Backyard Brahmas!!

[bumpercarr]

I'm hoping so I have 6 total... Here is a shoot of a few more

I'm a new chicken mommy and the suspense is killing me

I'm thinking pullets as well.

 

[dusica731]

I'm thinking pullets as well.

Yay! Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate the help

 

[GAFarmGirl87]

I'm hoping so I have 6 total... Here is a shoot of a few more

I'm a new chicken mommy and the suspense is killing me

Pullets. My roos already had a great deal of red in their big combs and wattles by that age.

 

[cabinchicky]

I have 4 Brahmas at almost 7 weeks old yet one is half the size of the rest and still not feathered out. Possible male or could this one have an issue?? It acts fine. Feeds runs amok like the rest just really behind on growing. Can anyone possibly give me an idea??

 

[bumpercarr]

I have 4 Brahmas at almost 7 weeks old yet one is half the size of the rest and still not feathered out. Possible male or could this one have an issue?? It acts fine. Feeds runs amok like the rest just really behind on growing. Can anyone possibly give me an idea??

I usually have one out of each hatch that has a failure to thrive like you are describing. I've been told that they don't usually live very long, that there is something wrong with them. None of mine that are behind like this have ever made it to adulthood, but it has always been a predator that got them, not something else. Now, whether the predator got them because they were smaller, or because they were slower, or whether the flock threw them to the wolves so to speak, I don't know. BTW, all of them were cockerels.

 

[bumpercarr]

I usually have one out of each hatch that has a failure to thrive like you are describing. I've been told that they don't usually live very long, that there is something wrong with them. None of mine that are behind like this have ever made it to adulthood, but it has always been a predator that got them, not something else. Now, whether the predator got them because they were smaller, or because they were slower, or whether the flock threw them to the wolves so to speak, I don't know. BTW, all of them were cockerels.

Also, I wonder if the dwarf gene is recessive and occasionally throws itself into the breeding program. Normally, dwarfism (not the bantam dwarf gene) would show with short legs according to what I've read. I haven't seen Big Medicine lately, maybe he'll read this and supply some insight. I've read a lot about chicken dwarfism, but I don't feel very qualified to comment on it.

 

[livininbrazil]

I usually have one out of each hatch that has a failure to thrive like you are describing. I've been told that they don't usually live very long, that there is something wrong with them. None of mine that are behind like this have ever made it to adulthood, but it has always been a predator that got them, not something else. Now, whether the predator got them because they were smaller, or because they were slower, or whether the flock threw them to the wolves so to speak, I don't know. BTW, all of them were cockerels.

Also, I wonder if the dwarf gene is recessive and occasionally throws itself into the breeding program. Normally, dwarfism (not the bantam dwarf gene) would show with short legs according to what I've read. I haven't seen Big Medicine lately, maybe he'll read this and supply some insight. I've read a lot about chicken dwarfism, but I don't feel very qualified to comment on it.

Just to chuck in my two cents: I have a dwarf hen (not Brahma) who limps about and is less than half the size of her sisters. She lays me normal-sized eggs. I also HAD a runt Brahma cockerel. At hatch, was as good as the others, but as he grew he was odd. few feathers, and when I held him, he crackled! Really odd. He died. I put it down to him being the result of mother-son breeding, as I was after partridge colour. Didn´t get it, though. His sister and bro are fine.

 

[bumpercarr]

Just to chuck in my two cents: I have a dwarf hen (not Brahma) who limps about and is less than half the size of her sisters. She lays me normal-sized eggs. I also HAD a runt Brahma cockerel. At hatch, was as good as the others, but as he grew he was odd. few feathers, and when I held him, he crackled! Really odd. He died. I put it down to him being the result of mother-son breeding, as I was after partridge colour. Didn´t get it, though. His sister and bro are fine.

Interesting. I don't know what you were breeding to try to get partridge, but generally people cross in a partridge cochin cock bird over dark brahma hens. This is why so many of the partridge brahmas hens have undesirable cushions and bunny tails (to the standard that is, they are still beautiful birds). I'm working to try to get rid of those traits, but so far I'm not having very good luck with my darks (killed by predators, poor hatch rate). I'm thinking that I need to go buy a nice dark trio and work from there, but unfortunately the breeders are just too far away from me to make that viable. If the darks that I have in the incubator don't hatch this time, I'm giving up on hatching some and trying to find a trio even if I have to travel to get them.

On the dwarf/runt side, how do you tell the difference between the runt and dwarfism? Everything that I've read said that dwarfism exhibits itself at about 3 weeks, the chick doesn't grow as quickly and feathers out much more slowly, where a runt should have diminutive size from hatching but the feather development is similar to its normal siblings. I don't know if I've had runts or dwarfs, but either way it is an interesting study for me. I have one runt/dwarf (suspect dwarf) right now and I'm hoping he'll grow to adulthood just so that I can study him and his offspring. If I cross him with bantam dark hens will I end up with bantam partridge? That would be cool, I don't think I've seen those anywhere.

On the line breeding side, of course if you breed your line back, you will not only enhance the desirable traits but will also enhance the undesirable traits. Since dwarfism (not bantam) is a recessive gene, I would think breeding a son back to his mum there would be a higher likelihood of dwarfism if the mum also had the dwarf gene and passed a recessive gene on to the cockerel that you bred her back to. Most people that do line breeding agree though that the process should be best of the pullets back to the father and the best cockerel back to the mother. Then the F2 generation in theory would have the best of the parents. At that point, it would seem wise to bring in an unrelated line, but I haven't managed to get that far because of my losses.

I sure wish that Big Medicine would chime in. He is so wise when it comes to this stuff.

 

[carcar80]

Hi guys, I have a total of 15 partridge brahma eggs incubating now on day 10.. Bumpercarr or others, and chance you can tell any hints on color when they hatch? As far as black vs blue.. These should all be either/or, no splash as far as I know (mine from own flock for sure anyway)..

Either way I'm excited! Hoping for a successful hatch and that I'll get some good looking birds from it.

 

[bamadude]

my mutt brahmas. A buff roo over a light x dark hen made light roos and buff pullets.