The marans is a heavy soft feather that was bred in France.  It comes in large & bantam (overseas only). They were bred as a dual purpose bird & is still a very good layer but, in Australia, lacks it's original size.  Its distinguishing feature is its beautiful dark brown/plum coloured egg.

The original "French Marans" had lightly feathered shanks & the English bred this out to create a clean legged variety.  However, since last year (2009) only the original feather shanked variety may now be known as pure marans.  It must also lay an egg of at least a grade 4 on the 1-9 egg colour grade.

Overseas they come in black, black-tailed buff, dark cuckoo, gold & silver cuckoo, copper black & copper blue, & wheaten.  In Australia the only known "pure marans" are wheaten.

The marans is a busy, active bird that enjoys to free-range but will adapt to confinement.  Their temperament seems to vary, depending upon strain, from calm & friendly to fairly aggressive & difficult to handle.  This is more common in the males who are very protective of their girls.  They tend to mix well with other breeds.

When buying check with the breeder on temperament, particularly if you have a young family.