Scully Poultry · Our Breeds French Marans The French breed renowned for their dark eggs Breed Overview French Marans are a breed of chicken from the French port town of Marans, from which they get their name. They are famous across the world for their exceptionally dark egg shells. Unlike the English Marans, the original French breed has feathers running down the outsides of their legs. French Marans are the recognised standard across continental Europe and North America, with English Marans considered an unwelcome deviation outside of the British Isles and some Commonwealth nations like Australia (where both standards are recognised). The most common colour of French Marans is Black Copper Marans, taking off in popularity through social media in the last decade. While some hatcheries capitalised on this to the detriment of the breed, many lines of true and carefully bred Black Copper Marans remain the gold standard for egg colour and body type. Breed Characteristic The Egg French Marans are famous for exceptionally dark reddish-brown eggs. We select for depth of colour, shell quality and useful size without sacrificing fertility, productivity or sound breed type. Our French Marans generally lay the darkest eggs in the flock, particularly the Black Copper line. Individual colour varies through the laying cycle, but the deep reddish-brown shell remains one of the defining characteristics of the breed. Shop French Marans Hatching Eggs 01 · Variety Black & Blue Copper 01 · Variety Black & Blue Copper One of the most famous varieties of chicken, let alone Marans, the Black Copper variety has almost become synonymous with the breed. Characterised by deep copper necks on the hens and on the cocks, copper necks and saddles with deep red shoulders. The remainder of the feathers are deep glossy black. Many of the darkest egg layers are Black Coppers, even in our own flock, with our original French line laying darker eggs than our English varieties. Blue Coppers are a variation of the Black Copper, where the black is replaced by a delicately laced pigeon-blue/grey. Similarly, the Splash Copper contains a pale grey body with darker splashes. Neither of these variations are officially recognised in the USA and only Blue Coppers are in France. A Black Copper French Marans hen showing the deep black body and warm copper hackle characteristic of the variety. 02 · Variety Silver Cuckoo 02 · Variety Silver Cuckoo Silver Cuckoo is one of the traditional French varieties of Marans, combining characteristic blurred cuckoo barring with the silver expression of the birchen pattern. Hens carry grey-white barring over a darker ground with a noticeably paler neck, while males can show much brighter silver across the neck, shoulders and saddle. As with all French Marans, the birds retain the lightly feathered shanks and outer toes required by the French standard, distinguishing them immediately from our clean-legged English Silver Cuckoos. Our French Silver Cuckoos include a Blue Silver Cuckoo variation in which the black areas of the plumage are diluted to blue-grey. Most of our Silver Cuckoo French Marans stock derives from crossing an English Marans cock with a Black Copper French hen. The variety therefore shares its birchen genetic foundation with the Copper Marans, making it particularly useful within our wider Golden Cuckoo breeding project while remaining an important Marans colour in its own right. A Blue Silver Cuckoo cockerel showing the blue-grey dilution of the darker areas of the Silver Cuckoo pattern.
