ROCHESTER HATCHERY Cuckoo Maran Heritage Breed Chicken

Marans are generally quiet and docile; but they are quite active, taking well to free ranging in rough terrain and are also tough and disease-resistant. Their gentle temperaments and quiet demeanor makes them ideal for suburban backyard chicken keepers, as well as any assorted farm flock as they rarely bully smaller breeds. Marans are historically a dual-purpose bird, prized not only for their dark eggs but for their table qualities as well. Cuckoo Marans are uniquely bred for the production of extremely dark brown; no breed produces eggs that are darker. Marans lay around 150-200 dark brown eggs each year. All feathers of Cuckoo Marans are crossed throughout with irregular dark and light slate bars. They appear to look much like Barred Plymouth Rocks but the bars are not nearly as perfect and the difference between the black and white bars is not as distinct. Because of these differences, the variety is known as cuckoo rather than barred. Standard weights at maturity are male-7 to 8 lbs. and hen-6 lbs.