Wheaten, BIRCHEN, Columbian, or black copper Marans?

[tn_artist]

Yes, her legs are feathered. She has very soft feathers and is our largest hen. Very calm. We got three, but the other two were boys. All feather footed. Here she is next to one of our EEs.

 

[Folly's place]

Stick with the French Marans, and you should be happy with their eggs.
Mary

 

[Silkie2005]

Good idea of the eggs colours! The wheaten maran egg is the really dark brown, so you can clearly see the difference. Plus I love how they have little black spots all over them, looks like someone as splattered black paint on them!

 

[A & H]

Aren't French cuckoos v. susceptible to leg mites?

 

[Folly's place]

Leg mites happen, and can happen to any chicken.
Mary

 

[Toon]

Stick with the French Marans, and you should be happy with their eggs.
Mary

Not sure what you're trying to say here. All marans are french, right?

 

[Toon]

If you can get genuine columbian marans (not made by crossing with a sussex, but the old type) i will eat my shoe they're the rarest! Black coppers usually lay the darkest, if you live in america chances are low you'll actually get good dark colour. Most wheatens are quite good, but some lack legg feathering. Cuckoos will probably be the worst quality, a lot of people have something that they call cuckoo marans, but they aren't. They lack leg feathering and their egg colour is close to what a regular laying hen lays. I'd stick with the black coppers, that's your highest chance of haing good egg colour and a good quality chicken

 

[Silkie2005]

If you can get genuine columbian marans (not made by crossing with a sussex, but the old type) i will eat my shoe they're the rarest! Black coppers usually lay the darkest, if you live in america chances are low you'll actually get good dark colour. Most wheatens are quite good, but some lack legg feathering. Cuckoos will probably be the worst quality, a lot of people have something that they call cuckoo marans, but they aren't. They lack leg feathering and their egg colour is close to what a regular laying hen lays. I'd stick with the black coppers, that's your highest chance of haing good egg colour and a good quality chicken

I know what you mean about wheaten and the leg feathering, I have been trying to find some more hens to add to my stock and give the gene pool a bit of a boost, but I can't find any good quality ones, they are all just garbage that has been crossed with everything under the sun and then I am being asked to pay £40 to £50 for it with them claiming it is a complete purebred!

 

[A & H]

If you can get genuine columbian marans (not made by crossing with a sussex, but the old type) i will eat my shoe they're the rarest! Black coppers usually lay the darkest, if you live in america chances are low you'll actually get good dark colour. Most wheatens are quite good, but some lack legg feathering. Cuckoos will probably be the worst quality, a lot of people have something that they call cuckoo marans, but they aren't. They lack leg feathering and their egg colour is close to what a regular laying hen lays. I'd stick with the black coppers, that's your highest chance of haing good egg colour and a good quality chicken

I would prefer hens without leg feathering since they are supposed to be really hard in terms of upkeep

Am I correct?

 

[Silkie2005]

I would prefer hens without leg feathering since they are supposed to be really hard in terms of upkeep

Most marans with leg feathering it is very thin not like a pekin or silkie so it doesn't really matter if you do or don't unless they have lots of feathering but that is rare.