Maran Chickens have originated in France. If we see its status, it is generally a medium sized breed but it is famous for both the eggs it lays as well as the meat they provide. The eggs these chickens lay will be generally in dark red colour and the meat we get from chickens will be of high quality.

If we consider the history of Chickens, these maran chickens come in nine colours, which will be stated as cuckoo, colour of black, and various others. Even more than nine colours exist but they are not officially recognized. The most famous among these types of Chickens, the Cuckoo and the black copper stands at the top of the list.

This chicken's breed was first originated in France and then was exported to England. At the time they are exported from France to England, they have a very peculiar appearance and only 2 colours existed at that time. Soon it became the famous breed in England overtaking the country fowl as well.

 Chickens generally have red coloured or orange coloured eyes and legs of white colour. They are of medium size. Originally, these original breeds have legs that are feathered but as time went on this pattern were changed.

Looking into the characteristics of these chickens, they are always quite and are ready to accept the instructions but even though they are always ready to take instructions from its breeders, they are also active and quite disease resistant. They have the ability to withstand with the vibrating or disturbing conditions.

Generally, for a year, chickens lay around 150 eggs, which are dark red coloured. This bird has dual purpose in terms of its eggs as well as its meat. The history of these chickens is that these chickens were originated in France and were imported into UK in 1930. In the period of 1929, a man from UK called Lord Greenway attended Paris exhibition and came to see the flavour and taste of meat made from chickens and he was so impressed that he tried to import that to UK. However, at that time, there are severe restrictions on importing the livestock into the country, which restricted him to import them. Even then, he smuggled some eggs of these maran chickens to his country by masking them as boiled eggs and then in his place, he made those eggs to hatch and was more impressed to see the colour of the chickens. Nevertheless, later, when the restrictions on importing the live stock were lifted in UK, he imported some 60 days old maran chickens.

These maran chickens were accepted as a standard fowl in the year 1935 and J S parkin and Powell developed this standard. Then later gold cuckoo maran chickens followed in the year 1944 and then blacks are followed in the year 1952.

Now days, it is very difficult to find pure maran chickens because of this reason only, it also became very difficult to distinguish the original maran chickens with those that are mongrelised. Now, the poultry club of Great Britain is refusing to accept this maran chicken breeds as the standard but their maran chicken club does accepted.