[gem]

Hello,

I lost my two lovely girls last week to a fox or maybe a vandal still not to sure.  But I am re proofing the run for either, but Im not sure whats best to get breed wise.

I had RIRxWS and they were fab i loved them but the person I got them from does not have them anymore and only has marans.  I am used to an egg a day from my girls and they were friendly.  From looking at the info online about marans this may not be the same for them??

Can anyone advise?

I live in newcastle if anyone knows were i can get the same as my original girls.

[gem]

Any one got Marans?  what are they like?

[Sassy]

Hybrids (which is what you had) generally lay much more often and for a longer season than pure breeds (ie the Maran). But hybrids do not live so long as the egg laying wears them out. Hens are all born with so just so many eggs to lay so it depends what you are looking for.

[Casey76]

I've heard that Marans can be flighty.  They lay an average size egg (about 60g) which should be a beautiful dark red colour, and about 200 eggs per year, so less than a hybrid, but still quite reasonable.

They can come with or without leg feathering (Poultry Club Great Britain standard = no leg feathering, Marans-Club de France standard = leg feathering).

Although Copper Black are the more numerous, they do come in 7 standardised colours and several new, non-standard colours.  They also come in Bantam form, which are rare (rare enough that the MCF are encouraging breeders in France to breed bantams to recreate the breed).

I have 2 black Marans, one male (with lots of leg feathering) and one pullet (with only a little leg feathering), and they do tend to be a bit more nervous than my other chicks.  i also have 8 eggs in the incubator, which will be a project of mine next year.

Good luck finding something in the NE, as usual, there is a dearth of suppliers (for anything "interesting")

From an ex-Sunderland lass

[Jeanette]

I have a cuckoo maran and she is a lovely girl but very nervous. After having her a year she still will not come near me.

[gem]

well I have my two Maran youngsters.  I am disappointed they wont lay as much as my hybrids and I do hope they are not to nervous as I loved that my hybrids were so forward and followed me about.  I coudnt get the same breed as I had so I had to try another breed lets hope Marans are good too.

On the orginal pair turn out it was more likley a person who killed them which is not good but  have proofed by run for human or fox just in case!