Explore Our Breeds & Crosses:
Black Copper Marans, Self Blue Ameraucanas, Olive Eggers, and Bantam Salmon Faverolles
We invite you to get to know our breeds and crosses. While they are all different, we love and adore them equally. We chose each one because they possess an element that will bring something unique to your flock, such as egg color or temperament.
When breeding, we select for health, temperament, and the Standard of Perfection. You can learn about our breeding practices in detail here.
When breeding, we select for health, temperament, and the Standard of Perfection. You can learn about our breeding practices in detail here.
Black Copper Marans
Marans are a hardy dual purpose breed that originated in France. They are known for the dark brown eggs they produce, but they are so much more than a pretty egg.
No (egg) shade to our other breeds, but our Black Copper Marans are the smartest birds on the farm. They are also outgoing and curious. Our Marans roosters are energetic, alert, and great protectors of the flock, while our hens are friendly, assertive, and even a little sassy. Since they don’t tend to go broody, they are reliable layers all season. Marans are highly food motivated and have a strong foraging instinct, and therefore don’t tolerate confinement as well as our other breeds. They benefit from opportunities to free range, and extra stimulation when living in an enclosed space. The Marans in your flock will be the first to run to the coop door when you open it to investigate and say hello before they brush right past you to play outside. Of all the breeds we offer, they are most likely to be at the top of the pecking order. Our Marans have great copper coloring and feathered shanks and toes. We continually work on egg color, too, and our birds generally lay from 4-6 on the egg color scale. |
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Self Blue Ameraucanas
Also known as Lavender Ameraucanas, these birds are a study in pastels with their pearly blue-grey plumage and light blue eggs. We're obsessed with their muffs and beards, too, and their pea combs and lack of wattles help protect against frostbite in cold areas.
If our Marans are the extroverts of the farm, our Self Blue Ameraucanas are their introverted counterparts. Not that we love them any less (in fact, we can relate!). Our Ameraucanas tend to be a little flighty when they are young, but this nervousness mellows into sweetness as they mature. In a mixed flock, they are likely to wind up lower on the pecking order due to their docile nature. They love to forage but don’t have the same intense need to free range as our Marans; they will be comfortable in an enclosed coop and run setup. When you open the coop door, our Ameraucanas won’t rush to greet you but will cautiously peek at you from a distance, and slowly approach. While they are shy, if you take the time to handle them and get to know them, you’ll be rewarded with a tender, intimate relationship with these birds. Our Ameraucana hens love to go broody, and they are wonderful, dedicated, and even fierce moms. They are the perfect breed to have if you seek dependable broodies that will hatch for you year after year. Once broody season hits, we often have to close orders for this breed because every hen is at some stage of raising or hatching chicks! |
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First Generation Olive Eggers
Our First Generation Olive Eggers (F1 OE) are a cross between our Black Copper Marans and Self Blue Ameraucanas, and they really possess the qualities of both.
All of our First Generation Olive Eggers have black plumage, beards and muffs, pea combs, and feathered shanks and toes. Our F1 OE roosters also have copper or gold highlights. All F1 OE hens lay eggs that are various shades of olive green. Some eggs are speckled and some even have a heavy bloom that gives them a gray, silver, or slate blue appearance. In terms of temperament, our F1 OE birds fall somewhere between their two parents. They are friendly, calm, and steady, neither as outgoing as our Marans nor as shy as our Ameraucanas. |
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Gemstone Olive Eggers
Our Gemstone Olive Eggers are a variety of second and third generation Olive Egger crosses and backcrosses.
These birds have a variety of genetic combinations and therefore a range of physical attributes. They may be black, sometimes with copper highlights, or lavender in color. They may have straight combs or pea combs, beard and muffs or not, and may have feathered shanks and toes. Some of our Gemstone hens rock a straight comb along with beards and muffs, like Stay Puft (pictured). How can you not fall in love with that face? They will lay a variety of egg colors, too! Our Gemstone hens may lay dark brown, olive green, grey, blue, teal, pink, or tan eggs. |
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Bantam Salmon Faverolles
This breed is new to our lineup this year, and we couldn’t be more eggcited! Availability will be limited this year so we can expand our breeding groups for 2023.
After looking into all of our bantam options, we chose Salmon Faverolles due to their incredibly friendly and docile temperament. The sweetness of these birds is far beyond our wildest expectations. They are the ultimate lap chicken. Even our roosters will calmly snuggle us as we enjoy our morning coffee. Adding to the cuteness, Salmon Faverolles have single combs, beards and muffs, feathered shanks and toes--and a fifth toe! One of our roosters carries the frizzle gene, so you may hatch some frizzle chicks, too. Hens will lay a small, cream colored egg. Our Bantam Salmon Faverolles do well in an enclosed set up such as a coop with an attached run. Which is great, since their tiny size makes them more vulnerable to predation. They will forage, but aren’t nearly as food motivated as our other breeds. They have been known to fall asleep in our laps...with a snack right next to their face. Their size and temperament makes them an excellent choice for small spaces, as well as families with children. Bantam roosters are also lower in volume than their full-sized counterparts, so these little Faverolles are great if you have close neighbors, too. However, because of their size and temperament, our Bantam Faverolles will do best in their own pen, or with other docile bantams and breeds. Because of the limited availability of our Faverolles, we will be fulfilling orders using a waitlist this year. You can join the waitlist by filling out the contact form through the links below: |
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Can't Decide?Try our Rainbow Assortment of Hatching Eggs!
This Assortment is a mix of our Black Copper Marans, Self Blue Ameraucana, and various Olive Egger hatching eggs. |