Reviews by arrowti

We got our marans as hatching eggs sent from a hatchery - won't disclose any names here, it might just have been a fluke or a problem during shipping/incubating, really - and had 36 eggs. 16 of them were maran eggs, the other 20 were random 'extras'. 6 maran eggs hatched, and 3 were roosters. 3 were hens. We had 2 other hens that seemed to be some kind of maran cross that are doing fine.

Anyway, they were all beautiful birds. The roosters are/were beautiful, the hens are/were gorgeous and we had some very nice colourings. They laid large brown eggs, some dark brown, and some medium brown with spots of dark brown. Ours never got broody since we don't want to hatch more eggs from our current stock right now (except very specific chickens), and they don't 'guard' their eggs or peck when we try to get them. They are docile and calm, and don't screech and flap around like crazy when you approach them. (Except one of them...)


Health Trouble!!
Our problem was that our marans ended up with health issues and several dying before they were even a year old. I will also note not a single one of our maran roosters had a normal crow. Their crows sounded off or abnormal but nothing that worried me.

The first bird we lost was a black copper maran hen. She repeatedly had problems with impacted crop, and while we continued to massage it and fix one, a few weeks later, she'd get it again. This started when she was around 6 months, and with full access to grit and added oil to the water, it continued. Inevitably she got sour crop after one extremely stubborn impacted crop, and despite our best efforts she got worse and worse until we culled her to end her suffering. Perhaps we should have done so sooner. She behaved differently from the others. Very flighty and wild. But she did lay nice big eggs when she was alive.

The second bird we lost was a beautiful grey splash maran hen. We had no problems with her at all until she died. She didn't have any health problems that we knew of. But one day, in spring on the first 'hot' day of the year... she died from dehydration. We found her before she died standing not 5 feet from a full waterer, with more waterers distributed around the yard. I don't know what caused her to not drink any water, but by the time we found out what the problem was, she died just as we were getting the syringe of sugar-water to her.

The third bird we didn't 'lose', but we did cull. He was our black copper maran rooster, and grew up with a respiratory disorder that reminded me of asthma. He wheezed constantly from the time he was 3 months old to the time we culled him. No other birds wheezed. We could hear him out back from our front door. When he rested he was fine, when he was physically active, he wheezed. It was quite strange.


Overall:
Our other three marans are doing fine. We gave away a rooster to a woman on another farm so we wouldn't have to cull him (since we had too many). He was a really nice rooster and is flourishing on her farm, and she enjoys him. She should've kept him instead of the other one we kept... he was much nicer and gentler on the girls, even though he was absolutely massive! He weighed a massive 16 pounds when we gave him away. Big, gentle, loving rooster.

The rooster we kept, a blue maran, is people-friendly but recently has become hen aggressive. He will be culled next month with our meat birds.

Our only surviving maran hen is doing great. She is a huge girl, almost 9 pounds. Far above average. Lays dark brown eggs with even darker chocolate-brown spots. She seems healthy and is still laying, 2 years strong.


My advice to people is to be careful where you order them, how you order them, and when you order them. I can't blame the hatchery. We had a big cold spell during the shipping time of the eggs, and believe that is the reason for the huge amount of failed hatches (out of 36 eggs, only 14 hatched, with 2 dead chicks) and could possibly be attributed to the health problems of our maran hen and the maran rooster.

I want to give this breed another chance. Any recommendation on a place to get them will be great! Wish we had more surviving hens. The two maran crosses are also great. We aren't sure what they are crossed with, but they seem to have no health problems.

When we first started raising chickens four years ago we got 12 birds - 3 barred rocks, 3 white rocks, 3 buff orpingtons, and 3 easter eggers. The barred rocks were beautiful and had a strong personality right from the start. Some of them were aggressive and would come up and peck, but when we added a rooster to the flock later on, they stopped. They laid big brown eggs almost daily and were at the top of the pecking order. Other chickens MOVED to make room for them on the top bar!

One of our barred rocks passed away from ascites this last fall, as we got our birds from tractor supply stock, and not from a reputable breeder. The other two, now four years old, still lay on occasion, probably once or twice a week. One of them is our sassy, stubborn, funny girl. While the other hens go running for the hills when our dog goes in (our dog does not attack the chickens but she loves to sniff their butts), this barred turns right around, puffs up, and threatens to peck her right on the nose. Dog avoids her now. She was also the only chicken to not put up with our teenage ducks trying to test the boundaries. When the young ducks tried to chase off all the chickens so they could gobble up all the snacks this hen was the one who wasn't going to put up with their nonsense. Now they're all friendly and peaceful.

She's really friendly. The other barred is less personable and doesn't really stand out much. This one always stands out. She tried to fly in the house through window, probably thinking it was open one day. She's always up on the deck, waiting for us to come out, and likes to follow us wherever we go. She'll occasionally come up and gently peck at anything she sees, so cautiously that it doesn't hurt one bit and she's just checking for stuff.

