Marans
Marans (the name is always spelled with the ‘s’ whether talking about a single or many birds) are fine dual-purpose chickens from France. Marans is a port town in France, and the breed originated from a now untraceable mix of chickens that were left in the town by seaman and travelers in the 1800s. The birds were originally bred as fighting cocks, but some random combination of matings produced a bird that became popular for the barnyard. By the early 1920s the breed had been clearly established. From France the breed migrated to England and then in the past few decades to America.
Although marans are an excellent meat bird, their outstanding and unique attribute is the shell color of the plentiful eggs that they lay. Marans lay an egg that has a shell the color of dark chocolate; so dark that at times it borders on being black. And when cracked open, the yolk of free-range birds is bright orange, bursting with vitamins, protein and fats from its healthy lifestyle. While a typical store-bought egg has a yolk that is runny and flaccid, the free-range marans produce yolks that have ‘muscle tone;’ little orange domes that jut skyward from the egg white. (For perhaps these reasons, the author Ian Fleming identified marans eggs as those most preferred by James Bond.)
At Greenfire Farms, we raise black copper marans. This variety is known for laying the darkest brown eggs. We have assembled several bloodlines and breed the classic feather-legged French variety and the clean-legged variety. Because of the popularity of this breed, inbred flocks are often encountered. Frequently, hatching eggs purchased from breeders will develop weak chicks that die in the shell.
We have taken extra efforts to keep our bloodlines diverse to avoid this problem. With considerable effort our breeding flocks were assembled from more than nine different breeders in California, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas and Alabama. The bulk of our foundation stock comes from renowned marans breeder Bev Davis. When ordering hatching eggs or chicks, you will receive livestock that is from more than one bloodline, and the eggs will be marked or the chicks banded to designate the different lines. In this way, you can be assured of having unrelated breeding stock.
Our marans live an interesting and healthy life. We have built coops that stand in the middle of open pasture. The coops have automated doors, and at sunrise the doors open to release the birds. The marans free-range all day, eating grass, seeds, and insects. During the day the hens return to the coop to lay eggs. At night, all the birds return to the coop and the door automatically shuts at sunset. The birds are then safe from nocturnal predators, and they sleep soundly, restoring their energy for another busy day of free-range living.
We sell marans as hatching eggs, chicks, or adults. If you order hatching eggs, we do not guarantee the viability of the eggs after they have been shipped through the Postal Service. Our experience has been that a significant portion of eggs shipped for any distance lose viability, and sometimes out of a dozen fertile eggs, none will hatch because of rough handling. For this reason, we prefer to send day-old chicks but will send hatching eggs at your request. Prices do not include shipping costs. Young trios are typically four to six weeks old at time of shipment.
We are currently out of young trios and are only shipping eggs or day-old chicks.
