Backyard Brahmas!!

[Katt66]

A dark over light breeding should produce birds like this.


A dark over buff should produce pullets that look like the female above, but cockerels will be split gold/silver as bumpercar stated. which will likely look like the male above with brassy yellowish hackle and saddle feathers.

I found this picture on the web, this looks to be a light/buff cross split silver/gold. Now your cross males from the buff hens will be similarly colored, with the addition of residual penciling.

I know this is from a conversation from nearly 2 weeks ago and I apologize for digging so far back but, I have a couple of questions and I believe you are the best person to ask lol.

Ok...where to start...

My daughter picked up 2 "Light Brahma" hens from an auction a few months ago. They look exactly like this hen up above here. I'd thought they were just very "dirty" Light Brahmas or that they were Light and Dark mixed. But after reading this, I think they are actually Dark and Buff crossed.

So, jump ahead a few months to about 6 weeks ago. My little Buff Brahma Bantam X Mille Fleur D'uccles cockerel is absolutely in love with the smaller of these two dirty birds. He's successfully fertilized her eggs.

We, a good friend of mine, my sis in law, and myself have an old incubator lying around and decide it would be fun to try to hatch eggs and what better time than for New Years Eve. So we set up the incubator and collect a bunch of eggs with visions of the kids all gleefully watching babies hatch out on NYE as we set these eggs.

My past experiences with incubators have been quite negative, with my Aunt's incubator yielding maybe a 10 percent hatch rate and that being very slow and late. So I insisted we put a few eggs in a day or two early just to ensure we actually have babies coming OUT on NYE for the kids and not just eggs cracking. (what 3 yr old will get excited over an egg with a crack in it? after all)

So we decided to put the eggs I'd gathered in early. 4 of which were from my little dirty Brahma covered by the Buff cockerel.

Lo and behold, these eggs all pip last night and 2 have made their way out this morning already! Apparently, my 2 newbie cohorts and my newbie self are better at incubating eggs than my Aunt ever was lol

Anyway, down to my question finally... The 2 chicks that have hatched fully my friend says look like her Buff Brahma chicks did when they hatched. Will these birds possibly be sex linked by color in some way? Or does the thing you were talking about earlier with the cockerels being one color and pullets another only work if it's a Buff hen covered by a Dark or Light cockerel?

 

[big medicine]

I know this is from a conversation from nearly 2 weeks ago and I apologize for digging so far back but, I have a couple of questions and I believe you are the best person to ask lol.

Ok...where to start...

My daughter picked up 2 "Light Brahma" hens from an auction a few months ago. They look exactly like this hen up above here. I'd thought they were just very "dirty" Light Brahmas or that they were Light and Dark mixed. But after reading this, I think they are actually Dark and Buff crossed.

So, jump ahead a few months to about 6 weeks ago. My little Buff Brahma Bantam X Mille Fleur D'uccles cockerel is absolutely in love with the smaller of these two dirty birds. He's successfully fertilized her eggs.

We, a good friend of mine, my sis in law, and myself have an old incubator lying around and decide it would be fun to try to hatch eggs and what better time than for New Years Eve. So we set up the incubator and collect a bunch of eggs with visions of the kids all gleefully watching babies hatch out on NYE as we set these eggs.

My past experiences with incubators have been quite negative, with my Aunt's incubator yielding maybe a 10 percent hatch rate and that being very slow and late. So I insisted we put a few eggs in a day or two early just to ensure we actually have babies coming OUT on NYE for the kids and not just eggs cracking. (what 3 yr old will get excited over an egg with a crack in it? after all)

So we decided to put the eggs I'd gathered in early. 4 of which were from my little dirty Brahma covered by the Buff cockerel.

