Marans

I have had a cuckoo and a blue copper maran. They were both the sweetest birds I have ever had. They both looked for me and ran to me wanting to be held or pet and neck snuggle with me. THey are very easy in the flock and had no problems with getting along at all. Not an aggressive bone in the body. Good egg production as well.

Axl, my French Black Copper Maran rooster is as close to perfect as one could hope for. If any of my ladies make any sounds of alarm or distress, he is there in a flash. If it's me or my family picking up one of the girls, he will follow us step-for-step until we put her down safely, but he never displays any aggression towards us. He is first in line if I'm handing out treats, but he shares them with his favorites.

The coloration is a like a classic rooster out of a painting. Red comb is held high, golden-yellow hackle over a copper-brown body, with a tall black tail that has a vivid green shimmer.

If I could, I would clone Axl and hand the copies out to anyone who has had bad experiences with roosters.

i love my maran but boy oh boy. She is super smart almost to smart. She likes to make the older birds mad by squaring off with them to be alfa then crying for help. Her curious nature is a positive and a negative because this could cause problems later on. She is super high strong and likes to fly around and "burn out" as i call it so you have to watch where you are walking or you will surely be tripping over her. She is defiantly giving me a run for my money and better be laying my chocolate egg soon!!!

I have a mixed flock of 5 chickens, two of them French BCM's. They started laying only a couple weeks after the others, and both have been reasonably decent layers for the past year. Jackie lays a light egg, about a 2 on the Marans egg color scale, sometimes speckled, with very dark yolks like duck eggs; much darker yolks than any of the other chickens. Both hens have gone broody at least a couple of times since they started laying. Jackie recently started picking on other chickens, standing on their backs and pulling out the feathers behind their ears. She's on the cull list. Misha lays dark-shelled (about a 4) eggs with the same dark yolks, and she's a nice hen who gets along well with everyone else including the ducks. And the best part is she catches and eats mice, which puts her on the do-not-cull-ever list and I will happily put up with her broodiness in exchange for mousing as our cats are old and lazy.

We have 2 cuckoo marans and it's never hard to tell their eggs apart from the rest! Dark brown with even darker brown speckles, so pretty. The birds aren't aggressive but aren't the most docile either, so they settled in somewhere in the middle of the pecking order. They do seem to be smaller than some of our other breeds (Orpington, Australorp, Easter Egger, etc.) so I don't think they'd be the best dual-purpose bird, but as a layer, they are nice to add a dark brown to the mix.

We also briefly had a Marans rooster. Incredibly gorgeous bird, he figured out the whole "mating" process just fine and was never aggressive toward us or the girls.

I have had at least five different breeds of chickens, but none of them have impressed me like the Marans.
Feathered feet, colorful plumage and eggs just have that 'pop' in the carton. It's easy to distinguish a purebred Marans from the others- just wait for them to lay an egg! Even a beginner chicken keeper can spot a sub-par hen with this trick.
I love the challenge in breeding them for exhibition, too. The delicate balance between copper and black in the feathers, the eye color, and the pursuit of that perfect 40-degree tail.

I have 2 Cuckoo Marans since hatching and they still act completely feral despite all attempts to socialize. They're still too young to lay yet so I might have something positive to say about them in a few months, but temperamentally they prefer keeping to themselves and and act like I plan on murdering them every time I see them (they may be onto something).

My two Black Copper Marans are wonderful birds. They are very friendly and get along wonderfully with people. They consistently lay lovely eggs. One of my favorite breeds.

There is a lot of hype about the special eggs. All fresh, free range eggs are wonderful. These are on a whole other level. To eat one of these French Black Copper Marans eggs, freshly laid, should be on everyone's bucket list. Wow! My favorite chicken (I have had a number of breeds) is a FBCM hen named Button. She is as friendly and curious as a kitten. It is true they go broody a good bit. Some individuals are more broody than others, still they make excellent mothers so I feel this makes the trait worth it. I never want to be without them in my flock. I must add I am baffled by the statement that the roosters can be aggressive. The two I have had are not aggressive with anyone or anything (except each other). The one I have now even accepts my chicken friendly cat in his run area.

