Cream Brabanter chick pics

[AccidentalFarm]

I can certainly understand jumping in with both feet. I do the same thing. I think that you have me beat, though! WOW, that's alot of birds!

I think you'll enjoy the Brabanters. The ones I had were not of the 'jump in your lap' sort, but definitely friendly and personable. Very talkative birds, too.
The Brabanter chicks I have are not among those that run to the door of the brooder when I open it, so I have to pay special attention to them and make sure I seek them out and handle them frequently. They are not overly scared, just standoff-ish.

You mentioned rare and heritage breeds...what do you have other than the Brabanters?

 

[kiaya611]

I originally had 5 each of the following, but I sold one of each to make room fotr the new ones or the guineas...I have to think about who goes where (I only have 1/2 an acre and it is getting a bit crowded with pens and coops:

Silver Laced Wyandottes, Delawares, Light Brahmas, Buttercups, Araucanas, Dominiques, Black Australorps and Buff Orpintons.

When I picked my breeds, I wanted breeds that haven't changed (or been changed) since about 1925. So many of the birds you can get nowadays are hybrids for fast growing or extra large breasts or large quantities of eggs. I wanted old breeds that have stood the test of time. If you want to see pics and descriptions of any of these breeds that you might now be familiar with, got to http://www.cacklehatchery.com They have a nice variety of heritage and rare breeds. THey are also very nice to work with. I got all pullets except one Light Brahma cockerel and the Butercups were St Runs. I didn't have a choice with them. I got lucky though. I only had 2 cockerels out of 6 chicks. They are beautiful birds if you like a more "wild bird look". They only get to be about 4.5 lbs though. I got breeds that are good layers and also lay well in the winter. I have to admit that I got birds that i thought looked neat too. Next year, I might try a few new breeds as I will be using some of these for meat birds (which some of them are dual purpose breeds)...not like the "modern" ones, but still, will give you nice eggs and when the time comes, nice meat too.

I just finished taking pics of the CBs, poults and keets. I will post them so you can see them. My poults are also heritage and are 5 Royal Palm and 1 Narragansette ( I don't know what happened to the whole batch of Narragansettes and peafowl , but only 1 Naragansette survived). My keets are 3 Pearl, 5 Lavender and 1 Royal Purple. The Royal Purple was a mistake by the breeder, but oh well...it was one I was sort of considering anyway. It is basically black with a vivid purple sheen in the sun and only slight spots on the flank. The other 2 are what I really wanted as well as White, but she is a small breeder and the White were not producing when the others were and we would have ended up waiting a long time (I think) to get all three to be available at the same time.

I wanted the guineas ever since I read an article in Mother Earth News called "Gardening With Guineas". I thought it was a totally neat idea to have them instead of using tons of insecticide to get rid of all of the bugs in and around you garden and you place. They also kill snakes which is a good thing if you have snakes that are killing your livestock. Se only have little Garter snakes here and they aren't any problem. I try not to bother them if I see them. My chickens just look at them when they slither across their pen. My only concern are skunks, raccoons and possums. They pretty much stay away since I have 3 dogs and a good fence with a hot wire on the top and 1/4" steel plates on the bottom put in by the previous owner.

You can see my Chicken coop at (down the page a bit):

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2724&p=3

My peafowl pen is at (pretty basic, but I built it in 6 hours and it seems to do quite well):

The turkey pen is an attached copy of the peafowl pen...I would just add a relatively small coop to that one since I have so few turkeys.

That's all but the Bob White Quail. I have 12 of those that a friend gave me. I built a small pen (6X8) for them. They are an experiment. If the experiment doesn't work out, they will be dinner for some special guests.

FRONT QUAIL PEN

REAR/SIDE QUAIL PEN

Now you have seen all of the pens and coops to date. I will post the new pics shortly so you can see the CBs progress and also the keets and the poults just for fun.

Take care,

Steven

 

[kiaya611]

Ok,

Here are the new pics...CBs, keets and poults.

CB CHICKS 16 DAYS OLD (7 of the 8)

CB 29 DAYS OLD (HIS MOHAWK IS GROWING)

KEETS 10 DAYS OLD

KEETS 10 DAYS OLD

POULTS 25 DAYS OLD

There...that all of the new ones.

They sure grow fast...it is amazing. Before all of this, I had never raised chicks before and I had never hatched eggs before. I am certainly learning allot. I just wish I had more space to do this (and as always more money. Beijng disabled and on SSDI, things can get pretty tight, but since I am at home most of the time, this give me something neat to do that is both enjoyable, educational and productive.

Hope you like the pics.

Steven

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Wow! I'm amazed you're able to do all that on 1/2 an acre! The pens look great, as do the birds, of course. That Mohawk is to die for! I can't wait for my little cockeral to look like that.

Thanks for the pics! I'd love to see more as the birds grow.

 

[allen wranch]

I am still keeping my fingers crossed that Missi's 6 birds will be found. I have heard of people missing birds from predator attacks, and they show up days or weeks later.

I really like my Brabanters too. They have such great personalities. I agree, they are a little flighty, but they calm down with some time. The ones I have that are a year old are a lot calmer than the 17 week olds.

I chose to breed golds, because I have Spitzhaubens and wanted a different colored crested breed. The one good source of information I have (The Complete Encyclopedia of the Chicken) lists the following colors:self black, white, blue laced, cuckoo, golden black half-moon spangled, silver black half-moon spangeld, yellow white half-moon spangled, golden blue half-moon spangled and lavender.

I hope some day we can get more variety of colors in the US.

BTW, does anyone know of any private breeders who have Brabanters that did not come from Ideal ?

 

[kiaya611]

Hi Carla,

I am not sure where my breeder got hers from. I will ask her and post that.

Steven

 

[xitaa]

Love the mohawk!! What do they look like when they are grown??

 

[allen wranch]

Adult hen

 

[kiaya611]

I talked to my breeder and she got her first Brabanters from Ideal. She said:

"That is where I got my first ones. I ordered some more this year. I just got them in. I am going to have to do some line breeding but that is all I can do because Ideal is the only other source, besides me, that I know of and all of mine are from them (except the ones I raised but they are still all from them

"

Just thought I would let you know.

It would be nice to find another source to get another bloodline going.

I had a question. I was told mine are "Cream Brabanters", but I didn't see that as a color in your description of colors from the encyclopedia reference. Are these perhaps yellow white half moon spangled?

Here is a pic of them grown.

GROWN BRABANTERS (photo courtesy of H and H Poultry)

I would be interested in knowing.

Thanks,

 

[allen wranch]

Nice birds. I assume you got them from Hand Poultry.

I agree, they are probably yellow white half moon spangled.

Inbreeding is my concern too. I contacted a gentleman last year who used to have golds, but he sold them several years ago, and can't remember to whom.

Another concern is keeping the colors true. I noticed a lot of gold on the roo in your picture. I was corresponding with a breeder who got both creams and gold from Ideal and was thinking of throwing them all in together and selling the eggs as "mixed" (not mixed breed). That is not good.

"Gordie" sells on Eggbid and has creams. He may have gotten his from Ideal, but I am not sure. He was selling them before Ideal was.