Lo and behold, these eggs all pip last night and 2 have made their way out this morning already! Apparently, my 2 newbie cohorts and my newbie self are better at incubating eggs than my Aunt ever was lol

Anyway, down to my question finally... The 2 chicks that have hatched fully my friend says look like her Buff Brahma chicks did when they hatched. Will these birds possibly be sex linked by color in some way? Or does the thing you were talking about earlier with the cockerels being one color and pullets another only work if it's a Buff hen covered by a Dark or Light cockerel?

As to your "dirty lights" a dark / light breeding going either way will produce such birds. A dark over buff breeding will also produce similar females, and split gold/silver males.

Now your buff X mille cross should be gold based from both sides of his family tree, and should be carrying two copies of gold. Therefor all his female chicks should also be gold based.

All his male chicks, if from a silver based hen, in this case the "dirty light" hens, will be split silver/gold. Which will look like a silver based bird pretty much up till he starts shooting saddle and mature hackle feathers as he matures, which will likely have that brassy straw yellow color.

So yeah, the buff looking chicks are probably pullets.

 

[Amberjem]

I rather like the look of the black and white with the brassy feathers mixed in...........

 

[Dish chickens]

@big medicine I have just hatched 2 out of 4 so far of a Blue on buff cross. What I got was both buff color instead of blue or black? now on top of that is they both have feathers on their feet as well. Now these are out crossed orpingtons, Buff hens came from one breeder and the blue roo came from a different. What do you think is going on.

 

[big medicine]

@big medicine I have just hatched 2 out of 4 so far of a Blue on buff cross. What I got was both buff color instead of blue or black? now on top of that is they both have feathers on their feet as well. Now these are out crossed orpingtons, Buff hens came from one breeder and the blue roo came from a different. What do you think is going on.

Need more explicate details as to what used in this breeding. Buff Brahma, Orpington ? Blue what ?

 

[Dish chickens]

Need more explicate details as to what used in this breeding. Buff Brahma, Orpington ? Blue what ?

They are all orpingtons Blue on buff

 

[big medicine]

I've no experience with orpingtons, but getting feather legged chicks makes me wonder if maybe somebody jumped the fence, or if the parents had some fence jumpers in their recent family tree.

According to Henk's calculator a blue over buff breeding should indeed produce blue or black chicks, which may give some credence to the above theory that you may be dealing with some birds of mixed ancestry.

Any sign of possible mixed blood, off combs, or body type ?

 

[Dish chickens]

I've no experience with orpingtons, but getting feather legged chicks makes me wonder if maybe somebody jumped the fence, or if the parents had some fence jumpers in their recent family tree.

According to Henk's calculator a blue over buff breeding should indeed produce blue or black chicks, which may give some credence to the above theory that you may be dealing with some birds of mixed ancestry.

Any sign of possible mixed blood, off combs, or body type ?

not on the buff (hens) side but maybe on the blue (Roo) side. I had blues from 2 breeders hatched last year and I had one hen with feathers on feet. So I'm thinking the roo may be from the same batch but had no signs in appearance. I may pull out that roo and switch with another blue for this next hatch and see if the rooster has the fence jumper gene. LOL I had suspicion with small type differences in him from other roo in that hatch but he developed nice so thought id try him on the buffs.

Sorry about talking about orps on here but I do have buff Brahmas and I am on this thread a lot. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for you, your knowledge and willingness to help people on here. Thank you

 

[holm25]

Here's some of our Brahma pullets.

 

[big medicine]

not on the buff (hens) side but maybe on the blue (Roo) side. I had blues from 2 breeders hatched last year and I had one hen with feathers on feet. So I'm thinking the roo may be from the same batch but had no signs in appearance. I may pull out that roo and switch with another blue for this next hatch and see if the rooster has the fence jumper gene. LOL I had suspicion with small type differences in him from other roo in that hatch but he developed nice so thought id try him on the buffs.

Sorry about talking about orps on here but I do have buff Brahmas and I am on this thread a lot. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for you, your knowledge and willingness to help people on here. Thank you

Could it be possible a buff Brahma fathered these chicks ? Would explain the color and the feathered legs.