Barred rocks just don't put up with any nonsense! They're great layers for new flock owners, but just know they can be stubborn and sassy and are pretty little escape artists.

When we ordered hatching eggs from a hatchery one year, we ended up with a pair of old english game bantams by accident. A pullet, we called her Tweetie, and a rooster, called Sirma. Both were Brown-Reds. Tweetie hatched with no bones in any of her toes but had no trouble getting around and could perch fine because of her small size. Tweetie was shy, sweet, and flighty. Sirma is calm and outgoing.

Tweetie laid eggs for 3 weeks straight (1 a day), and then would take 2 weeks off. Then repeat. That was fine with me. We didn't expect so many eggs out of such a small package! One day, she disappeared, and we didn't know what happened to her. We found her body a few months later, wedged into a space between the wall and the floor. She must have gotten stuck in there - she was getting broody, and might have been searching for a quiet place to lay her eggs.

Both of them had made it through that winter, which was bitterly cold (negatives with lots of wind and ice) with no frostbite and no issues at all. Sirma even went outside a few times, but almost got grabbed by a hawk, so he spent the rest of the winter indoors.

Sirma is intelligent and protective, and despite being a bantam, he is the king of our roosters - our two large fowl roosters - and delights in chasing them all over the yard. He tried to 'protect' the hens from a poor hedgehog who had wandered his way into our yard. He is always finding ways of escaping but is also the first to find cover when something big and hungry flies overhead. It's a shame we lost our girl. They made a good, cute pair!

I recommend this breed to anyone. They are cost-friendly as they eat very little food and forage a lot.

They're also small, beautiful, can fly great, and make a really nice addition to the flock. We mixed ours with our full size flock of 40+ birds without any problems. English games can pretty much take care of themselves. But seriously, they can fly: our Sirma would fly 20 feet up onto the roof of our barn to crow in the morning!

We added a few buckeyes to our flock late last spring simply because we needed some filler chicks to get the last 4 easter eggers from the feed store and the only others they had were buckeyes... weren't we lucky?

I absolutely love our buckeyes. They are beautiful birds with wonderful burgundy colouring and reddish heads. They are the hardiest of our chickens who go out and have dust baths when there's no snow even when it's 20 degrees out and windy! Nothing stops them from going out in the outdoors, whether it's rain, wind, or snow... tough and resilient they are. They fared well with no frost bite on their mini combs or feet this winter, even in the dry, cold, bitter windy weather.

Our buckeyes lay big, brown eggs almost every day, all winter long. They lay very early in the morning, and we only catch them a few times, but those big brown eggs with the thick shells are hard to miss!

Our buckeyes aren't going to come running up to sit in my lap like some of the others. But they're friendly and calm, and one of the best words I can think of is 'stoic'. They don't flinch with the others, and are always alert and calm when other birds are panicked from something flying overhead or a scary noise in the woods. They will walk up to you and follow you without you even noticing it, and many times I turned around and nearly stepped on them because I didn't even hear them following me. They are rather routine, hang out mostly together, perch together, and always go to the same areas at the same time of the day. It's hard to see one buckeye without the other nearby.

The only flaw from mine is that they don't protect themselves. They don't make any effort to get themselves a pecking order, and are routinely attacked by our mean, young rhode islands who are trying to establish themselves. Both our buckeyes have pecked heads every night but they always just sit together and do their best to avoid the mean birds. I only saw one fight back once, and it was when the other hen would not leave them alone, chasing them everywhere, pecking them. She won that little fight and fortunately won her rights to be able to walk around the yard without being harassed.

If you like a bird who isn't a bully and is tough, hardy, beautiful, and a good layer, the Buckeye is quite possibly a good choice!

I will be adding more of these to my flock as soon as I can. I really like these girls. They look at you with calm, curious, seemingly thoughtful eyes.

We purchased our sex-links from a local breeder to try out the hybrid breeds to see how they were. They began laying earlier than our heritages, and more often, but the eggs themselves were thin shelled. All our hens have the same feed and have access to oyster shell inside the coops, none of the heritage breeds have thin shell issues - the black sex links we also purchased do, however. They are very people friendly, and as chicks would like to perch on your arm and eat from your hands. They are not aggressive with the other chickens and are easy to take care of.

Our hens have stopped laying earlier than other breeds, probably due to being hybrid birds bred for a specific person (I've heard birds bred for one thing in particular are not exactly the most healthy or live the longest). Of course, there are exceptions: one still lays really good and has thick shelled eggs, but we received her from another farm when their coop burned down. Perhaps it's genetic.

Our red sex links, compared to all other breeds we own (including the blacks) are the least intelligent. They stay out at night and some of them we have to find and bring in every night because they will stand outside the coop when the sun goes down, not moving. They're quick to find their way out but not in, I guess! Unlike every other bird who runs for cover when an eagle or hawk flies over, our sex links just stand there and look at it, while the roosters screech again and again to warn the hens to go to cover - again, easy picking for predators. They will pace for hours back and forth along the fence-line, while every other chicken has left through the gap we left open when we let them free range, because they don't seem to be able to see it or find it.

