before being crossed with non-local fowl? We will probably never know. However oral history recalls that monks from a number of surrounding monasteries were great consumers of eggs, and to sustain them, on their return voyages from missionary work abroad, brought back live birds on board ship from other parts of Europe as well as Africa and Asia.
These farmyard fowl had very little selection, and this ‘swamp’ hen didn't really receive any particular care.
One often wonders how the Marans can lay such a dark egg. The Marans egg is given its colour right before
laying. A layer of pigment is deposited over the finished egg. This pigment comes from mucous glands located
within the very last 10 centimetres of the oviduct. As the egg passes through, these glands secrete the pigment
and tint the shell. Immediately after laying, the layer of mucous dries quickly and the shell keeps its colour.
The colour 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 ordinary brown eggs
where the tan pigment is built into the shell calcium, or the blue egg of the Araucana, that is tinted throughout
the thickness of the shell. In those eggs the colour cannot be removed, whereas the colour on a Marans egg can
be scrubbed off with water.
The first Out- Crosses
In the 12th century, with her marriage to Henri of Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, who became Henri II ofEngland, Eleanor of Aquitaine brought to England a dowry consisting of parts of South-west France : Poitou,
Paintonge, Aunis, Perigord and Limousin.
This English domination lasted two centuries. English ships often stopped over at La Rochelle (near Marans) and
unloaded gamecocks, which had survived being rations or the cockfight, at that time highly prized by sailors to
cheer up their sea isolation. In return, poultry, which furnished fresh food and eggs, were taken on board the ships.
These gamecocks were naturally crossed with local landrace hens. The products born of these crossings had a morestocky figure and laid darker coloured eggs. The fighting cocks, of many varied colours, are the origin of various
present Marans varieties, and are responsible for the proud bearing, heavy figure, and of the sometimes quarrelsome
character of the cocks. They would have more game characteristics if it were not for the original hens. Other French
breeds that played a part in the development of the Marans include the feather legged Cocou de Malines including
the pea combed ‘turkey head’, the clean legged Cocou de Rennes, & the Gatinaise. A 1936 study by French veterinarian Honore Gautronneau stated that
the Faverolle has also been used.
Gatinaise Old English Game
Cocou de Malines (Turkey head) Cocou de Rennes
Introduction of the Asian breeds
The second half of the 19th century was a decisive time for the evolution of the French Marans breed often linked to the introduction of the Brahma and Langhans.Mr Geoffrey Saint Hilaire and Mr Foucault imported some Croad Langshans. Mr Louis Rouille, famous amateur
breeder, was fascinated by an Asian breed that
didn't possess yellow feet, whose fleshing qualities were good,
and which laid highly coloured eggs. Louis Rouille farmed a lot of Langhans hens in Fouras, situated about 12½
miles south of La Rochelle. These birds spread in the area and it was by this way that the second crossing processes
of the Marans took place.
From that moment on, the main characteristic of the breed was set: big red egg.
It
was not the same however for the totally heterogeneous plumage colours dating
back from the ancestral
origins of very numerous game varieties.
Brahma Croad Langshan
The first exhibition of Marans
Silver Cuckoo
In
1914, at the national exhibition in La Rochelle, there took place the first
presentation of this poultry under the name of "a country hen".
In
1921, Mrs Rouse from Ille d'Elbe seriously selected the future Marans for the
size and the colour of its egg.
In order to make its plumage a little bit
uniform, in 1928, Mrs Rousseau showed in La Rochelle
a pen of homogenous Cuckoo variety hens and their big extra reddish-brown eggs.
Fortunately
for the future of Marans, the editor of the "Aviculteur Français"
("French poultry farmer"), Mr Paul Waroquiez, visited this exhibition
and was very interested in the unknown producers of such nice eggs. He
published, in this respect, some articles in this magazine notably on July 1st
1929 on the "Maransdaise" breed origin.
