Backyard Brahmas!!

[speckledhen]

My Brahma have started to hatch! Tomorrow is Day 21, though technically, it has already begun.

First one out is a Dark. There are 4 partridge/ blue partridge eggs pipped that I can see, can't really tell about the other Darks.

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

Getting big! All blues and blacks. Hawk got one - just went in the house for a minute - hate that SOB! Seven huge boys, sold them. Three girls, all going to look like my Alma.

Geesh! You got 7 boys? This year has been boy heavy for me though. Idk what's going on with that. Maybe I should lower my incubator temps. :/ I'm glad you got some good ones (hens) though. lol

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

Thank you. It was an odd thing, one of the very rare "really don't know what happened" deaths. They went into the coop two hours earlier, Glenda never had any health issues, was perfectly fine, remember her marching up the ramp into the pop door. Then, two hours later, I heard a big ruckus and went out to see what was wrong. All the birds, including my Delaware rooster, were sitting on the roost and Glenda was dead at the bottom of the big ladder-style roost. Seemed like some sort of accident to me-she was too young and healthy for anything else. I even thought for a minute that my very motivated breeder, Isaac, was too rough, but he was sitting on the top roost bar all settled down. So to this day, it remains a mystery. She was so sweet, that girl. I never got a chance to get another pullet out of Suede over Caroline. They produced sons that I called the "draft horse" of cockerels, though.


Thanks for the offer of the Brahmas, will keep that in mind. I probably won't hatch again for a long time, though, as long as I get some good breeders from the batch in the bator now. I'm sort of wondering if I'll have to go back down to only a "skeleton crew" of hens in the near future due to my husband's advancing health issues, but we'll see. For now, I just hope I get a nice dozen Brahmas from the hatch from which to choose my keepers. Day 20 begins this afternoon.

That is strange. I've never had that happen before. I have had the random dead chicken once or twice. Which was weird. Maybe heart attack? Even young animals can have those. I hope all your babies hatch. Brahmas are the best chickens in my humble opinion. I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I'll send out good thoughts & vibes his way, & yours.

 

[speckledhen]

That is strange. I've never had that happen before. I have had the random dead chicken once or twice. Which was weird. Maybe heart attack? Even young animals can have those. I hope all your babies hatch. Brahmas are the best chickens in my humble opinion. I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I'll send out good thoughts & vibes his way, & yours.

Thanks, guess Glenda's demise will remain a mystery. I hate mysteries! I still have her mother, Caroline, who is going on 10 years old now, my ONLY hatchery hen left.

So far, 6 partridge pipped and I can't tell that any other Darks have yet, just the one hatched.

 

[speckledhen]

As of this morning, one dark and two partridge have hatched , with another partridge zipping and four more pipped. That leaves two more partridge still quiet and the rest of the darks quiet still.
Question: how fast do they feather? My BRs are super slow featherers (though hatchery ones are fast feathering).


Here are the 4 hatched, 1 dark and 3 partridge. They are very similar in coloring right now. There is one more dark pipped, finally, and still at 4 partridge pipped.


Pics! Are the partridge (gold) blonder than the dark at this age? Seems like it from the ones I have here, but not much difference.






As of 10 a.m., 6 partridge hatched, 1 dark hatched and 1 dark pipped, 1 more partridge pipped, the rest show no action.

 

[speckledhen]

Can you pick out the ONE dark in this photo? Unless there was a mix-up in the marking of the eggs, there is only one Dark in here and the rest are Blue Partridge or just Partridge. And it was the first to hatch so should be the most fluffed out and steady on its feet. One more of each color is hatching now.

And can you tell a blue-pt from a plain pt at this stage? A couple are very blondish so maybe?











ETA:
The second Dark hatched. So there are 6 Partridge and 2 Darks, per egg labels. One last egg is pipped, a Partridge. This second dark seems darker than the other one (whichever one that is, lol).








And later when they were more fluffy; the hatch is still not quite over, though we are now into Day 22.

 

[speckledhen]

ETA: The hatch is over. The Darks did not fare so well and it wasn't due to their place in the incubator because they were interspersed with the partridge group in the turner. Out of 11 Darks, 2 hatched. Many of those were very late deaths, including one that got into the air cell, was cheeping yet never pipped the outer shell. I took it out and it seemed completely normal to my eye.

One of the two Darks is humongous and very, very dark so I'm already thinking cockerel on that Baby Huey. Out of 10 partridge I began with, one was not fertile at the outset, and I ended up with 7 of those. So, 9 is the final total. I may start their own thread to follow their progress and get some help with choosing keepers. I understand you can breed Dark and Partridge, which may happen here since I do not have enough Darks to make their own group even if I had a male/female pair.

 

[kekstrom]

My Brahma have started to hatch! Tomorrow is Day 21, though technically, it has already begun.

First one out is a Dark. There are 4 partridge/ blue partridge eggs pipped that I can see, can't really tell about the other Darks.

Aw! Yay.... how exciting!

 

[kekstrom]

ETA: The hatch is over. The Darks did not fare so well and it wasn't due to their place in the incubator because they were interspersed with the partridge group in the turner. Out of 11 Darks, 2 hatched. Many of those were very late deaths, including one that got into the air cell, was cheeping yet never pipped the outer shell. I took it out and it seemed completely normal to my eye.

One of the two Darks is humongous and very, very dark so I'm already thinking cockerel on that Baby Huey. Out of 10 partridge I began with, one was not fertile at the outset, and I ended up with 7 of those. So, 9 is the final total. I may start their own thread to follow their progress and get some help with choosing keepers. I understand you can breed Dark and Partridge, which may happen here since I do not have enough Darks to make their own group even if I had a male/female pair.

They are adorable! Sorry about your ones that didn't hatch... perhaps just bad handling of the eggs before they got to you?

The dark ones are definitely hard to tell, but in some of your pics they are more obvious. The partridge ones are so cute with their little chipmunk stripes!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[speckledhen]

They are adorable! Sorry about your ones that didn't hatch... perhaps just bad handling of the eggs before they got to you?

The dark ones are definitely hard to tell, but in some of your pics they are more obvious. The partridge ones are so cute with their little chipmunk stripes!

Thanks for sharing!

I think these two next to the waterer are the darks-you can see the big one and the one next to him. They look the most alike. I'm uploading a short video clip of them and will post soon.