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The Columbian Marans
Description of Columbian Marans
  • - the whole body is pure white,with a white undercolor. The hackle lacing dosen't spread up to the head, which must remain totally white.
  • - the black hackle lacing also appear at the top of the throat, the breast is white.  These black laces have a spearhead form, which are neither rough nor intrusive, are edged by a sliver/white border, with a green gloss.
  • - The tail feathers are black as are the lancets. The small sickles are black with a white border, as are the hen’s tail covers.
  • - in the stretched out wings, the inner side of the flights are black whereas the external side is white to such an extent that the folded wings appear white.
  • - the shanks are pinkish-white with medium feathering that conforms to the breed  Standard . Finally, it is genetically possible to encounter black in the shank plumage but is not always achieved.

 Note: General appearance of Cock and Hen is posted on the Black Copper Marans Page.
The Columbian Marans
Serious Defaults to avoid

Washed out colors, double edging (white edged with black). Golden highlights.




 No Known USA Breeders of the Columbian Variety

The Columbian Marans                                    David Hancox

(Light or Ermine)

This old Marans variety, which is described and recognized in the breed Standard, has become one of the rarest varieties today, and is nearly on the point of extinction.

Even though it has been described for a long time, this variety has never undergone any important development, and in this respect we have to resign ourselves to the fact there is little photographic record of it. From the plumage aspect the phenotype of the Columbian Marans of origin is close to that of the Light Sussex. The genotype is based on the Wheaten eWh gene, shown by the presence of its white (or light) under-color, it should not be like the Brahma and Wyandotte which are Brown, eb based and have a blue/gray under-color.
 
 
 

The presence of the Columbian Marans white under-color in the original Standard demonstrates the total absence of the Brown gene, eb.
We don't know if any Marans ever had the Brown eb gene, but today this gene is not found in the genome of any Marans variety. So the Columbian Marans genome consists of the Wheaten, eWh, allele together with the Columbian (Co) and Silver, S. The Columbian gene restricts the distribution of black pigment in the feathers to the hackle, tail, flights and possibly the shank feathers. Moreover, Co also suppresses sexual dimorphism to such an extent that the cocks and the hens have identical plumage colors. It should be noted that these genes modify the black and white distribution on the feathers i.e. producing a feather having a black centre with a white border or edge, and not the opposite.

The genome of the Columbian marans cock is eWh/eWh S/S Co/Co Id/Id Pti-1/Pti-1 and the hen eWh/eWh S/- Co/Co Id/Id Pti-1/Pti-1.