In
1929, in order to protect the breed qualities, a "Marans" section was
created within the Aunis Saintonge Poultry White, which were often defective in both plumage & egg colour, & shank feathering. Colombian, little selection had been done & at this time it resembled the similar Bourboug fowl Bourbourg cock & hen. Silver Cuckoo, these and the Golden Cuckoo were the most refined of all the Marans. Golden Cuckoo. Red,these birds had few supporters and were ,in the main, a very mixed lot. Brown-Red, although they had the darkest egg colour, the plumage colour was ill-defined. Currently the White, Colombian, Silver Cuckoo, Golden Cuckoo, Wheaten, Brown Red, Black-tailed Buff and Black varieties are recognised. The current Standard The current Standard was set in 1991in the light of a better understanding of chicken genetics. Much of the work was carried out by Jean-Caude Martin & Gerard Coquerele (of the I.N.R.A) and Christian Herment & Albert Roguet of the Marans Club de France. As a result of this increased knowledge the Red variety ceased to exist, becoming the Wheaten and Black-tailed Buff varieties. The Marans Club in conjunction with the Standards committee also considered the admission of Birchen, Blue Red, Golden Salmon , and Silver salmon varieties. These varieties were presented at Chatellerault in 1998 , but due to insufficient numbers, no determination was made. These varieties were again presented at Nancy in 2001and again none were accepted. The Birchen birds presented were deemed to have too much straw colouring. The Birchen as again presented at Aurillac in October 2004, and again deemed unacceptable. A review of Birchen, Blue Red, Golden
Salmon, and Silver salmon
varieties was carried out at Niort in January 2005 and the Birchen was admitted into the Standard. There were insufficient numbers of the other varieties presented. The Blue-Red, the Blue variant of the Brown-Red was accepted in Paris on the 5th of February 2011.
From 1934, the Marans were in decline. During
the Second World War, the Germans occupied the Marans area and, due to
restrictions on movements, farming was almost reduced to nothing: marketing was
impossible. In 1946, just after the war, the situation of the Marans in
its birthplace was the same as it had been in 1929. the situation. (Faubourg of La Rochelle) with the Marans
club, the SCAF and the regional poultry farming organisations. This
centre was then moved to Dompierre sur Mer (commune of Belle Croix) near La
Rochelle. It
functioned under the direction of the Department of Agricultural Services. It
practised selection by a hatched-nest system, birth records by individual
pedigree, & the systematic study of genetic factors. It furnished eggs
for settings, and chicks to the agricultural cooperative members. In
the first year of selection, the egg laying average was 168 eggs per hen.In 1952, it nearly reached 200 eggs.
In 1954, the project was to have between 500 & 1000 birds but
this target never come into being. The centre, which was at the time managed by
a person who found more advantages in farming commercial chickens than
in Marans, had collapsed. Chronicles of
the French Marans Club 1960 – 1970... In
spite of the setbacks met in the 1950’s and the 1960’s, the research and the selection
of the Marans were continued thanks to the MCF president, Mr Bachelier. So he
took on Mr Priouzeau, in Marans, whose selection and setting activities went on
the two following decades. With
an impeccable constitution, a good conformation and laying more than 200 eggs a
year, the Silver-Cuckoo Marans had already started to lose the darker eggs that
were characteristic of its ancestors. …
a decline aspect This
period foreshadowed the Silver-Cuckoo Marans decline. is a
certain negative relationship between the produced egg quality by a given
age flock and the shell colour, (as Bernard Sauveur from
the NIRA said), and on the other hand, because the natural possibility of the
Marans to lay very big eggs represents a certain handicap for an excellent
hatching. It
was also at this time that in France a lot of industrialists widely used the
Marans hens to produce foundation birds for sex linked crossbreeds, tending to
make people forget this bird as a pure bred hen. Around 1970 a supply of Russian hens, having a
phenotype close to the Black Copper-neck Marans contributed to an improvement in size in
this variety but unfortunately it was at the expense of the egg and shank
colour. These birds were, in the main, culled. Fortunately,
some breeders carried on with the Marans, especially of the Brown-Red (Black Copper-necks), which already had the reputation of laying darker eggs.