We've been lucky not to lose any of our sex links to predators, even with many close calls, due to a very good, protective rooster. If you have sex-links, make sure to watch them carefully! We've had a few go missing at night in winter and turn up the next morning, with really bad frostbite, because they don't return to the coop and simply go somewhere that we can't find them (presumed something had gotten them).

Despite their faults, they are a great breed of friendly, talkative hens who lay well at first but taper off quickly. Great for backyard flock owners who want to get a lot of eggs but don't have a lot of room for copious amounts of chickens. Watch them carefully though.

From all the other reviews, some people have smart ones, so maybe their inability to tell an open door from a brick wall is also due to their genetics. Be careful where you get them!

We first got a rhode island rooster a few years ago from a friend who had a bunch of rhode islands and couldn't keep a rooster in the city. It was a young rooster and we had 12 pullets in an open pasture so decided to take him. Although he was friendly enough with his flock, although sometimes a bit rough, he was extremely aggressive with us three days after we got him. The first few days we were able to pet him and feed him from our hands, and then on the third day he pecked and bit my finger when I tried, and after that, wouldn't let anyone enter the pasture and would attack our hands when trying to get eggs. We culled him afterwards, and learned after that many people found RIR roosters to be extremely aggressive. He was quite a beautiful bird though.

This year we got 10 rhode island red pullets and mixed them into our flock of ~35 other chickens of a huge variety of breeds, sizes, and colours. We have 3 roosters, one of them a bantam. They get along really well with the other birds and do not fight, and generally aren't picked on. They don't mess with the bantam rooster either or go after the ducks. Our main concerns were that they would be aggressive with the other birds because of other reviews we've seen but so far they've been wonderful.

The moment they started laying we noticed an immediate rise in egg production to almost 8 extra eggs per day than we had before - they are egg laying machines! The eggs are good size and have a fairly thick shell compared to the hybrid sex-ilnks.

They have been hardy this winter so far with only the girls with the largest of combs getting a tiny bit of frostbite, but no more so than any other breed we have except buckeyes who are 100% hardy it seems.

The biggest problem we have with them is that they're flighty - from the moment we got them to now they will not be touched (we go them when they were around 4 weeks old). They flip out when they see you and run away and hide, and some of them peck at your boots or try to attack you angrily when you shoo them away. Of course, we had a couple easter eggers who didn't like to be shooed away and attacked our boots so it's not really a big deal.

There are 2 or 3 girls who will go out of their way to be aggressive towards people. The rest are just insanely skittish and flighty. Handling them as chicks was extremely hard because they would immediately screech and scratch or peck.

As long as they lay good eggs and don't try to fight the other hens I'm happy with them though!

Our experience with the bird has been pretty good. They lay well, they're pretty with their golden heads, and they made it through a harsh winter good - no frost bite, even in an unheated coop. I have seen many that are friendly and docile, but unfortunately, this wasn't the case with ours.

We purchased 6 black sex links, and 6 red sex links together, and raised them together. The reds were friendly, the blacks were skittish. They are not people aggressive, but ours are bullies with the other birds and have made it a habit to go after the new, young, or 'being mated' hens at any chance.

The black sex links we own have thinner shells than the other hens (the red sex links are also thin). They are fed the same diet with access to calcium in the form of oyster shells in a feed bin in each coop. We raise a huge variety of different breeds (buffs, easter eggers, barred rocks, plymouth rocks, marans), and they by far have the easiest to break eggs.

All around a decent breed, specially for being egg laying machines.

I will begin my review by stating none of our ducks came from a breeder or hatchery. Duck eggs were given to us by a friend who owns ducks so we could try and hatch them.

The pekin female is friendly, alert, and a great egg layer. All pekins are beautiful, with nice white feathers and orange bills (some have lighter yellow bills). The healthy males we had were a bit aggressive with the females and very horny. So much so, that the females were bald on their backs and necks, and their wings were also going bald in spots where feathers were getting ripped out. Some would get injured, and were limping, and they were still mating with them, forcefully. The males were taken care of.

As far as health issues, we had 6 pekins hatch from our eggs (the others were 5 cayugas). 2 of the pekins died at 2 weeks old - they didn't grow, even though they acted fine, ate and drank and played. Another had a serious version of a genetic defect known as wry tail. He was always limping and his spine would jut awkwardly to the side with every step he made - even his head was always tilted to one side. He eventually died at just under a year old, from no apparent cause other than his condition.

They are quick to be overweight and can have trouble getting back to a normal size.

It is unfortunate that out of the 6 pekins we started with, three of them died, and the other two were too aggressive to keep, because they are otherwise wonderful, friendly, and beautiful birds!

Our female pekin lays large, white eggs, easily much larger than the cayugas eggs. She lays one a day, almost every day, and does not go broody.