Black Copper Marans Chicken: Variety, Eggs, Size, Temperament, Pictures & More

Black Copper Marans are beautiful chickens with feathered legs. You will love raising them.

Its charm and unique specialty with chocolate-colored eggs can really capture many hearts. You may ask why you have never heard of such a chicken breed, but it wasn’t there for a long time.

The Black Copper Marans has been found in the 1900s and encountered many challenges, creating a close distinction, being composed of several varieties. They have drawn the interest of many people in The United States.

If you’re not aware of such a breed and are interested in learning about it, you should read on the complete breed guide available here.

In this chicken breed guide, we have explained various info like history, lifespan, egg production, recognized varieties, temperament, size, appearance, characteristics and pictures.

What is Black Copper Marans Chicken?

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The Black Copper Marans chicken is one-of-a-kind that is raging at the moment. It is a pretty bird laying very rare, black eggs encapsulated with chocolate color. You can read about more chickens that lay colored eggs here.

While it wasn’t around too long (about 1900s), this has a history full of difficulties and near extinction periods.

The breed of Copper Marans has many types, but the one that has lately attracted the most interest in the US is really the Black Copper Marans.

It was said the Marans breed related to English as they meant it to be the beloved egg of James Bond!

In this complete breed guide, we will explore the past of Black Copper Marans before gazing at their capacity to act and lay eggs.

History of Black Copper Marans

La Rochelle has been the residence of an original Marans named poule de Marans, discovered in the southwestern part with France. Because of the marshy and low location of the countryside, local chickens became known as swamp chicken.

The locals mixed them with, yet another native breed named barnyard, and gamecocks which came with Indonesian and Indian sailors. From these nations, sailors traded their food and water for those gamecocks or got them in abundance.

The Marandaise fowl was born during the breeding season.

Later these were bred to Croad Langshan, Gatinaise, chicken Brahmas, Coucou de Rennes, and Coucou de Malines to evolve a breed that gave rise to the ancestors of today’s Black Copper Marans. Marans became famous through France for their deep red colorful eggs.

Lifespan

The lifespan of this friendly chicken breed is great. They live around 8-9 years with good food and suitable environment.

Black Copper Marans Recognized Varieties

The locals proceeded to breed the others to generate the following other Marans breeds-

1. One common was the plumage breed; in 1921 many in France and a Mrs. Rousseau who crossed people with ancestors of its Marans to generate the renowned cuckoo purebred Marans.
2. By 1930, by identifying them as Marans, France was standardizing the wide breed range.
3. By 1930-32, Six Marans variants had found the following:

• Black copper neck.
• Red cuckoo.
• Golden cuckoo.
• Silver cuckoo.
• White/black cuckoo.
• Ermine cuckoo.

Regrettably, the Marans breed became almost extinct after the war of France. But they were rescued through a breeding programme; thanks to a French agriculture department.

With this programme, the production of Marans eggs increased, and contributed to enhanced breeding of its kind.

Egg Production

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Black Copper Marans eggs are known for their very dark brown/chocolate eggs. Marans birds lay dark brown egg; however, the Black Copper is known especially because their egg color is ‘chocolaty’.

The Black Copper hen lays fewer eggs that are darker in color. Although the hen is a nice layer of eggs, you won’t get the worst color.

The egg’s color overlay is a limited source, but as the ‘color’ gets tiny, the color becomes brighter. We will discuss more about the hue of the eggs here.

A hen gives you about 3 eggs/week on average, which averages out to about 150-200 eggs/year. The Black Copper Marans hens lay large size eggs.

The hens of this breed usually do not go broody, but if they like to go broody, they become great mothers and sitters.

Eggs exposed to sunlight after a certain amount of time appear to be black. In the sunlight, the red dye oxidizes and makes the color black.

Temperament

The Black Copper Maran is cool and gentle, while the roosters may appear to attack other roosters. It is in line with the tradition of gamecock breeding, and it is to be anticipated to some extent, while there are very docile roosters as well.

They are aggressive bird-loving foraging or free-range but can tolerate enclosure very well. They are very hardy through winter, with sufficient housing or shelter being ideal in Northern climes.

