Marans is inland from La Rochelle, in the middle of the Atlantic coast of France.   At the beginning of the C20th, the breed was developed as a layer and has in its make-up Coucou de Malines, Croad Langshan, Rennes, Faverolles, Barred Rock, Brakel & Gatinaise.   They are best known for the laying dark brown eggs.   The first birds, cuckoo coloured with feathered legs, appeared at an exhibition in La Rochelle in 1914, and after the War spread across France, arriving in England in 1929 when Lord Greenway brought some eggs back from the Paris Exhibition.   The feather legging was bred out leaving white legs and the Cuckoo Maran that we now know was standardised in the 1930s.   The French developed the breed as dual purpose with good table as well as laying properties.

Marans are active, compact & graceful, though they can be a bit lazy.   The body has a good width, broad, deep front and a tail that is carried high.   The head has a single, upright comb.   The hens may lay up to 200 brown eggs a year.   Hens are quite individual in their egg colours, some are lighter than others and some speckled and vary through each year.   The hens go broody and make good mothers; the best way to break their broodiness is to change their environment.

The French Marans Society lists 12 colours, but only five, the black, dark cuckoo, golden cuckoo, silver cuckoo and black have a standard in this country.   French birds are a bit bigger and still may have some feathered legs.

We have two varieties:

Copper Headed Black:   these are black birds with a green sheen.   The hens have rich copper coloured feathers in the head & neck and the cockerel   lovely copper neck and saddle hackles.

Dark Cuckoo:   both males and females are cuckoo (light & dark grey banding) throughout, the bands across each feather.   The neck may be a bit paler, particularly in the male who also has a larger tail. Legs are white.

The Marans Club of France http://marans-club.club.fr/indexang.htm has a lot more information about the breed and in particular about the eggs.