We have had Black Copper Marans for a few years. They are not my favorite breed. However, they do have a place in our flock.

We breed our Marans based on the French standard, as well as the APA, which means they have feathered shanks and toes.

Coloring

COMB, FACE, EAR LOBES, & WATTLES: bright red
EYES: reddish bay
BEAK: dark horn
BODY, TAIL, & WINGS: black
HACKLE: copper
SHANKS & TOES: slate – lighter on cocks than hens; bottom of feet are pinkish white; feathers are black

Cocks should have copper on the head, hackle, and saddle feathers.

Left: This is a pretty hen with some copper hackle coloring.
Right: This lady is missing copper in her hackle feathers and should not be used for breeding. She still lays a beautifully dark egg, though.

Feathered Shanks

Chicks

About a week and a half old:

A little over 2 weeks:

About 4 weeks:

Hens

They are quite content spending the day foraging.

I’m not going to beat around the bush – Marans are not my favorite chicken breed. They aren’t real friendly, and they get irritated easily. You make one little change to their living environment and they quit laying for what seems like forever.

The two ladies in this photo are broody. In our experience, Black Copper Marans make horrible mothers. I won’t allow them to sit on eggs anymore. Unfortunately, they go broody fairly often during the warm weather months. We break them of it, which then ticks them off, making their egg laying inconsistent.

Even when they aren’t ticked off, they aren’t great layers.

She has a lovely RBF:

Eggs

Marans Eggs. The gorgeous Marans eggs.

The sole reason I have these beautiful, but bitchy, birds is for their dark brown egg.

You will notice these egg photos all have a dark brown egg. However, the darkness varies. The dark brown color can be different based on a few factors including the genetics of the bird and the time of year the egg was laid. Also, the lighting while taking the photos can alter the the appearance of the egg in photographs.

I love the addition of the dark brown egg to our egg basket, or in this case, egg bowl.

The inside of the velvety chocolate brown Marans egg is white?! Yep.

A Marans eggshell is white. The brown pigment is added to the outer shell during the laying process. Since this layer is “painted” on it can sometimes be scratched off, like in the middle egg in the photo below.

Marans Eggs in Paris

While in Paris a couple years ago, we wondered across an outdoor market. Primarily they seemed to be selling birds and flowers. It didn’t take me long to spy Marans hatching eggs for sale. I love that we saw those – combining the love of our farm and our love of traveling.

While Marans are not my favorite breed since they are temperamental and not great layers, I do have an appreciation for their uniqueness. They will be on our farm for quite some time, I’m sure.

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Marans are a heavy, dual purpose bird. They are generally raised for their dark brown egg, but also make a good meat bird.

Marans are named after a port town in France. Over the centuries local birds were bred with birds brought from seaman coming to port. The modern Marans breed began development in the 1800’s and was adopted into the French standard in 1931. Black Copper Marans were accepted into the American Poultry Association standard in 2011.

The French standard has nine recognized color varieties:
Silver Cuckoo
Golden Cuckoo
Black
Black Copper
Birchen
Wheaten
Black-tailed Buff
White
Columbian

As of 2017, The American Poultry Association has 3 recognized color:
Black Copper
Wheaten
White

Of these recognized varieties, we have had two. Plus two varieties not in the standards. The information on this page is based on my knowledge of the varieties we have raised.

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Warning: this is not a happy hatch day post. If reading about the bad days doesn’t interest you, you should probably skip this post.

Cream Legbars have been a breed I’d been wanting for awhile. The timing never seemed to work out and there aren’t many breeders nearby. This summer I finally decided to take the plunge and order hatching eggs from a company in the Midwest. I read good things about them. So even though I was hesitant getting eggs in this manner, I did it anyway. With all the good reviews I read, I assumed it must work out most of the time.

Shipping costs a fortune, so I ordered a few Black Copper Marans eggs to make me feel better about that expense.

