Who Has the Best Marans?

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Little Peddlers, Greenfire Farms, Bev's Marans... who has the best Marans? Best egg color, best show quality, best price, I want to know it all. Anyone bought from them before?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

I chose FBCM as my focus breed. Bought some from a "breeder" and egg color is not up to par. As well I ended up with a girl who had black instead of orange eyes. And the copper needs work. Shanks aren't as feathered as I would like. Plus an olive egger in that batch laid the darkest of all the Marans eggs (not olive) but that didn't help me since it wasn't a Marans. Though I could have bred her in (since she was very close) and nobody would know. But that's NOT who I am! Anyways I've got room to work on improvement.

I am very curious to see the answers you get, as I'm always looking to improve my stock.

To be honest, GFF eggs don't look special to me. Maybe my expectation is too high. They are APA certified... but the APA doesn't include egg color as part of their standard. And I also think they don't require feathered shanks. I require BOTH!

I thought I saw Bev's claiming to get 5 eggs a week and still reaching 6-7 on the scale. Which would be awesome! But I may be confusing it because I can't find that claim when I looked at the site just now.

Checked out LP. I like that she has a disclosure location from what others have told her. She *seems* to care about what she breeds and have a broad base of knowledge regarding Marans. As well as knowing that even show quality birds won't produce all show quality chicks. Good info on her site. At first I thought her claim to be pricey in order to keep them in the hands of serious breeders only was... BS. But I think I can see the point. Lots of cruddy quality birds being sold out there right now as "rare breed Marans". But when you start asking questions and looking at parent stock it becomes evident that they don't have a real clue. They don't even know that Marans ALWAYS has the "s"! And darn it, I don't want silkies with straight combs... wish people would get their act together or at least tell the truth.

Right now, between the 3... I'm leaning towards LP.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

I chose FBCM as my focus breed. Bought some from a "breeder" and egg color is not up to par. As well I ended up with a girl who had black instead of orange eyes. And the copper needs work. Shanks aren't as feathered as I would like. Plus an olive egger in that batch laid the darkest of all the Marans eggs (not olive) but that didn't help me since it wasn't a Marans. Though I could have bred her in (since she was very close) and nobody would know. But that's NOT who I am! Anyways I've got room to work on improvement.

I am very curious to see the answers you get, as I'm always looking to improve my stock.

To be honest, GFF eggs don't look special to me. Maybe my expectation is too high. They are APA certified... but the APA doesn't include egg color as part of their standard. And I also think they don't require feathered shanks. I require BOTH!

I thought I saw Bev's claiming to get 5 eggs a week and still reaching 6-7 on the scale. Which would be awesome! But I may be confusing it because I can't find that claim when I looked at the site just now.

Checked out LP. I like that she has a disclosure location from what others have told her. She *seems* to care about what she breeds and have a broad base of knowledge regarding Marans. As well as knowing that even show quality birds won't produce all show quality chicks. Good info on her site. At first I thought her claim to be pricey in order to keep them in the hands of serious breeders only was... BS. But I think I can see the point. Lots of cruddy quality birds being sold out there right now as "rare breed Marans". But when you start asking questions and looking at parent stock it becomes evident that they don't have a real clue. They don't even know that Marans ALWAYS has the "s"! And darn it, I don't want silkies with straight combs... wish people would get their act together or at least tell the truth.

Right now, between the 3... I'm leaning towards LP.

Wow, thanks for the info download! I have been all over littlepeddler's and GFF's websites and I have to agree with you. (Plus, LP is close enough for direct pickup!) But I still want to make sure I get it right. Has anyone purchased from these breeders?
Also, I might behind the times on my chicken acronyms. Is FBCM short for French Black Copper Marans?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Yep, you got it.

And here is a link to a list for others...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/byc-index-of-abbreviations-acronyms.63285/

And another, I don't think they are exactly the same, but didn't have time to go through them. So...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/acronym-list-for-byc.64740/

One other thing is I only saw LP selling eggs, verses GFF sells chicks, not sure about Bev's. Those may be consideration factors. If I lived close enough to pick up LP, might be the route I go.

Have you checked out this thread? I saw them talking about LP a while back..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-thread-breeding-to-the-sop.1122465/page-460

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Oh,

Yep, you got it.

And here is a link to a list for others...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/byc-index-of-abbreviations-acronyms.63285/

And another, I don't think they are exactly the same, but didn't have time to go through them. So...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/acronym-list-for-byc.64740/

One other thing is I only saw LP selling eggs, verses GFF sells chicks, not sure about Bev's. Those may be consideration factors. If I lived close enough to pick up LP, might be the route I go.

Have you checked out this thread? I saw them talking about LP a while back..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-thread-breeding-to-the-sop.1122465/page-460

Oh, cool. Thanks!

 

[ve]

masburn1945 on ebay has the best egg color and good birds to start with. He sells baby chicks also, but you have to contact him trough his website, or phone.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

masburn1945 on ebay has the best egg color and good birds to start with. He sells baby chicks also, but you have to contact him trough his website, or phone.

Really? Where is he located? I don't want them shipped too far. Have you purchased from this breeder?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

masburn1945 on ebay has the best egg color and good birds to start with. He sells baby chicks also, but you have to contact him trough his website, or phone.

Are they NPIP? Have you actually gotten birds or eggs from them? I'm ALWAYS leery of E-bay sellers, especially for chickens. They seem sketchy.

I guess I can find all that out by researching the user name on E-bay and following the trail instead of expecting/hoping to be spoon fed the information!

Thanks for a lead.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Are they NPIP? Have you actually gotten birds or eggs from them? I'm ALWAYS leery of E-bay sellers, especially for chickens. They seem sketchy.

I guess I can find all that out by researching the user name on E-bay and following the trail instead of expecting/hoping to be spoon fed the information!

Thanks for a lead.

I was going to say, I don't usually buy from e-bay. I'll try that.

 

[ve]

He is from Tennessee. I do not know if is NPIP, but assume it. He show his birds and have wins. I bought eggs from him and am very happy. I got eggs from 3 other sources and his were the darkest. Very fast shipping. From one other source I got birds which are prettier (Also showing person), but the eggs are very light.