Lavender Birchen Marans Origins & Breeding History: Our 14 Year Journey

I have been breeding birds for over 20 years, and for nearly as long I have admired lavender poultry. Something about that soft, silvery-gray plumage has always drawn me in. After years of working with Marans, I naturally began to wonder what it would take to develop Lavender Marans of my own.

Had anyone told me then that the answer would involve more than a decade of work, an absurd number of breeding pens, and at least one humbling detour, I doubt I would have believed them. As it turned out, every word of that would have been true. This is my personal account of my Lavender Birchen Marans origins and history, and of how that curiosity grew into the line I raise today.

Lavender Birchen Marans Origins and History: A Mystery Auction Pair

Our original Lavender Marans Pair won from the auction in 2012

The project began in 2012, when I won a pair of Lavender Marans in an online auction on RareBreedAuctions.com. Longtime poultry keepers may remember the site, which was a popular source for unusual breeds, rare color varieties, and project birds that were difficult to find anywhere else. I was thrilled when the pair arrived.

Apart from receiving the birds, I never had any contact with the original breeder. The pair arrived without a pedigree or breeding history, and I had no way of knowing which breeds had been used to bring in the lavender gene. More than a decade later, their genetic origins are still a mystery.

Based on traits I have observed in their descendants, my best guess is that Lavender Orpingtons contributed to the line at some point. It is purely speculation on my part, but it would not surprise me. Truthfully, the pair were Marans more in name than in substance. Apart from their feathered shanks, they showed very few of the characteristics that define the breed. Whatever their origins, I had my Lavender Marans, and I was eager to see what I could make of them.

Building on a Sound Foundation

When the pair arrived, they were still very young. Like most Marans owners, I was anxious to see that first egg! I waited and waited, only to be sadly disappointed with what was at best, a tinted egg! I hadn't expected perfection, just maybe something a little more "Marans"! I was still excited to work with them despite my disappointment in their egg color, after all, they were the color I had been dreaming of!

Their type definitely needed work, they had very poor posture and tail carriage, so for the first three generations, I bred Lavender to Lavender and selected rigorously for as close as I could get to Marans type, feather quality, and consistency within the line. I have always believed that a new color variety must rest on a well-made bird. Attractive plumage cannot compensate for poor breed type, and I wanted these birds to look and perform like true Marans rather than simply being chickens that happened to be lavender.

I also understood the challenges that accompany the lavender gene, which has long been associated with feather shredding and other feather-quality problems in certain lines. Because I didn't know the origins or genetic diversity that went into these birds, I knew careful selection could hold those problems at bay for a time, but I knew the line would eventually need fresh genetics. I wanted to strengthen the line before it became a problem, rather than wait until those issues became difficult to correct.

To protect the progress I had already made, I divided the program into two groups. The first served as a control pen that preserved my original Lavender line, while the second became a test pen for outcrossing experiments. I have used this approach with many of my color projects, and although it requires far more breeding pens than I would like, it has spared me from starting over more times than I can count. In this case, it would prove essential.

An Unsuccessful Outcross

My first plan was to cross the Lavenders with good Black Marans, which seemed the most direct way to improve type and feather quality without introducing unwanted color. Unfortunately, quality Black Marans were extremely scarce at the time.

Black Copper Marans had just been admitted to the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection the year prior (2011), and while good breeding stock was still limited, I already maintained an established BBS Copper Marans line. My foundation birds came from Tom Culpepper in 2005, then president of the Marans club and steward of the Wade Jeane line. Since I had some excellent birds from that stock, I decided to try the cross.

As you might imagine, it introduced an entirely new problem in the form of copper leakage. For several generations, I worked to eliminate the copper, gold, and brassy tones from those birds. Each time I believed I was making progress, another hatch would produce warm-colored feathers precisely where I did not want them.

Part of the difficulty lies in how lavender works. The gene dilutes both black pigment (eumelanin) and red or gold pigment (phaeomelanin), and those diluted warm tones stand out conspicuously against soft gray plumage. After several frustrating generations, I concluded that I was fighting an uphill battle and abandoned that branch of the project.

This is where the control pen proved its value. Because I had kept my original Lavender line separate, I had lost nothing except time, and I was able to return to my control birds and reconsider my approach.

A New Opportunity in 2015

When Greenfire Farms imported Blue, Black, and Splash Birchen Marans in 2015, I was thrilled, because I immediately saw a far better opportunity for my Lavender project. Here was a chance to retain the Marans type I loved while helping to address the problems that still needed fixing in my Lavender line, particularly feather quality. Just as important, the Birchens were silver-based rather than gold-based. That gave me a much cleaner background for lavender, one that could strengthen the birds without reintroducing the copper and brassiness I had just spent years trying to remove.