I’m not gonna lie, I was teenage giddy when I unpacked this box. #soexcited

I let the eggs sit and rest for about half a day before placing them in the incubator.

When the time came, here’s what went in the incubator:
6 Black Copper Marans
13 Cream Legbar
2 Olive Egger x BCM (from our farm, similar to the ones hatched earlier)

About 36 hours into incubation I decided to check on the eggs. I went to pick an egg up to give it a slight turn and found it was stuck to the turner. We’ve done many hatches in these incubators and this was a first. The egg was stuck like glue. We had to use a scraper to get all the egg shell off the turner. There ended up being a couple more stuck in the same way.

I don’t know why they were stuck. The only thing I can think of is that the egg leaked and then hardened to the turner. But, why would they do such a thing?

All the eggs came out and I quickly washed the incubator and the turner. We got everything back to the way it should be and hoped for the best.

The next day I checked to see if any more were stuck. One Marans egg was stuck. But, just a tiny piece of shell stayed stuck to the turner. The membrane seemed intact, so I put tape over the missing shell piece and placed the egg back in the incubator.

This is not a good sign. You should not see liquid oozing from from an egg.

Between stuck eggs, rotten eggs and eggs not developing I was down to a fairly small batch at lock down:
3 Black Copper Marans
5 Cream Legbars (although, from candling I thought only 3 were actually viable)
2 Olive Egger x BCM’s (from our farm)

Just like clock work on day 21 the 2 eggs from our farm hatched perfectly.

One Cream Legbar pipped, but never finished hatching.

The other 2 I thought were developing correctly appeared to quit growing very late, not quite making it to the 21 days.

One Black Copper Marans pipped and just couldn’t zip. When there is a big hole like this, you know there is a problem. They should be zipping all the way around the egg, not staying in one place.

I have had this happen before and learned that helping them out rarely does them any favors. If they are too weak or have some other problem why they can’t get out of the egg, they usually aren’t going to survive.

However… Farm Girl and my niece had been watching all this and they begged me to help the chick out. After telling the girls the chick may still not make it even if I help it out, I carefully pulled the shell from the chick.

The poor thing didn’t look well. Shell was stuck to the feathers. Feathers were missing. It was weak.

After letting it rest, I took a warm wet towel to wipe off all the stuck on goo. Then had the girls hold it, while wrapped in a towel, to dry him/her off and stay warm.

I am happy to say the little guy pulled through. He/she is the one in the middle.

About 6 weeks later:

A quick note about the band on the leg. I put the band on to mark which chick was the full Black Copper Marans. If you use a band, make sure to check it often. As the chick grows the band gets tighter. If it gets too tight it can cause problems for the chicken.

This was a disappointing hatch. I have never had so many things go wrong.

I don’t know the reason behind the hatching troubles, but I do know the 2 eggs from our farm hatched perfectly.

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This week it’s all about the chicks we hatched over the summer.

• The one lone black copper marans chick. (top left)
• Olive Egger – Black Copper Marans x Olive Egger (top middle)
• Barnyard Mix – Rhode Island Red x Olive Egger (top right)
• Olive Eggers – Black Copper Marans x Olive Egger (middle right)
• Cream Legbar – hatched last week (bottom right)

• Many of the chicks have the featheriest shanks I’ve ever seen. For the first time, a couple of the buff colored chickens have feathered shanks.

• This hungry cooper’s hawk thought he’d get his lunch from our yard. Thankfully, that didn’t work out for him. He did, though, grab a chick that was free ranging right in front of Farm Kid2 and I. It happened so quickly, but Farm Kid2 scared him off and he let the chick go.

