbor had across the pond,because the hen owner lost his roo to a wild animal,,I'm sure happened many times.
There is not one "named" bloodline here in the USA now,that I have not seen or heard stories about. I know one breeder who has a "named" FBC marans line,and is getting solid white Marans from this line,and no,they do not have pink eyes,,they have pumpkin orange eyes. I have seen "top secret"e-mails from "named" breeders wanting to cross other breeds into marans to try and correct a problem.
This breed is desired for a few reasons,1) the egg color is unmatched by any other breed 2) it was a few years ago,very cash rewarding to have these unique eggs to sell,everyone wanted on the bandwagon. Now that the bandwagon is overflowing,and everyone has them,,breeders now think this should be a recognized breed with the APA. Political of a subject as that is,,I'll not warrant my opinions here,,but the fact remains years ago,people was doing anything they could to aquire this breed of chicken,,,breeding 10 years ago,was not as a precise "book" as it is now.People are now wanting to breed to a written "standard" for this breed and more considerations are now being seen about correct everything,,
If every so called variety,or imported line was not pure in the beginning,,how can anyone expect now to get a pure flock?Better yet, how many flock owners here in the USA actually band and keep their lines seperated,or know exactly what line of birds they have? How many care? How many can tell a Wheaton from a Black Copper roo? I have been to swap meets before and a seller wanted to sell me Black Langshans with yellow legs before,,he said they came from show winning stock,,he was quite the salesman,,but not to me,but before the day was over they were sold and someone has them some show winning black langshans at home,until they realize they got taken for a quick $75 a pair ride.
I'm sure this has happened to people buying Marans as well.But many people that own the breed do not try to cull for certain traits,they are still after those egg $$$,,,while others take sides within the breed not driving towards an objective at all,,how can we without a breed standard?
I have known Kermit for awhile now,and have spoken with him and e-mailed him on several occasions,,not only does his intellect about breeding and genetics far surpass many that I've spoken with,he is not to blame for the Marans mess within the USA.I think many can see this began many decades ago,by owners that had no clue how to breed for specific traits. Now,we have inherited this huge gene pool from breedings 150 years previous.and most breeders here think within 2-3 generations they will have a perfect species marans,and that is not going to happen.Main reason goes back to egg color and $$$,,,,forget what faults the hens and roos have,as long as the incubator is full all the time,so more money can be made from selling stock that lays dark eggs.
Mr Blackwood did not create the breed problems in the marans.Frustrated,uneducated non selective breeding practices geared towards profit is what has caused the genetic quagmire within the breed. If you believe your strain of a variety is "pure",then breed that line closed for 8 generations,back to back,cull hard and make notes,,and at the end of the 8th generation when the roos and hens are then producing ferttile eggs,,hatch as many out as possible,and see how many bad traits you have.This may take 5-6 years to accomplish,,and I seriously doubt if many here that jumped on the bandwagon,has bred that many generations,of their own closed line before selling fertile eggs..Yet it is so easy to point the finger at someone else,ANYONE ELSE,,that helped bring this breed here because they do not know how to correct a poor trait themselves,rather pass the blame on to someone else.If those pointing the blame are so dubious in their breeding practices,why would they not make a trip to Europe,and import the birds they liked on their own?? Then they would have noone to blame but themselves,,or would they? Nope,they would pass the buck back to the people they bought the birds from in Europe,,not themselves.And by the time it as realized the poor breed traits were showing up,hundreds of eggs would have been sold already for high $$$,,,so the genetics would be more widepsread,,all over the USA. And the circle continues.
