Our Black Copper Marans have been a work in progress for over 6 years. Our main focus with our Marans is egg color and vigor first, standard second. They are a French breed known for their dark brown eggs. This breed is our darkest egg laying breed. They are docile, friendly, and sweet. Roosters have a base of black feathers with copper along the hackles, saddle, back, and shoulders. Hens are black with varying degrees of copper in the hackles. Our flock tends to be somewhat overmelanized and we are working on that. All American-bred Marans should have feathered shanks. This is one of our favorite breeds on the farm and the most popular of our egg laying breeds.
 
We cannot guarantee egg color, but our breeding flock usually lays eggs in the 5-8 range on the Marans color scale with the occasional 9. We do keep some hens in the flock that lay very speckled eggs on a slightly lighter background. We love the speckles. They give the eggs so much character. Keep in mind that even though the hen may have the genetics to lay a very dark egg, egg color changes throughout the laying season with the darkest at the beginning and gradually lightening as the season goes on. Eggs also get lighter as a hen gets older. If you are purchasing hatching eggs, understand that color may be variable depending on how long each hen has been laying. Some lay throughout the winter and some do not. Eggs from our flock can be many different shades at any one time, but they all have the genetics to lay a dark or very speckled egg, especially at the beginning of the hen's laying season. We sort through more than 50 growouts every year and only keep the very best in our breeding flock. We keep meticulous records and evaluate every single bird and her egg color before deciding who makes the cut and who doesn't. Please do not ask for "only the darkest eggs" or "only the merlot eggs". These requests will not be honored. Your order for hatching eggs will be pulled from the same eggs that we hatch for ourselves and they are pulled as laid. Again, color changes and fades throughout the season and over the life of each hen. Our commitment to you is to provide the freshest eggs with the best potential to hatch.
 
Black Copper Marans eggs are some of the hardest to hatch due to their extra thick membranes and shells. We exclusively dry hatch our Marans eggs adding no water until lockdown. At lockdown, humidity is increased to 60% for hatching. This has worked well for us. Most of our Marans eggs are too dark to candle. We usually leave the eggs be until lockdown when dehydration allows for a better view with candling. We view our eggs at lockdown under a blanket in the dark with the most powerful candler we have. You will still not be able to see chicks, but we look for a well developed air sac with the rest of the egg being completely black. Any eggs that show light all the way through does not have a chick developing are tossed at lockdown.
 
Just a note: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "FRENCH BLACK COPPER MARANS" in the US. And the spelling always ends with an "s". Marans is a town in France. The "s" does not denote a plural. ALL US-bred Marans should have feathered shanks. It is a defining characteristic of the breed. The only Marans that should be called "French" are those that are bred and hatched in France, and then imported into the US. Even the pioneers of the Marans breed in the US do not use "French". It is a marketing ploy either by people and hatcheries trying to dupe people into thinking they are getting something superior, or, they just don't know any better. I am not sure which is worse in people who claim to be breeders of the breed. If you claim to be a breeder, you should be able to spell Marans correctly and not be using "French". Yes, the British standard calls for clean shanks. But do you ever hear anyone calling clean shank birds British Marans? Didn't think so. Using the term "French" has nothing to do with whether their shanks are feathered or not. Rant over.
 
Purpose: Dual
Type: Heritage
Egg Color: Dark Brown
Egg Production/Year: 225
Egg Size: Large
Adult size: Rooster: 8lbs, Hen: 6.5lbs
 
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