Marans With Featherless Legs?

[so lucky]

I have one of the Midnight Majesty Marans. She has a few feathers on her legs, but certainly not enough to worry about getting muddy. She is not as dependable a layer as the other girls. The eggs are dark but not extremely dark. She came from a local farm store.

 

[BlessedmamaAELE]

Hello! I am VERY interested in getting Black Copper Marans in a few years (Those EGGS!), but I strongly dislike feathered legs (No offense, but I like my chicken legs sleek lol). Are Marans without feathered legs bred often? Would they be difficult to obtain via hatching eggs or from a breeder? Thank you for reading!

If it’s Dark Chocolate color eggs you are looking for and you don’t care for the feathered legs, have you considered Welsummers?

 

[MelissaB17]

I have a gorgeous Midnight Majesty Marans (Hoover's name for their Marans Mix) and she has clean dark slate legs. The breed description stated that some have feathered legs and some don't, so it's not a definite either way. I purchased her from TSC and she had clean featherless legs as a day old sexed pullet. I can't comment on her eggs as she hasn't started laying yet (hatch date of Aug 22, 2019). Maybe this is an option?

Edited to add that their "breed standard" isn't necessarily true as MMM aren't a true breed. I changed standard to description

I have a Midnight Majesty Maran as well. She's absolutely beautiful, and has made an amazing pet. (She's super personable.) She only has one to two very small feathers on each leg.

 

[Tony O.]

Cackle Hatchery has French Marans (feather legged) and also a production strain, Cuckoo Marans (clean legged) at half the price of the French.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Contact Marans Chicken Club of America (MCCUSA), they will be happy to answer questions about all things Marans! They do champion the APA SOP, which, like the original French standard is feather legged, but they could probably still help you out. Clean legged Marans is the English standard, Marans were exported from France to England before America imported them, and the English breeders built their own independent standard. US hatcheries for some reason got started with clean legged Cuckoo Marans, which I think is an English variant. Maybe the French ones weren’t allowed to be imported yet. I do know the Cuckoos are (at least at some hatcheries) being bred for production-level egg laying, and so are quickly losing weight and ceasing to be dual purpose birds. Anyway, if you want good quality clean-legged Marans, call or even join MCCUSA. US breeders do occasionally breed clean legged lines, it’s just a matter of finding who has what you want. Good luck!

 

[IamRainey]

I got a French Black Copper Marans from My Pet Chicken that had really minimal feathering on his legs. Two to three tiny feathers each leg. I guess that made him not particularly desirable but he was a gorgeous boy and I was happy with him -- I'm not a fan of feathered legs either. ...until he got very aggressive.

Don't know if you could count on getting light feathers or not but I'd call and talk to the folks at My Pet Chicken. They're very personal and aim to please. They could give you an assessment of you how good they thought your chances are of getting lightly feathered or clean legs.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

I got a French Black Copper Marans from My Pet Chicken that had really minimal feathering on his legs. Two to three tiny feathers each leg. I guess that made him not particularly desirable but he was a gorgeous boy and I was happy with him -- I'm not a fan of feathered legs either. ...until he got very aggressive.

Don't know if you could count on getting light feathers or not but I'd call and talk to the folks at My Pet Chicken. They're very personal and aim to please. They could give you an assessment of you how good they thought your chances are of getting lightly feathered or clean legs.

I don’t know about this... bad breeding that happens to produce attributes you like is not the same as good breeding planned and executed to stabilize desirable attributes. My Pet Chicken has mixed reviews on quality, maybe they’re fine, maybe they aren’t. But American Black Copper Marans are supposed to have light to moderate leg feathering unless specifically bred to remove it. If they don’t, I wonder what else is lacking. I’m glad you had a good experience though!

 

[JennyHeidewald]

I have two FBCM hens I got from TSC, and they don't have feathered legs.
If you want even darker eggs get a Penedesenca, they have featherless legs, and lay the darkest eggs ( they get lighter as the season progresses, like all colored eggs). They are a Spanish breed that was on the verge of extinction in the early 1980's, and have a unique comb, is a single that splits into four lobes at the back. I lucked into them at my feed store, got two, supposed to be pullets, well, the REALLY feisty one was a boy. He has calmed down, but when I first got him he was running around the brooder pulling other chicks off the brooder heater by their toes! I named him Toepicker. His comb doesn't have well defined lobes, but the pullet does. He is gorgeous,and nice, so far. I wanted him to make olive eggers with my green egg layers.
Day-Old Chicks:
"This prized Spanish breed lays a deep, dark, reddish brown egg. As a breed they're pretty sure you're out to kill them, no matter how many treats you bring, so don't get this breed if you're looking for a feathered BFF. Colored eggs are always a more brilliant color early every laying season, and slowly fade as the season progresses. Limit 2 per order.
The lovely "partridge" variety of Penedesenca has hens with dark, double-penciled feathers, while the males are showy, dressed in black with a flame-colored head and a red cape like a bullfighter. (You can almost hear the Spanish guitar playing romantically in the background as they strut around the yard.) The hens are good layers of medium to large-sized dark chocolate brown eggs, and this breed is one of the few exceptions to the "rule" that hens with white earlobes lay white eggs. Penedesencas have white earlobes, but lay some of the darkest brown eggs you will see. They also have a unique clavel, or carnation comb. This type of comb starts as a single comb in the front, but parts into several showy lobes at the rear. Hens' combs may lay to one side, like a scarlet rose tucked behind one ear, while the males' comb will stand up like a crown. Their shapely legs are a lovely slate blue, and the overall carriage of this breed is very upright, with the chest thrust forward and the tail fanned out.

These birds are very active, and like most Mediterranean breeds, won't be suited to the coldest weather due to their large combs and smaller body size. However, they do wonderfully in heat. And have we mentioned the dark brown eggs? Oh, the eggs!"
https://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Baby-Chicks/Partridge-Penedesenca-p739.aspx

 

[Labelles Velders]

If it’s Dark Chocolate color eggs you are looking for and you don’t care for the feathered legs, have you considered Welsummers?

I have considered Welsummers, but I was under the impression that Marans have much darker eggs. I will look more in to them!

Thanks for the advice everyone!

And I am very intrigued by the Penedesenca breed!

 

[wild chick]

As others have mentioned, if you want dark eggs, I got a hatchery Cuckoo Marans - clean legs - and she lays beautiful dark eggs.