I ordered my first Birchen chicks in late 2015 and established a separate BBS Birchen line. Rather than crossing them into my Lavenders immediately, I spent the next couple of breeding seasons developing the Birchens themselves. I particularly wanted roosters with clean silver hackles and saddles, which anyone who has worked with silver-based poultry knows can be difficult to achieve, since brassiness and stray color tend to creep into exactly those areas.

I selected my best birds, improved type and uniformity, and worked toward cleaner silver expression. By the end of those two seasons, I had developed several Black Silver Birchen roosters that represented the best I could produce at the time. They were by no means perfect, but they were strong enough to carry the project forward.

Unfortunately, those years were also among the most difficult of my life. From 2016 through 2019, I cared for my mother through her battle with cancer and helped with my husband's mother after her dementia diagnosis. In that time, my husband, Jim, and I lost his father in 2016, my mother just two months later in 2017, and his mother in 2019. In that season, my family had to come first, and for much of that time, the project came nearly to a standstill.

Some of our original BBS Birchen Flock, note melanized hens showing very little hackle expression

The First Lavender Birchen Cross

When I first crossed my Lavender Marans with Black Silver Birchen Marans, the first generation was encouraging. The F1 birds offered better Marans type, stronger feather quality, and the Birchen background I had hoped to introduce.

Because lavender is an autosomal recessive trait, each of those first-generation birds carried a single copy of the lavender gene without expressing the color. Breeders call such birds Lavender splits. They resemble their non-lavender parent, but they can pass the lavender gene on to their offspring. For readers who are new to these color genetics, my article, Lavender Birchen Marans Genetics: A Beginner's Guide to Understanding the Colors in Your Flock, explains how lavender, Birchen, and their modifiers work together.

I was in no hurry to produce lavender chicks for their own sake, because I wanted to build a stronger foundation first. I continued selecting for type, uniformity, and feather quality, and as the generations progressed, I began to notice something I had not expected.

One of our original Lavender Birchen Marans Roosters

Some of our original Lavender Birchen Marans flock

The Mystery of the Dark Hens

Some of my hens were expressing very little Birchen pattern. Instead of the silver hackles I wanted, they showed patchy, sporadic silver feathering, and some were so dark that they appeared almost entirely black. Many of the roosters, meanwhile, displayed far more recognizable Birchen patterning.

Clearly, more was happening genetically than I understood, so I began researching in earnest. I wanted to know why my hens were becoming so heavily melanized and what was suppressing their Birchen pattern. This was the beginning of my deeper interest in Birchen genetics. Until then, I had concentrated mainly on type, feather quality, and establishing the color, but now I wanted to understand what was happening beneath the feathers. Much of what I learned eventually became my article, Lavender Birchen Marans: A Breeder's Guide to Genetics, Selection, and Standards.

One of the most valuable things I learned was that a nearly solid-black hen was not necessarily a setback. She could still carry the Birchen allele even if her plumage showed little evidence of it. Research has shown that the Melanotic gene (Ml), when combined with Birchen (ER), can produce an essentially solid-black bird. In other words, the Birchen genetics may be fully present even when the visible pattern is almost entirely masked.

This meant that some of my darkest hens might still be valuable breeders, since their lack of silver did not prove that they had lost their Birchen background. At the same time, an all-black appearance cannot by itself show whether a bird carries Birchen or Extended Black (E). Distinguishing the two requires studying related birds, reviewing breeding records, and observing which traits each bird passes to its offspring.

I began studying the E locus, the differences between Birchen and Extended Black, and the role that melanizing modifiers play in how these patterns are expressed. I also paid much closer attention to chick down, hackle and saddle development, breast patterning, and the way these characteristics appeared across generations. Even now, after years of selection, I still see heavy melanization in some of my Lavender Birchen splits.

In hindsight, those dark hens were an important part of my education as a breeder. What first seemed like a frustrating lack of color expression led me to a much deeper understanding of the genetics I was working with. That is one of the things I love most about poultry breeding, because the birds that defy my expectations are often the ones that teach me the most.

