This Black Copper Marans rooster is descended from a Marans show-line imported from Holland many years ago by Canadian poultry enthusiast Dennis La Belle. By the time I had acquired hatching eggs the birds (through poor breeding by other breeders) had lost almost all of their beautiful copper colour and were nearly black. After four years of careful selective breeding I was able to restore the copper colour but the egg colour remains a disappointing light brown, quite unimpressive compared to the brick red eggs of the true Marans.