Poultry - The Marans Club

T
he Marans (always with an 's')
breed was developed in the
town of Marans in the
Poitou-Charentes region of
Western France in the middle
of the 1800s for both the table and as an
egg layer.
The fighting gamecocks brought ashore from
English ships were naturally crossed with local
landrace hens and this resulted in birds with a
proud bearing, heavy figure and of the
sometimes quarrelsome character of the cocks.
June 2015
Picture: Heber Hargreaves
Poultry
The breed was created by crossing
local feral chickens, (descended from
fighting game chickens) with Coucou
del Malines, Croad Langshan, Rennes,
Faverolles, barred Rock, Brakel and
Gatinaise to produce a bird which provides
a good quality meat as well as rich
brown eggs.
Importing into England
Poultry lover, Lord Greenway was
fascinated by Marans he saw at the Paris
exhibition in 1929 and though he was keen
to take some home, he was not allowed to
import any due to livestock restrictions.
To get around this, eggs were smuggled in,
disguised as hard boiled eggs in a picnic
basket. These were duly hatched and the
quality of the brown eggs produced by the
hens impressed Lord Greenway's poultry
manager, J.S. Parkin. Brown eggs were
already available in the UK, but prior to the
introduction of Marans' eggs, white eggs had
always been preferred as being superiour.
The introduction of Marans' eggs were the
Smallholder 71
Poultry
catalyst which changed the nation's perception
of what a 'good' egg could offer. As soon as
livestock restrictions were lifted, Lord
Greenway imported some chicks which had
both silver and dark markings, and from these
were bred black, cuckoo and white Marans.
Gold cuckoos were introduced in 1944 and
blacks in 1952, the whites having died out.
Black coppernecks, which were imported
from France in the 1930s were not accepted
into the British Standard.
Initially, it was the demand for the dark
brown egg, not their plumage which led the
way for breeding Marans. Keen to produce
females for laying, breeders were determined
to find a way to sex the chicks. This was
achieved by crossing Marans with breeds
such as the Light Sussex, which are easily
sexed as day-old chicks. The resulting
offspring were crossed back with Marans and
their offspring sold on as pure Marans.
This breeding was deemed a success as it
did offer breeders a way of determining male
Picture: Gillian Dixon
The first Marans entered into a poultry
show were by Lord Greenway at Crystal
Palace in 1934 and accepted into the British
Standard in 1935, which was drawn up by
J S Parkin and W Powell-Green. The
Marans Club was officially formed on 18th
February 1950.
A robust breed, Marans
are fast growers and do
well in damp areas
chicks at a day old thanks to their lighter
colouring. However, the genes had been
diluted resulting in paler and fewer eggs as
well as introducing more white into the
feather colouring.
France versus Britain
French Marans have feathered legs but
when the breed was imported into the UK,
the similarity between the legs of the Cuckoo
Marans and the related North Holland Blue
(was already established) made them almost
indistinguishable.
To resolve this, breeders deliberately chose
clean legged offspring to breed from. There
were still a lot of variations from the standard
being produced thanks to the relatively recent
development of the breed. While feathered
legs part of the breed standard in France, this is
considered a fault in the UK.
Recent importations from France into the
UK have resulted in both clean shanked and
feathered shanked birds being available. The
Poultry Club of Great Britain currently refuses
to recognise the feathered birds, though they
are accepted by The Marans Club.
Picture: Meri Black
There are differences, too, in the colours
accepted by the French and British breed
standards. In addition to black, gold cuckoo
and silver cuckoo the French Marans also have
white, coppered black, wheat, black-tailed
fawn, and ermine, and are also considering
adding the silvered black.
72 Smallholder
English Cuckoo
Marans bantams
Breed standard
Large fowl; heavy, soft feather.
Like other barred breeds, the cuckoo
Marans female can be mated with the males
of other suitable unbarred breeds to give the
sex-linked offspring of the white head-spot
distinguishing characteristic
June 2015
Poultry
General Characteristics (male)
Carriage: Active, compact and graceful
Type: Body of medium length with good
width and depth throughout; front broad,
full and deep. Breast long, well fleshed, of
good width, and without keeliness. Tail well
carried, high.
Head: Refined, Beak deep and of medium
size. Eyes large and prominent; pupils large
and defined. Comb single, medium size,
straight, erect, with five to seven serrations,
and of fine texture. Face smooth. Wattles of
medium size and fine texture.
Neck: Of medium length and not too
profusely feathered.
Legs and feet: Legs of medium length, wide
apart, and good quality bone. Thighs well
fleshed, but not heavy in bone. Shanks clean
and unfeathered. Toes, four, well spread and
straight.
Plumage: Fairly tight and of silky texture
generally..
