Hatching Eggs – Chicken – Cuckoo Maran

Description

We hatch our own Free-Range chickens every year on our farm and it is this same egg stock that we share with you here. 🐣

Cuckoo Marans are docile, friendly and are ideal for people looking for something a little special.  They tend to lay some of the darkest brown eggs (colour varies during laying cycle) and are a nice dual-purpose bird for both eggs and meat. This is a good, hardy breed and do well in confinement and free range. They get along great in mixed-breed flocks setting.  They lay approximately 240 eggs per year.

With Cuckoo Marans the chicks have black down.  You sometimes get the odd yellow chick with is a genetic throwback and called a ‘Wheaten Maran’.  (See end of description for more information…)

Our own chickens that we hatch every year are beautiful and lay well.

• Freshest laid eggs provided for you (8-48 hour laid)
• Carefully individually selected for maximum chance of hatchability (not all fertile eggs are good to hatch)
• Carefully hand prepared
• Carefully packed in clean, home-compostable packaging
• Package clearly externally marked as fragile (using paper fragile tape) and box marked on 4 sides for orientation.
• Download the incubation guide free of charge. It really is very good!
• We help you along the way within our Facebook Group ‘Home Farm Customer Hatching Stories’ where you can also see other customers experiences.
• Postage** – We use Royal Mail Tracked 24 service so you can see where your eggs are all along their journey to you.  Should you prefer not to take the risk of postal delay, we have provided an option for you to choose Royal Mail Special Delivery.
• Packaging – we are proud to say that we do not use any polystyrene or plastic packaging in any form. All our packaging is home compostable.
• Collection – you may collect your eggs from us. They can be collected from our ‘Click & Collect’ shelf in our shop 24/7/365. There is no requirement for contact. We will email you to let you know when they are ready for collection.

Over 85% fertility (4 consecutive days & 100% eggs incubated) Jan 2023

For advice on how to care for your chickens please visit https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/farm/farmanimals/chickens

🐣 Have Fun Hatching! 🐣

Additional Information

*fertility – although we cannot guarantee fertility we have an extremely high fertility rate shown above.  We hatch our own birds every year on our farm and it is this same egg stock that we share with you here. It is impossible to tell whether an egg is fertile until it’s been incubated for about 7-10 days. 

**Please note – Postage is very hard on hatching eggs.  We and the postal service can’t guarantee how carefully the boxes are handled and no matter how well we pack them, sometimes you end up with cracked eggs, detached air-sacs, or otherwise “scrambled” eggs on delivery. The latter are unlikely to develop. 

We can’t be held responsible for damaged eggs or postal delays.  Regarding any postal delays – fertility holds reasonably well up to 7 days, but declines rapidly afterwards.  After 3 weeks of storage, fertility drops to almost zero.

• • When we pack and send – see website shop front.
  • We do not delay posting out orders unless specifically requested to do so by the buyer, or we may delay over long bank holidays if we judge egg viability to be otherwise compromised.
  • PLEASE NOTE – WE GIVE OURSELVES 1-2 WORKING DAYS TO DISPATCH.  VERY OCCASIONALLY OUR BIRDS MAY HAVE NOT LAID ENOUGH THAT DAY (FOR WHATEVER REASON) OR THERE HAVE BEEN BREAKAGES.   IN THIS SCENARIO, YOUR ORDER IS PLACED TOP OF THE LIST FOR THE NEXT DAY.

Cuckoo Marans chicks have black down.  You sometimes get the odd yellow chick with is a genetic throwback and called a ‘Wheaten Maran’ (also a wonderful layer).

The Cuckoos have the most dominant gene, which is Extended Black(E/E).  The Wheaten has one the most recessive genes found in chickens, which is the Wheaten gene (eWh/eWh).  If you cross Cuckoo and Wheaten Marans all of your first cross (F1) will come out looking like Cuckoo Marans (chick black down and adult speckled plumage). Since they look like your everyday Cuckoo Maran there is no way to tell they are heterozygotes E/eWh.  So, if you are looking to breed just breed from the black chicks/birds and enjoy the eggs from the Wheatens!