On Sunday, we ventured out to Purcellville, VA (approx. 1 hour from Ingleside Farm and truly a romantic and scenic drive if you take a right on Leeds Manor Road) for a casual breakfast and visit with my sister. She and her growing family had recently purchased a beautiful farmhouse and, along with it, came a small flock of 7 chickens. This wasn’t the first time we had met this flock but somewhere between eating some of the best eggs we’d ever had and feeding the chickens our table scraps, we decided that we could take on a few of our very own. And we would get started today!
After we said goodbye, we headed to Southern States, also in Purcellville. Upon entering through the electronic sliding doors, we were greeted with the sweet sounds of cheeping and soon laid eyes on aluminum tubs filled with tiny chicks of all different varieties. Some just a few days old! Golden Cuckoo Marans were what we decided on for a few reasons... They are culinary legends— prized by chefs and home cooks alike for producing some of the richest, most flavorful eggs around. What sets Marans apart is their celebrated dark brown eggs— among the deepest, most jewel-toned shells you’ll find from any backyard breed. The deep color comes from a pigment deposited in the last stage of shell formation, and the darker the egg, the more coveted.
From the port town of Marans in the Charente-Maritime region of Western France, the Golden Cuckoo Maran is an aesthetic showstopper. Their plumage is a striking barred pattern in warm gold and black, almost like hammered metal in the sunlight. Temperamentally, we can expect these Golden Cuckoos to be active and inquisitive. Perfect. We scooped up 4, naming them on the drive home – Leopard, Wannabe, Hynthia, and Toast. At home we got them settled into an old Christmas decoration storage container with a nice big red heat lamp above and plenty of bedding, feed, and water. Our mutual contentment was almost instantaneous with their happy cheeping brightening up the first floor of our 1901 farmhouse. The two house rabbits that roam the place— Marceline and Shamshir— seemed to be just as delighted and interested in the chicks as we were.
Overnight, we were woken several times by the sounds of the flock— pecking, peeping, and scratching. We didn’t mind one bit. In fact, the next morning, over coffee, Zack mused that we should probably get a few more to have a well-rounded flock. “We wouldn’t want to have to do the chick-phase all over again in a few months.” Over the course of the day, we decided that we would head back to Southern States and get another round! This time— Blue Copper Marans. Once again, the electric sliding doors whirred us back inside, this time confidently approaching the tubs of chicks. We found those labeled Blue Copper Marans and began deciding on a few to take home— no real rhyme or reason.
This variety of Marans are the quiet aesthetes in the mix with plumage that can almost have an iridescent quality of deep grays, soft slate blues and lower feathers in coppery tones. We can expect them to be calm and steady in temperament and get-along go-along members of the growing farm. In the poultry world, “blue” is an incomplete dominant gene, meaning a Blue Copper crossed with a Blue Copper can produce blue, black, or splash-patterned offspring— each with the same copper accenting. Every hatchling is a surprise! We are finding that to be true about our 4 – Lemur, Marie, Sunday, and Murphy.
Come Fall, these girls will be producing beautiful milk chocolate-colored eggs which we will stock the guest cottage fridge with ahead of every stay at Ingleside Farm. For now, we are enjoying the ambient noises and happiness that they bring into our home.
A Field Guide to
The Marans
Charente-Maritime, France
Golden Cuckoo Marans
Gallus gallus domesticus
Active and curious. Plumage is a striking barred pattern in warm gold and black, almost like hammered metal in the sunlight.
Blue Copper Marans
Gallus gallus domesticus
Calm and steady. Plumage with an iridescent quality of deep grays, soft slate blues, and coppery lower feathers.