I've had these birds for a while, and I'm not very satisfied with them, but they'll still be staying on the farm all the same.

Even as chicks they were skittish, and I can't even go near them now. Which is kind of a bummer, because they greatly resembled barred rocks and I've had the best experience with barred rocks, so I just expected more from them.

But all in all, they're okay for egg laying, and their eggs are gorgeous. Too bad they don't lay in the coop, because they won't go in it.

Just bought three today (6/30/16) to go with my two Americana, only a month old and straight run, I hope at least two of the are hens. I have them in a separate pen for Maybe another 6 to eight weeks.

We got our marans as hatching eggs sent from a hatchery - won't disclose any names here, it might just have been a fluke or a problem during shipping/incubating, really - and had 36 eggs. 16 of them were maran eggs, the other 20 were random 'extras'. 6 maran eggs hatched, and 3 were roosters. 3 were hens. We had 2 other hens that seemed to be some kind of maran cross that are doing fine.

Anyway, they were all beautiful birds. The roosters are/were beautiful, the hens are/were gorgeous and we had some very nice colourings. They laid large brown eggs, some dark brown, and some medium brown with spots of dark brown. Ours never got broody since we don't want to hatch more eggs from our current stock right now (except very specific chickens), and they don't 'guard' their eggs or peck when we try to get them. They are docile and calm, and don't screech and flap around like crazy when you approach them. (Except one of them...)


Health Trouble!!
Our problem was that our marans ended up with health issues and several dying before they were even a year old. I will also note not a single one of our maran roosters had a normal crow. Their crows sounded off or abnormal but nothing that worried me.

The first bird we lost was a black copper maran hen. She repeatedly had problems with impacted crop, and while we continued to massage it and fix one, a few weeks later, she'd get it again. This started when she was around 6 months, and with full access to grit and added oil to the water, it continued. Inevitably she got sour crop after one extremely stubborn impacted crop, and despite our best efforts she got worse and worse until we culled her to end her suffering. Perhaps we should have done so sooner. She behaved differently from the others. Very flighty and wild. But she did lay nice big eggs when she was alive.

The second bird we lost was a beautiful grey splash maran hen. We had no problems with her at all until she died. She didn't have any health problems that we knew of. But one day, in spring on the first 'hot' day of the year... she died from dehydration. We found her before she died standing not 5 feet from a full waterer, with more waterers distributed around the yard. I don't know what caused her to not drink any water, but by the time we found out what the problem was, she died just as we were getting the syringe of sugar-water to her.

The third bird we didn't 'lose', but we did cull. He was our black copper maran rooster, and grew up with a respiratory disorder that reminded me of asthma. He wheezed constantly from the time he was 3 months old to the time we culled him. No other birds wheezed. We could hear him out back from our front door. When he rested he was fine, when he was physically active, he wheezed. It was quite strange.


Overall:
Our other three marans are doing fine. We gave away a rooster to a woman on another farm so we wouldn't have to cull him (since we had too many). He was a really nice rooster and is flourishing on her farm, and she enjoys him. She should've kept him instead of the other one we kept... he was much nicer and gentler on the girls, even though he was absolutely massive! He weighed a massive 16 pounds when we gave him away. Big, gentle, loving rooster.

The rooster we kept, a blue maran, is people-friendly but recently has become hen aggressive. He will be culled next month with our meat birds.

Our only surviving maran hen is doing great. She is a huge girl, almost 9 pounds. Far above average. Lays dark brown eggs with even darker chocolate-brown spots. She seems healthy and is still laying, 2 years strong.