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• Still love okra flowers!
• Okra, cherry tomatoes & Mexican sour gherkins are growing in the aquaponics system.
• The water in one of our ponds completely evaporated. So, I took advantage of it and troweled out much of the duck sludge. This was literally a crappy job. But, I’m so glad I did it.
• Basil growing next to an herb barrel.
• The ladies are continuing to lay well, so I’ve been making lots of hard boiled eggs.
• Awhile back I ordered hatching eggs. Things didn’t go as I had planned and only one black copper marans hatched. Not that it’s a few weeks old, I noticed it has a few white feathers. Ugh! This was a damned expensive chicken for it not even to be breeding stock.
• Zucchini has been blanched and frozen.
• The tomatoes have been transformed into sauce. One batch has Italian flavor. The other has Mexican.

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• Still picking typical green zucchini and less typical golden zucchini. They’re lookin’ pretty good.
• Pepper in the taco garden.
• Herb Barrel going strong.
• Using up the many eggs we are getting: Breakfast Burrito’s, Egg Muffins, Egg Wraps
• Wee little black copper marans
• Gettin’ the stink eye
• Apples on our tree! Still so excited to see this!

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This week it’s all about eggs.

We have eggs coming out our ears. The ladies are laying great. This is a fabulous problem to be having. We are also hatching eggs.

•  For the first time ever, I ordered hatching eggs. I’ve been wanting to add to our Marans flock, but haven’t found what I was looking for locally. Also, I would like to try raising Cream Legbars and haven’t found what I wanted locally. So, I opted to order from out of state. At this point, I am unsure if I think this was a good plan. I was definitely excited to try it as this opens more options for future breeds. I was impressed at how well the eggs were packaged and that none were broken. Once I got the eggs home, I let them sit for about 7 hours before placing them in the incubator. Possibly I should have let them rest for 24 hours?

• About 36 hours into incubation, I tried to pick up an egg to give it a little turn. It was stuck like glue to the turner. The egg broke. Two more eggs did the same thing. And by stuck, I mean stuck, stuck. We had to use a scraper to get it off the turner. My guess is it was the egg leaking, then hardening. Weird. I have never had that happen before. I’ve also never had eggs shipped across the US before. At this point, I need to do more research to find out if this is a common problem with shipped eggs, or if there was something weird with this batch. Also, the egg yolk and white parts seemed a different consistency, more liquidy, than regular eggs. Coincidence? I’m not sure.

• We quickly took the eggs out and cleaned the incubator. Then, put the turner and good eggs back in.

• The next day I checked on the eggs again looking for any that might be stuck. One Marans egg was stuck just a tiny bit. When I picked up the egg a tiny piece of shell stayed in the turner. Ugh! The membrane was still intact. So, I put tape over the missing shell piece and am hoping for the best.

• Thankfully, no more have stuck since then.

• Almost a week into incubation, the majority seem to be developing. Awesome!

• However, last night I noticed a slight odor when I opened the incubator. Dang! Farm Girl and I used our detective sniffing skills to find the culprit. We found it, took it out and smashed it to see why it was stinky. Nothin’. It wasn’t developing, but it also wasn’t rotten colored. It was more liquidy, though, than I feel it should have been.

• I am conflicted on what to feel about this. It is definitely frustrating since these eggs were quite expensive. However, it is still amazing to me that I can hatch any eggs that came all the way from Ohio. The way things are going, I will be thrilled with a 50% hatch rate.

• The barn swallow babies I’ve been admiring have learned how to fly, so I’m sure they’ll be on their way soon.

• I found another nest. This time belonging to a white-crowned sparrow. So far, there are just two eggs.

• The ladies are cranking out eggs like crazy. We’re getting nearly 2 dozen every day.

• We can’t eat all the eggs we are getting, so I have been putting extras in baggies and freezing for future use.

• We have two incubators. A couple weeks ago, I set eggs in one of them for the first time this year. Right now they are busy hatching!

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Happy Spring! We officially made it through another winter. Our winter wasn’t too cold, but it was rainy. Very rainy.

• Spring has sprung and our Leonard Messel Magnolia is blooming. The tree itself hasn’t grown much in the 7 years we’ve had it, but the blooms are gorgeous.