Handling: Firm, as befits a table bird. Flesh
white, and skin of fine texture.
Picture: Matthew Roynon
General characteristics of the female
are similar to those of the male, allowing
for the natural sexual differences. Table
74 Smallholder
and laying qualities to be taken into
account jointly.
black, coverts blue-grey banded with black.
General cuckoo markings.
The Black
Male and female plumage: Black with
a beetle-green sheen.
Female plumage: Hackle medium bluish-grey
with golden and black bands. Breast dark
bluish-grey with black bands, pale golden
shading on upper parts. Remainder dark bluishgrey with dark black bands. Cuckoo markings.
The Dark Cuckoo
Male and female plumage: Cuckoo
throughout, each feather marked across with
bands of blue-black. A lighter shaded neck in
both male and female, and also back in the
male, is permissible if definitely banded. Cuckoo
throughout is the ideal, as even as possible.
The Golden Cuckoo
Male plumage: Hackles bluish-grey with
golden and black bands, neck paler than
saddle. Breast bluish-grey with black bands,
pale golden shading on upper part. Thighs and
fluff light bluish-grey with medium black
banding. Back, shoulders and wing bows
bluish-grey with rich bright golden and black
bands. Wing bars bluish-grey with black bands,
golden fringe permissible. Wings, primaries
dark blue-grey, lightly banded, secondaries
dark blue-grey, lightly banded, with slight
golden fringe. Tail dark blue-grey banded with
The Silver Cuckoo
Male plumage: Mainly white in neck and
showing white on upper part of breast, also
on top. Remainder banded throughout, with
lighter ground colour than the dark cuckoo.
Female plumage; Mainly white in neck and
showing white on upper part of breast.
Remainder banded throughout, with lighter
ground colour than the dark cuckoo.
In both sexes and all colours: Beak, white or
horn. Eyes red or bright orange preferred.
Comb, face, wattles and earlobes red. Legs
and feet white. Weights are:
Cock: 3.60kg (8lb)
Cockerel: 3.20kg (7lb)
Hen: 3.20kg (7lb)
Pullet: 2.70kg (6lb)
Marans bantams
June 2015
Picture: Haber Hargreaves
Picture: Haber Hargreaves
Poultry
If given a large area to free range with
plenty of places for foraging then they will be
active which will help to keep them from
getting too fat. Marans are not as destructive
as other laying breeds and don't do as much
damage to the ground.
Serious defects
Feathered shanks. General coarseness. Lack
of activity. Superfine bone. Any points against
utility or reproductive values. White in lobe.
Defects (for which a bird may be
passed)
Deformities, crooked breast bone, other
than four toes, etc. Defects (in blacks)
Restricted white in undercolour in both sexes.
A little darkish pigmentation in white shanks.
Bantam
Marans bantams should be true miniatures
of their large fowl counterparts. No black
bantam variety is standardized. Weights are:
Cock: 910g (32oz),
Cockerel: 790g (28oz),
Hen: 790g (28oz),
Pullet: 680g (24oz)
76 Smallholder
Marans lay gorgeous,
dark brown eggs
Pict: Mathew Roynon
Scale of points
Type, carriage and table merits (to include
type of breast and fleshing, also quality of
flesh) (40 points); Size and quality (20 points);
Colour and markings (15 points); Head (10
points); Condition (10 points); Legs and Feet
(5 points) = Total 100 points
Shape
The Marans is a tidy bird and can be
described in every respect as being
'medium'. A medium body, with a medium
sized beak, comb and wattles; medium
length legs and neck.
Personality
Marans don't like exercise preferring to eat
and rest and generally be lazy. They can
become overweight very easily so care is
needed with feeding.
A robust breed, Marans are a fast grower
and does well in damp areas, having been
developed in a marshy area of France. They
are generally quiet and while they can be very
friendly but not as 'pet-like' as other breeds.
Cockerels can be aggressive, possibly a
throwback to their heritage as fighting cocks.
Marans are generally a disease-resistant and
healthy bird.
Eggs
One reason why people choose to breed
Marans is for their gorgeous, dark brown
eggs. Though you can expect around 150
eggs a year, they can lay over 200 eggs and
in the right conditions will carry on laying
through the winter, though not necessarily
consistently.
But the eggs are of the best quality and
received the seal of approval from James
June 2015
Poultry
Bond author Ian Fleming who ensured he
ordered Marans’ eggs for his breakfast.
However, although you may decided to
buy some Marans for the beautiful deep egg
colour, it's worth noting that not all hens are
equal and that different flocks (and even
individual hens within flocks) will produce
lighter coloured eggs. That is why it's
important to obtain eggs or chicks from a
reputable breeder.
