was hatched just for fun, because I liked the dark speckles on the lighter brown egg! I would give the egg colors for this photo, but I didn't have an egg chart at the time this photo was taken; judging egg color from photos is rarely accurate. The eggs, from left to right after the Buff Orp egg, are stippled, spotted, uniform and spotted.
Marans originate in France and have been in this country a relatively short time. Marans are a dual purpose bird of good size and well known for producing dark brown and speckled eggs.
We added purebred Marans to our flock in 2003 and they have quickly become very popular due to the dark egg color.
Dark brown Marans eggs, with one brown Buff Orpington egg for contrast.
A Marans pullet ranging our pasture in November.
A sampling of Cuckoo Marans chicks from our March 2004 hatch.
A middle-of-winter Marans egg from Greener Pastures Farm cracked onto a plate. Notice how the yolk is orange and how it is fully rounded, rather than flat and runny. This indicates freshness and that the hen was in sunlight and on pasture! Dec 2003
In this age where it's now easy to clone and delete parts of photographs,
and some farmers and webmasters are doing this to published photos of their livestock,
please note that all photos on this website are unaltered in any way!
Colors, conformation, etc are exactly as depicted.
You have to be very careful who you purchase chicks or hatching eggs from. Many breeders are trying to cash in on the current interest in dark Marans eggs, and are selling eggs or chicks from mediocre colored eggs to the unsuspecting public. Unfortunately, the case in point below is all too common:
The eggs below were purchased as Marans hatching eggs (with one of my own eggs shown at the 12 o'clock position for comparison). I took this photo outdoors in natural light for true color. The seller described these very eggs as "between 6's and 8's" on the Marans Egg Color Chart, which ranges from 1 through 9. I compared the eggs to my color chart, and they are actually 4's and 5's, while one or two of the eggs are almost a 6. Half of the eggs shown are "uniform" and the other half "stippled." My own egg shown is between a 7 and 8, and is stippled, but I do produce uniform, stippled and spotted. I have one hen that lays eggs the color of about a 5, and once I figure out which one it is, I'll cull her. Anyway, I did not hatch these eggs shown below, and will continue to improve my own egg color through linebreeding from our very darkest eggs, and possibly including some hatching eggs from the best of the best of the breeders. We may be a small farm, but I take pride in what I produce. Click photo below to see Marans eggs from one of our 2006 hatches.