• The Marans are laying again after their winter hiatus. I love their dark brown egg. Notice the stink eye I’m getting from her majesty. Truth be told, I feel the same way about her.

• The fodder we started last week isn’t doing much. Not sure what our problem is, but this isn’t as easy as I thought it was supposed to be.

• Seeds and seedlings are gathered in the house, garage, and greenhouse. I’m hoping for a good tomato crop this year.

• While we were away camping this weekend a chicken got nabbed in the backyard. The game camera shows a coyote and bobcat wandering nearby. Ugh. However, mostly the camera snaps pics of the neighborhood deer.

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Saturday was the Oregon Fall Poultry Swap in Corvallis. This was our first time being a vendor at the Fall Swap. Although, earlier this year we were vendors at the Spring Swap.

OUR BOOTH

OTHER VENDORS

WHAT WE BROUGHT HOME

Farm Kid2 bought a Muscovy duck from a vendor across from us. He also bought hatching eggs from the vendor right next to us. The 3 light brown eggs are Seramas & the white egg is an Olandsk Dwarf. Ooh, I hope they hatch.
Update: Day 6 I candled the eggs & all 4 looked to be developing. I was so excited. However… about day 14 we were in town all day & sometime early in the morning our power went out. By the time we got home the eggs were cold & had been for a number of hours. Our power didn’t come back on until the next day. They never did finish developing.

The day went very well. My only complaint is that going to the swap as a vendor, I don’t have time to look around at what everyone else is selling or take part in the other activities. Last year at the Fall Swap I had a great time browsing & taking pics. Whether going as a vendor or a customer, though, the event is fun. I’m sure we’ll be back next year.

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Weather

Most of August was warm, dry & uneventful. However, one night there was a fantastic lightning show that I really could have enjoyed had I not been so nervous about the trees around our house catching on fire. Here in the PNW we get thunder & lightning. But no real great show. It lasts a few minutes and moves on. This time it went on strike after strike for a couple hours straight. I spent those couple hours in awe of nature’s wonders, but also running through my mind the course of events that needed to happen when/if I notice something catch fire. Thankfully, there wasn’t a fire.

Flower Beds

My two favorite plants throughout August had to be lavender & zinnia. To see what else we have blooming check out August’s Bloom Day post.

Goats

Between a garden bed & one side of the goat fence I planted sunflowers & zinnias. They don’t have near the wowing effect I was going for. But, those plants that did grow are pretty – although, kinda on the short side. Truthfully, though, even the weeds don’t grow great in this spot.

The goats favorite item to munch on throughout the day is anything outside their fence. They squeeze their heads through the fence and gobble away. Knowing this, I planted the sunflowers & zinnias just out of their reach. Bahaha! I also purposely left weeds growing between the seeds I planted & the fence. I was hoping they would eat the weeds as opposed to my flowers. I do believe these tactics worked. Yes!

Chicken Keeping

All those chicks we hatched earlier this year are keeping us mighty busy. 70ish growing chickens eat, drink & poop… a lot. I plan to bring the majority of them to the Oregon Poultry Swap in October.

Such a handsome fella.

I bred Easter Eggers with our Splash Marans hoping to get some lighter feathered Olive Eggers.

Black Copper Marans chick

BCM trying to get a nibble of watermelon.

Apparently it wasn’t the goats I had to worry about eating my zinnias.

The chickens also enjoy picking their own tomatoes.

Our middle kid, Farm Kid2 & our daughter, Farm Girl, entered eggs in the county fair. Both won a blue ribbon. Way to go kids!

Wildlife

Lots of stinging type flying critters around these days.

Northern Alligator Lizard

Rufous Hummingbird
Unfortunately, Farmer John found this one dead with its wings & tail feathers spread out. I took the opportunity to examine just how pretty its feathers really are.

Pond

Except for a few decorative aspects and a bridge connecting the pathway the pond is complete.

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