My advice to people is to be careful where you order them, how you order them, and when you order them. I can't blame the hatchery. We had a big cold spell during the shipping time of the eggs, and believe that is the reason for the huge amount of failed hatches (out of 36 eggs, only 14 hatched, with 2 dead chicks) and could possibly be attributed to the health problems of our maran hen and the maran rooster.

I want to give this breed another chance. Any recommendation on a place to get them will be great! Wish we had more surviving hens. The two maran crosses are also great. We aren't sure what they are crossed with, but they seem to have no health problems.

I've had a pair of Cuckoo Maranses for many years. They're the largest of all my breeds by a large margin, and quite pretty too. The best thing about them, however, is their calm demeanor: one of them, Willis, will allow me to pick her up and move here around. Because of her large size, she's the alpha hen, so the other hens follow her, making her help invaluable in moving the flock around. They're also extremely hardy: Willis survived Marek's disease, a respiratory infection, and Coccidia. They lay large dark brown eggs at a decent rate. My only complaint in broodiness: Willis's sister, Gertrude, was broody on and off her entire life (6 years). Unlike her sister, Gertrude could not be handled: she would not allow it, and her large size made it impossible to subdue her. Regardless, I highly recommend these hens.

Every black roo I have had was the devil (7), and every blue roo I have had has been the best ever (4). Don't know why that is but I have been sticking with blue for my male and I love marans again. The roosters get really really big.

I have a Blue copper Marans Roo over 6 Black Copper Hens and 7 Blue Copper Hens/Pullets. Along with a bunch of Blue Eggers to make Olive egger babies....the roo is sweet, and he seems to be covering the flock really well, very few clear eggs. Eggs are nice and dark. I am having problems with black leakage on the blue pullets though, just a few black specks here and there, been working on that the last few generations.

I do have a problem with the FBCM hens picking on my Rooster. I have had this problem with 3 Blue Roosters in a row. The boys don't seem to want to defend themselves against the ladies. Other than that I have no personality problems in my flock so far (3-4 years).

The only thing I wish I could change is the inconsistent egg laying. They seem quite moody, and go in spurts. They can also get too fat...great if you want meat purpose from them but I don't. The fatter they are the worse they lay IMO.

Marseilles (BCM) and Eperny (BSM) are terrific ladies with great personalities to match. They are great in a flock situation as they aren't bullies in the least, so I never see my two picking on smaller, less dominant girls. They lay us gorgeous dark eggs that definitely add color to the egg basket and wow everyone we gift with a dozen. I couldn't be happier with my Marans, and will never be without in the future!




First egg: BCM. Third and fourth eggs: BSM. The other two eggs belong to a Welsummer and SL Wyandotte.

-Alex

Our neighbor blessed us with a Blue Copper Marans rooster because the Maran did not get along with his other rooster. We have owned him about 2 months and almost immediately he and our hens took to each other. He is always searching for food for them, protects them when he feels they are threatened. keeps them gathered in one place. He is warming up to us and comes closer now, but not sure if he is going to let us get close enough to touch him. He is a beautiful, proud looking rooster.
Plus, All of our eggs that we have been hatching have been fertile.

I just bought a pair of French Black Copper Marans this spring to see if they were as wonderful as my Cuckoo Marans. I havent owned the French Black long enough to see if they will come up to me like my Cuckoo Marans. The hen and rooster are very sweet of the Copper variety so far. The hen lays a egg right on time and isnt slow to lay like some have mentioned. I ordered a new batch of French Copper Marans for this summer to sell fertile eggs next year. My Cuckoo's will walk up to me and let me pet them, they lay really well in the winter. I had two Roos of the Cuckoo's and they were sweet birds also.

We had the pleasure of owning a pair of Splash Marans for a time and we just loved them. They were always very active, sweet and fun to watch. The roo was a stunner. He was my wife's favorite. "He looks like a raptor of some sort." she would say. We lost them both to predators a while back. Now that we have new security measures in place(and the pit moved away, woo-hoo!), we can't wait to get more!