Colours
The standardized colours in England
are the black, dark cuckoo, gold cuckoo
and silver cuckoo. 'Cuckoo' being a pattern
of irregular barring on the plumage of the
bird. The black variety, though it doesn't
have the barring on its plumage, does have
a lustrous beetle-green sheen. The most
common colour in the UK by far is the
dark cuckoo.
Meri Black keeps bantam marans. She
explains she keeps marans because “they
are quiet, easily managed little birds. They
non-aggressive, good foragers and generally
healthy and hardy. They are also good layers
and just a pleasure to have around.
Copper and black
Marans, a cockerel
and a pullet
Mathew Roynon breeds English Cuckoo
Marans and explains what attracted him
to them.
“Why do I breed ECM? For me, they
absolutely typify what a good chicken breed
should look like; a robust dual purpose utility
bird that lays sensible quantities of large high
quality eggs that are a wonderful colour.
“They have a calm, even nature and
are much easier to keep in their pens
than other pure breeds. They are a
disease-resistant breed and given the
chance, they respond well to a free
range environment.
“Whilst the egg laying capability of the
ECM does not compare to a modern hybrid,
they can easily lay in excess of 200 eggs per
annum which compares favourably to most
pure breeds.
June 2015
“As a dual purpose breed, surplus
cockerels can be slaughtered to provide
meat for the table. The males in particular
quickly attain a good carcase size.”
“My Marans' eggs have been really fertile
this year. I have four hens running with an
unrelated cockerel and they have been laying
three to four eggs per day, from the end of
November.
Barry Symonds is another Marans breeder.
“The first poultry I kept were five large
breed Cuckoo Marans, but when I found out
there was a bantam version, I replaced them
with bantams.
“They are a very placid bird and really
quite inquisitive. They are also quite a big
bird for a bantam and the other thing that
is very noticeable, when you are rearing
them is that they feather up very quickly
and by 10 weeks old you have a really
nice bird.
“I do prefer bantams rather than large
fowl. I have five different breeds of bantam
but it is the Marans that outlay everything
else. They may not be as striking to look at
has the other breeds, but lay the most
beautiful brown eggs, where as the others
lay a white or tinted egg.
“I don't think they get the recognition they
deserve, but all I can say is that I have found
once my customers try the Marans bantam,
they always come back for more. I believe
that is due to the egg colour and the quantity
Smallholder 77
Picture: Gillian Dixon
What breeders say
Poultry
they lay. I do hope that through that they will
become more popular. “
An English Cuckoo
Marans chick
Gillian Dixon breeds a number of different
birds, including Marans. “If you want dark
brown eggs then look no further than the
various varieties of Marans.
“Cuckoo Marans have been standardised in
this country since they were introduced in the
1920's, and are layers of a good number of
rich brown eggs.
“In the last 10 years or so, the French
have become very popular here, laying
superb dark chocolate brown eggs.
There are a number of colour variations
including Wheaten, Copper Blacks and
Copper Blues (not to be confused with
the pale egg laying 'Blue Marans'),
Picture: Meri Black
They have barred grey plumage, the hens
being darker than the males. The day-old
cuckoo chicks can be sexed with relative
accuracy as the male has a more
pronounced yellow spot on his head,
and as they start to feather up, the
males are considerably paler. Cuckoo
Marans in this country are clean legged
but in France the breed standard is for
feathered legs. Both bantam and large
fowl birds are available.
both with some copper feathers in the
neck and a small amount of feather on
the leg.
The egg colour does tend to fade slightly
towards the end of the laying season but
reappears as a rich reddish brown in the spring.
“When looking for breeding stock, I would ask
to see some eggs from the parent birds to be
sure they are from a good dark egg laying strain.
“All Marans are classed as heavy birds so
they are not flyers as they are too heavy to
get far off the ground.” n
With thanks to:
Mathew Roynon: mathew.roynon@gmail.com
Breeds Large fowl English cuckoo Marans
Heber Hargreaves: Hargreavesheber@googlemail.com
Breeder of large fowl English cuckoo Marans and
French Marans.
Meri Black: meridean@icloud.com Breeds
Bantam English Cuckoo Marans
Picture: Gillian Dixon
Barry Symonds: www.pheasantcroftpoultry.com;
baz@pheasantcroftpoultry.com; 01885410594
Breeds Bantam English Cuckoo Marans
Kevin Bowkett: www.barrelsfarmpoultry.co.uk
Breeder of Large fowl English cuckoo Marans
and French Marans
Cuckoo Marans
78 Smallholder
Gillian Dixon: www.southyeofarm.co.uk or email
info@farmerdixon.co.uk Gillian and her husband Ian
keep over 25 breeds of rare and traditional poultry.
June 2015