The
fancy that was born for the Brown-Red Marans went on but the vagueness
of the Standard, notably in the description of the plumage, represented quite a
handicap. pullet breeding lines. dedicated themselves to the extra reddish-brown egg
production, and thus ignored all the improvements of the type characteristics
of the Marans. We
have to wait until the 1990's before the breed, supported by a hundred or so of
select farmers spread all over France and Belgium, was guided by the work of a
renewed practice of the MCF. In 2000, the MCF was made up of more than 400
members and delivered more than 12,000 official rings to its farmers.
Marans
in Australia conjecture as to whether any existed at that time. As the Australian Standard is a word for word copy of the
British Standard it can be assumed the early birds were of the English
clean-shanked types: the feathered shanks of the French type being a
disqualification. It is presumed that the Standards Committee would not have
included Marans unless they knew they existed, but unfortunately requests about the history & known birds have received no response. Dr Don Robertson of
Gidegannup, WA advised he had re-created a Cuckoo Marans type, with the egg
genetics based on Welsummers, but he was unable to obtain the deep Marans egg
colour. He had these birds until about 10 years ago (1995). He stated he could
remember, as a lad, reading articles on sexing day old Cuckoo Marans in the WA
Poultry Tribune in the late 1940's or early 1950's. The last record of a Marans
being exhibited was in Perth in the late 1950's. Others also carried out
searches for Marans or remnants of the breed in other States whilst some
carried out searches for the dark egg genetics. A breeder in Victoria, Anne
Frankel obtained some English type Marans around 2001. Anne advised her line
came from the deceased estate of an elderly man.
He had had the flock for an unknown time, and nothing more
is know of their origin. Anne had a number of breeds but kept the Marans apart and
values them. She said, “They were all pretty similar & I found in my years
of breeding that they were mostly straight cuckoo or gold or silver cuckoo. Some had rather lemon legs, others white mottled with black as
is acceptable in a cuckoo bird, but they stayed pretty true to type”. This leg
colour is a sign of birds that could date back to the 1930's or that there had been crossing with other breeds. Judy Witney, of the
Victorian New & Rare Breeds Society worked with some of the Frankel line
birds for some time but was unable to achieve the depth of egg pigmentation she
wanted, eggs ranging from white to a Welsummer type brown. Stock from Judy was dispersed to breeders in
WA, Victoria, Queensland & Tasmania, but all appear to have died out. Anne
also sold birds to WA, Tasmania & other Victorian breeders but they seem to
have suffered a similar fate. A breeder from the Gold Coast hinterland stated
on a US Marans forum that he /she had French type feather shanked Gold & Silver Salmon (Duckwing) Marans: unfortunately they did not give their name or email
address and failed to respond to a Personal Message, so this must be considered
to be very dubious. In 1999, Kory Chapman had a feature article in the
Australasian Poultry magazine on the re-creation of Marans. He advised he had
sold 60 breeding trios in 2000, but all seem to have disappeared. They had eggs
a little lighter in colour than the Welsummers that were included in their original make-up.
A second search, based on egg colour identified (in Victoria) a Cuckoo dark egg-laying remnant of Marans that had been in the same family for over
40 years, and in the hands of their original supplier, from the late Mrs Turner of Eskdale
in the Mitta Valley Victoria, for a least 15 years prior. This takes us back to
the 1940's, so it can be safely assumed they were here
pre the Second World War. This is borne out in that the earliest birds known
were a mixture of clean & feathered shanks, white & yellow legs, and
single and ‘turkey headed’ pea combed birds. Some of these turkey headed birds,
from Coucou de Malines blood, still exist. The egg colour is not as dark as the
French Black Copper-neck or Wheaten, but on a par with Double Laced
Barnevelders & Welsummers. Further breeding with these birds established
they were actually a commercial line of brown egg laying Barred Rocks. shades darker &
redder than either of his Double Laced Barnevelders or Welsummers. On talking
to the exhibitor he found the eggs were from backyard commercial Isa Brown type
bird. This lead to a project aimed at selecting for the dark red egg genes from
fowl of this type but to date has not been successful. A Wheaten strain with
eggs in the 4 to 6 range was found from a roadside stall and was identified to be a feather
shanked Marans. This identification being made, from photographs, by Christian
Herment, Secretary of the Marans Club of France, and Dirk de Jong, Secretary of the Dutch French Breeds Club and MCF delegate
for the Low Countries.