Both of these Lavender Birchen Marans Split Hens have very little Birchen hackle expression, but they have been integral in my breeding program by carrying tested birchen (ER) genetics

Why I Keep the Program Divided

As the project grew, I organized my birds into three main groups, each with several pens. That arrangement requires considerably more work, including more pens, more record keeping, and more birds to evaluate. When I am developing a new color, however, I never want to put all my eggs in one basket, and yes, the pun is intended. 😉

Some pens preserve established genetics, while others are reserved for test matings or for pursuing particular traits. If a cross leads somewhere I do not like, I can return to an earlier branch and try a different direction, which is exactly what rescued this project after the Black Copper crosses failed. The divided structure also helps me preserve genetic diversity while I continue improving type and color. For me, the extra effort is well worth it.

Building Consistency

Over the next two to three generations, my Black Silver Birchen birds became noticeably more consistent. I should emphasize that I made only one original outcross to Black Silver Birchen in the Lavender project, and I did not bring in new Birchen birds each generation. My aim was to introduce those genetics once, strengthen the foundation, and then develop the traits I wanted through careful selection of the resulting offspring.

During a long color project, I know how easy it is to focus so intently on plumage that I overlook the bird itself, and I have always tried to avoid that mistake. My priorities have remained the same from the start. First, I want a good Marans with correct type, sound health, good feather quality, and reasonable production. Color and pattern come next, followed eventually by egg color. Marans are prized for their dark chocolate-brown eggs, and I want my birds to carry that hallmark forward rather than trade it away for beautiful plumage. None of these traits is ever ignored, but clear priorities help me decide which birds deserve a place in the breeding pen.

Recovering Lavender

With a more consistent foundation in place, I began test-mating my Lavender splits. I had two goals: to recover high-quality Lavender offspring and to better understand the Birchen genetics being passed along.

A bird may carry one or two copies of Birchen (ER), and because other genes influence its expression, I cannot always determine a bird's E-locus genotype from its adult plumage. I therefore paid close attention to chick down, hackle and saddle development, breast patterning, and the patterns I observed among related birds. Many of the offspring showed traits consistent with the Birchen background I had been developing, which was very encouraging.

When two splits are mated, roughly 25 percent of their chicks should express lavender, because each parent carries one copy of the recessive gene. Once I had good Lavender birds, I also mated them back to my best splits. Those pairings produce roughly 50 percent lavender chicks and 50 percent splits, which allowed me to recover lavender more quickly while continuing to draw on the strengths of the split birds. From those offspring, I selected the best Lavender birds and incorporated them into the appropriate branches of the program. Then I repeated the entire cycle of breeding, hatching, evaluating, and selecting, again and again. There were some wonderful surprises along the way, as well as plenty of birds that did not turn out as I had hoped, and both are simply part of developing a new color.

A young Lavender Birchen Marans hen with great type and expression. She hatched from a Lavender Birchen split to split breeding

Fourteen Years Later

When I think back to that pair of Lavender Marans I bought in 2012, I find it hard to believe how much has happened since. A simple fondness for a color grew into one of the longest and most complicated breeding projects I have ever undertaken. Along the way, I abandoned crosses, reconsidered decisions, maintained multiple genetic branches, and worked through some truly puzzling questions about plumage color and expression, and I learned an extraordinary amount in the process.

Today, I continue to work with Lavender Marans, Lavender Birchen Marans, and Black Silver Birchen Marans, each with its own breeding goals and ongoing selection. Within the Lavender Birchen Marans, I am now keeping two distinct lines: one known for eggs with a lovely pink bloom, and another selected more closely toward the dark chocolate-brown egg color called for in the Marans standard. I am still refining type, feather quality, and the consistency of Birchen expression, and I hope future generations will answer the questions that remain. Producing one beautiful bird has never been my goal. The real accomplishment is building a line that reproduces those qualities reliably, generation after generation, and that work is neither easy nor fast.

For that reason, it means a great deal to me to watch this line reach far beyond my own pens. Lavender Birchen Marans from this program are now raised by many wonderful breeders and families all over the country, each bringing their own care and vision to these birds. Seeing the line grow into what it is today has been something truly special, and I am deeply grateful to everyone who has helped carry it forward.

After more than two decades of breeding poultry, I still feel a thrill each time I open the incubator, watch a new generation develop, and wonder what those birds might teach me. I never imagined that an online auction in 2012 would lead me here, but I am awfully glad it did. As for the Lavender Birchen Marans...their story is still being written. 💜

Heidi Miller and her husband Jim are the founders of Seeking Eden Permaculture, a rare breed and permaculture farm nestled in the foothills of Central California. With over two decades of hands-on experience, Heidi has dedicated herself to preserving and improving a wide variety of rare breeds and color varieties — including her carefully developed line of Lavender Birchen Marans — with a passion and patience that is reflected in every carton of hatching eggs she produces.