Color, Size, Appearance, Characteristics of Black Copper Marans

Color

The fewer eggs the Black Copper lays in, the much darker the color of egg gets. If your hen is a nice layer, you don’t even get the deepest color. The egg pigments additive becomes a limited source, and the color becomes brighter as the ‘black’ gets tiny.

Few eggs may even have the darker-colored speckles – much like eggs from Welsummer.

Egg color will also be cyclical and you’ll have really dark eggs at the start of the laying period. However, the color will be softened dramatically by the end.

Size

That Black Copper Marans is amongst the most attractive chicken market choices. While they might not be in the top of the line in terms of size or development of eggs, still they deliver a docile, simple-to-manage bird that can satisfy a range of needs.

Appearance

You can find Black Copper Marans body from the side shapes a broad ‘V’ triangle. The body is solid, heavy, and durable.

They have a stunning plumage. The total body feathers are dark black and, in daylight, may well have a green iridescence.

The hackle feathers are really a coppery/reddish color. Even the rooster has copper saddle wings that cascade down his back.

Characteristics

1. Marans chicken is a dual function breed and recognized for its excellent meat quality and its exceptionally dark eggs.
2. They grow big enough to be used both for meat and for egg development.
3. Marans hens generate around 150-200 eggs, each annum on average.
4. The Marans chicken is available in many color variations. In the French Style, the known colors are Black, Black Copper, Birchen, Long-tailed Buff, Columbian, Cuckoo, Golden Cuckoo, Wheaten, or White.
5. A few more colors still remain, but are not publicly recognized. Including Blue, Copper Blue, or Spray. This breed will make their eyes orange.

Benefits of Raising Black Copper Marans Chicken

Here are some amazing benefits of raising Black Copper Marans:

1. Meat Production

Copper Marans are usually not healthy layers because the ingestion of food makes them thick & fleshy. This allows them perfectly for handling beef. Owing to the hike in the number of chicken meat lovers, the breed’s prominence has grown in recent times.

2. Kind and Friendly

The birds and the hawks fly away. It’s because they’re both docile and relaxed and makes them the perfect bird to be kept as pets. They become respectful to the owner, or even to friends of the household.

Problems in Raising Black Copper Marans

As for specific health problems, this breed may suffer from some common diseases any chicken that gets in contact.

The handling of a Black Copper Marans chicken throughout this particular region isn’t any different from those of other kinds.

This bird is known to be effective to tolerate a range of temperatures, which makes perfect sense for a species from a temperate climate.

They’ll be perfect unless the conditions are incredibly hot or cold. If you’re mindful of this breed, then let me tell you it is a bad winter base. Use a good heat lamp if there is very cold inside the coop

Care Guide for Black Copper Marans Chicken

Here are some common caring tips for Black Copper Maran Chickens-

• This is a comparatively a chicken breed which needs to be refined. Because of this, you must be careful what kind your birds are permitted to move on their genetics.
• The breeding policy of the French Governments is associated with growing their numbers or egg production. There is no excuse you shouldn’t carry on the job they began.
• When buying this sort of chicken, you must be vigilant. Sometimes the color of their eggs varies over time has not been judged from a snapshot. There are many chicken forms with identical plumage, but look for the tiny specifics as found in the typical breed.
• Give enough workouts to your Black Copper Marans chicken. They would appear to get obese when kept in near captivity.
• This would, of course, be ideal for those who collect birds for meat. Such a bird, though, would be dangerous, and a meat animal is of no good.

Note this chicken can grow soon. It might entice to believe that you have more than enough time to make room and for adult birds when you purchase chicks.

It is not so in most situations. If you buy chicks from Black Copper Marans, you can give them the same volume of space you’d offer to a mature bird.

Conclusion

Marans, in particular the Black Copper Marans, still are deemed rare in the US. They are often more famous in their French homeland.

For good cause, those birds are costly. Render a significant amount of effort & time to create such a beautiful bird that will breed accurately down the road.

A high-quality bird with its contrasting black or copper plumage is absolutely stunning. If you really are concerned about wanting some of those unique beauties, this means buying the best you could, so that you can focus on raising your own high-quality chicks.

So, have you decided to raise this dark chocolate egg layer Black Copper Marans?