Marans Chickens: Breed Profile, Varieties and Care

There are plenty of amazing chicken breeds that you need to check out for yourself, but very few of them are as unique as the Marans chickens.

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Check out our full article on Marans Chickens here:

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You will learn:

Marans Chicken Origins
Marans’ Appearance
Marans Chicken Varieties
How Much Do Marans Chickens Cost?
Typical Behavior and Temperament
Marans Egg Production
Noise Levels
Feeding
Advantages and Disadvantages

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[PkCrochet]

I'm a new chicken mom. Really enjoying them. I have two Marans. Both have feathered feet. I purchased what I thought was two females. After I got them, I read they are only 75% accurate at being sexed properly. Well, I now have one female and one male. The female is all black with blue iridescent. The male looks to be a Golden Cockoo. Both are very friendly and quiet. The male started crowing at 4.5 weeks of age! I was extremely surprised how early he started crowing! They both get along very well with the other nine girls. 🐤🐣

[beebop]

I've wound up with three black coppers. Two roosters and a hen. I will definitely be having more of them. Such great birds. They certainly do love to eat and if you can let them have any free range time they don't waste a minute of it. Some of the best and most aggressive foragers I've seen. Super sweet birds and are very quite. Mine aren't really all that touchy feelly but they are always close. Under my feet more like it. My biggest boy sticks with me close because he's learned I'll flip things over for him and turn him onto plants and berries he likes. They're up a few minutes after sunrise and they crow six or ten times greeting the new day and never another afterwards. Strikingly beautiful birds. Well worth having.

[smallfry]

I absolutely love our marans chickens! We have several black and copper breeds. Easily in my top 3 favorite chicken breeds. Super friendly birds. The roosters are docile friendly to humans but will protect his flock. We get dark chocolate speckled eggs, milk chocolate and we even have some French black olive egger marans. They are also great foragers! We free range all our birds and the marans seem to be some of the most intelligent and cunning. I highly recommend this breed to anyone looking to get into poultry raising. Very beginner friendly as well.

[madameweasel]

I purchased 4 Maran chics from Tractor Supply last spring that were $5. Did they become less rare I wonder or did they mislabel them? They're black with beautiful green irredesence and feathered feet. All four of them started laying beautiful brown 🟤 eggs at less than a year and are far out biggest egg producers over the Australorps, Leghorns and Easter eggers. They're also outgoing and fun birds. We absolutely love them!

[clairewheeler]

I have a lovely old cookoo maran that has to be about 13 years old as I've had her about 10 years and she was at least 2 when I got her. She is an amazing girl. Huge and full of personality. She has a friend who's also about 9/10 so I've just adopted 2 copper black marans both 15 weeks old to add to the coop. Adorable watching the old girls check out the new ones through their temp separate enclosures. The new girls are stunning. Pics and videos do not do the shine on the feathers justice. The birds are really sweet natured too so I am a happy chook mum right now. I highly recommend the marans. I love how big my old Maud is. She's like a tank.

[OddSocksQueen]

We currently have a couple of marans chickens at my work. Rooster is v friendly, hen is a touch skittier but both get right under everyone’s feet and like to see what the gardeners are up to. They’re funny to watch and guests to the gardens and cafe love to watch the rooster strut around. He’s not behaved aggressively at all, he’s let me pet him a few times and eaten from my hand.

[lindafair]

I am a newbie to raising chickens. I watched dozens of videos before pursuing this venture. We were attracted to the Black Copper Marans. Ours are the Majestic color. Shiny black. We bought 4 chicks from our local Rural King in late January. I raised them in our sunroom until they were old enough to go into the coop and pen that my husband built. We live in Central Florida We do not free range. At 22 weeks they started laying. At 23 weeks all four were laying. I get between 2 and 4 eggs a day since. The eggs are still on the smaller size but I've read that they will get larger as they age. They're a beautiful dark brown. All 4 have feathered feet. We do not plan on getting a rooster. Each hen serenades us with their egg laying song.

