Marans Chicken Club USA Home Page

The Eggs!

The Marans chicken originated in western France in a town called Marans. Marans are a first class utility fowl and are best known for its dark chocolate colored eggs. These chickens are docile in nature, consistent layers, fast growers, and do well in damp areas. They are single comb birds that come in feathered or clean leg varieties. Marans also come in many different color varieties, with the most well known being Cuckoo and Black Copper.

The one thing that sets them apart from all other chickens, is that dark chocolate colored egg. One often wonders how the Marans

can lay such a dark egg. The Marans egg is given its color right before laying. A layer of pigment is deposited over a finished egg. This pigment comes from mucus glands located within the very last 10 centimeters of the oviduct. As the egg passes through, these glands secrete the pigment and tints the shell. Immediately after laying, the layer of mucus dries quickly and the shell keeps its color. The color on a Marans egg may be smooth, stippled, or even spotted, depending on how the layer of pigment is deposited as the egg moves through the oviduct. It is very different from that of the ordinary brown eggs where the tan pigment is built into the shell calcium. Or the green egg of the Ameraucana which is tinted throughout the thickness of the shell. In these eggs the color cannot be removed, whereas the color on a Maran egg can be scrubbed off with water.

Roosters weigh out to 8lbs. In the Cuckoo variety, males are lighter in color than females, and it is actually possible to color sex them

as chicks with pretty good accuracy. The hens weigh up to 7 lbs. and can lay up to 200 large dark brown eggs a year. Hens are individual when it comes to their egg color. Some lay darker eggs than others, some are speckled and some vary throughout each year. They also make great moms.

Marans eggs have often been referred to as the James Bond egg of choice. Martha Steward insists on nothing but Marans eggs for her cooking show. If you want top of the line best quality eggs, give the Marans a try.

Sally Zacharias
sjfzach@aol.com
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Marans_Chicken_Club/