The History of The Marans |
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Written by Tim Daniels
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Friday, 03 October 2008 04:50 |
 The Marans originated from the town of Marans in Western France, just to the North of La Rochelle in Poitou Charente. Whilst they are still a fairly young breed (developed in the 1920's) they are made up from quite a number of very old breeds. They were thought to be made up of Barred Plymouth Rock, Malines, Croad Langshan, and Faverolles but also some Rennes (this is a place in Brittany and thought to be a cuckoo breed), Gatinaise and possibly Braekel depending on who you speak to.
The original birds had lightly feathered legs, something that is still seen now in the French birds. Marans in the U.K. Poultry Standards are not allowed to have feathered legs and this is classed as a fault. A couple of feathers can sometimes be shown though since the main priority is the dark egg colour that Marans are so famous for. As with many utility type breeds around this time, there was great pressure to export it before the type was properly fixed (which took longer due to the number of breeds that were used to create it), the original birds were producing many variations from the standard type but when it was brought to England in 1929, the type was fixed.
The North Holland Blue was already in England and was related to the Marans. Side by side, you couldn't tell the difference between the two. It was for this reason
clean legged sports were selected and used with some more Barred Rock and French Cuckoo blood and the feathered legs were bred out of the breed, when fixing the type and making the difference between the two breeds clear.
Most of the Marans that were exported around the World were of this English variety as the English by this time had good export channels set up and a name in utility breeds after the successful Utility Orpingtons that were produced and exported globally.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 13:39 |
Chicken Breeds