[marthalanier]

I have 2 Black Copper Marans hens. They are young and have just started laying beautiful dark brown eggs. I am delighted. I have many other breeds. My Marans lay the deepest colored eggs. Nice addition!

[bydesign]

I was the happy recipient of a gift, a marans hen whom I named Shasta. She is such a fun hen, so friendly, she follows me around like she's my little shadow. I just had to have another one so I have two females and somebody is gifting me a black marans cockeral, the same somebody who gave me the first one. I'm so in love with the breed, I'm going to hatch chicks! Thank you for your video . I appreciate the information and I agree with it I just love this bird breed! 😁🕊️💖

[tamaradevault]

I have 6 Black Copper Marans, 2 Roos and 4 hens. I have 24 hen of various breeds that the Roos keep watch over. The head Roo does not like me giving the hens treats, as he has attacked me when doing so. I now put out the treats in different parts of the big yard for him to find for the girls in the morning when we let them out of the pen/coop. I miss giving my hens treats but keeping him happy is worth it.

[Texican]

I love my fbcm. I crossed her with a lavender orpington and the grow outs are beautiful. Cannot wait to see the eggs they lay, whether dark brown or not.

[GratefullyBlessedInMyMess]

I have 9 of these beautiful birds with soon to be 4 more. I absolutely love them

[germainsgreenteam]

We ended up getting two chicks at the beginning of the year. Sad to say we lost one. We are super happy for the one Mystic Maran we have. She is a very friendly bird.

[solovableify]

I have one of the blue Maras. Got her in the spring as a chick. She lays a medium to large speckled chocolate egg every day and is the sweetest and biggest hen in my flock of sweet hens even though she's at the bottom of the pecking order. She's been kind to some of our young pullets we have coming up. She's definitely my favorite.

[amandaburnham]

We have 5 midnight majestic marans and 10 black copper, including 2 roosters(we hope), 10 cookoo marans. We just want a sustainable flock for years to come, so we'll have beautiful dark eggs to include in our rainbow eggs. I'm enjoying watching our babies grow 🥰

[IAMGiftbearer]

I don't have any yet but this is one breed I plan on getting, at least 1 or 2. The Black Copper Maran roosters are gorgeous!

[OldManKingHomestead]

I had some eggs given to me that I hatched out. Most are French Black Copper Maran, but I also 3 other varieties. They all have feathered legs, so I'm assuming all are the French version. I can walk up to any of them and pick them up, but my Cuckoo Maran will get up into my lap as soon as I sit down. They are wonderful birds.

[greggipe]

Marans are great. I have several, and really like them. And the chocolate eggs. I've had good luck with them.
Enjoyed the video.

[davinasquirrel]

I have one mixed breed - a 3/4 wheaten maran, 1/4 white plymouth rock. She is still my baby, always the first to run to me as soon as she sees me. She looks a bit like the thumbnail you have on the orpington, but with darker collar and whiter body. She lays a brown egg with speckles, reasonable layer. I think she has only been broody once or twice (now aged 5 years).

[KyleKaiser]

I have a Mystic Maran (Maxxine) and a Splash Maran chick on the way in the next couple of weeks! I love the breed! By the way, a “Mystic Maran” is a (French) Black Copper Maran rooster (French if the offspring have feathered feet) bred with a Barred Rock hen in case you didn’t know. I am not sure what that crossing does to the eggs in terms of color, as Maxxine’s are lighter than the typical Maran pictures you see online (still chocolate and gorgeous though); however, she lays a LOT of eggs that are HUGE, arguably thanks to those Barred Rock genes playing a factor. I remembered hearing that from people who owned Marans, that they’re great and the eggs are pretty, but that their production rates are pretty low overall compared with other breeds, so I’m assuming the Mystic Maran is an attempt at improving egg production and size without changing the desired egg coloration that Marans are known for.