What Are Cuckoo Maran Chickens?

If you're used to buying your eggs in cardboard containers at the grocery store, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the interesting colors that eggs come in when you start raising your own laying chickens. Cuckoo Maran chickens are particularly welcome in a flock for their distinctive dark brown eggs.

  1. Cuckoo Maran Chickens

    • Cuckoo Maran chickens are the most available of the maran chicken varieties. The breed was fixed in the 1930s and is thought to have come from breeds, such as Barred Rock, Coucou de Malines, Croad Langshan, and Faverolles, Rennes, Gatinaise and Braekel. Experts vary in their opinions of the ancestry of the Cuckoo Maran.

    Silver Cuckoo Maran

    • Cuckoo Maran chickens have attractive mottled feathers. The hens have a bright red single comb and four toes. These chickens are large and heavy, weighing 7 to 8 pounds. The American Poultry Association requires that Cuckoo Maran chickens have feathered shanks, while in the UK feathered shanks are considered a serious defect.

    Cuckoo Maran Eggs

    • Cuckoo Maran chickens are most highly sought after because they are excellent layers. They are not a meat chicken. Cuckoo Marans are easily available in the US and popular among chicken owners who want different colors of eggs for personal or commercial use.

    Caring for Cuckoo Maran Chickens

    • Cuckoo Maran Chickens do not handle cold weather well. They need well insulated coops where they can find protection from wind and cold nights. These chickens take well to confinement, making them easier to protect from the cold. Cuckoo Maran hens mated with unbarred cocks produce sex-linked hybrid offspring.