A documentation search of records of poultry imports, especially
Marans, was also carried out for the period 1930 to 1952: from the time Marans
were standardised to the implementation of the total import ban on poultry. The Future Numerous breeders have subscribed to the import syndicate which if successfully
taken to fruition ill introduce French type feather shanked Brown-Red and
its blue & splash variants (Black Copper-necks, Blue Copper-necks & Splash
Copper-necks). French Wheaten Marans were advertised for sale in Western
Australia in 2008. Clean-shanked Cuckoo Marans bantams were offered at a
Queensland auction in 2009: these originated from a breeder in Casino, NSW who
stated they were originally purchased in Victoria. No further information was
given, and egg colour was found to be white. It is felt these birds would most probably be
‘creations’ as bantam Marans were not mentioned until 1953, in the UK, a year
after the importation ban. A NSW breeder has also created a line of pseudo
Marans bantams, but egg colour has not been satisfactory to date.Others are working on a range of colours. The
Australian Standard follows, word for word, the British Standard and
disqualifies French feather shanked birds. It is felt that breeders who
have spent thousands of dollars in an attempt to import Marans will be somewhat
upset to find they are not recognised, and would be disqualified from
exhibition. A submission has been made in this respect to the Australian
Standards review Committee for the second Edition. However although recognition of receipt has been received we will have to wait for the Second Edition for their decision.
Farmer Society, and the Marans hen
was accepted at the local poultry exhibitions.
Mr
Waroquiez suggested the creation of a club: The Marans Club Français. Presided
over by Mr Bouyer, it was created in September 1929.
At this time no colour varieties were specified, leaving the initiative in the hands of the breeders.
In
1930, the Marans was presented at the exhibition in Liege, Paris, Lyon and
Lille. During this same year, the standard commission made up of Professor
Sebileau, Mr Waroquiez, Mr Sangalli and Mr Mace, visited about a hundred farms
that raised Marans fowl.
From
these observations a standard, which called for a feathered shanked bird, was
produced. A committee gathered at the Aulnoie Manor studied this at the end of
1930. The Standard was defined by the commission of April 2nd 1931,
& was published in various poultry farming magazines. The Général Assembly
ratified it on November 22nd 1931 and it was noted down in the SCAF
catalogue.
From
that moment on, the Marans breed spread over almost all of France and especially in
the Nord Pas de Calais department, which sent eggs in England, and in the
Seine, & Oise regions.
The second Standard was published in 1932, setting out six varieties,
The decline of the
Marans in France
Some
farmers even specialised in the production of exhibition subjects, developing
both separate cockerel and
Others accepted the extreme heterogeneousness of the types and plumage
as a fatality. They solely AQIS (the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service) advised they were not involved in
animal quarantine until 1956, and prior to that it was a State
responsibility.
All State Departments of Agriculture/Primary Industries were contacted; South Australia, Queensland
& Victoria stated they had
no provisions in place to monitor poultry imports
until the import ban in 1952. South Australia and Victoria advised that poultry often
arrived
accompanying migrants & returning Australian tourists, in crates as deck
cargo. On inspection they were
either admitted without documentation or
destroyed. Victorian authorities suggested the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia might
hold records,
but this proved not to be the case. Queensland suggested records might be held by the
National Archives of
Australia, who advised they had no records for any poultry
imports, of any description, for the period in question.
The first show organised by the Club was held at Yass, NSW on Sunday 20th June 2010 attracting 26 entries.
