Ongoing Brahma Projects Thread

[bumpercarr]

Some folks start with a pair. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? That is probably the first question that you should ask yourself. I think the best advice is what @big medicine always says. Hatch a lot and cull heavily. So, if you start with 5 pullets, you can probably put 20-25 eggs a week in the incubator. Depending on your hatch rate, you should have 100 chicks hatched in about 6 weeks or so. Then you spend a lot of time and money on growing out those that meet the minimum requirements (feathered feet, head size, etc) and cull as you move along. Hopefully by the end of the year you have a fairly good selection to choose your next breeding group from. And then you do it all over again.

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

I guess I just want Gold Laced but with good lacing....like I said..you guys are great...thanks for the pep talk...going to go take a real good look at my flock tomorrow & see who's going & who's staying...thanks again....

 

[big medicine]

Took a few pictures yesterday, (with my phone, so not the greatest quality).

Couple of the blue laced red hens. A blue.



A splash.


A cock that will likely head up a double laced pen this spring. (Hen is a rather non descript, patter wise, bird out of the general population layer pen.

 

[big medicine]

A splash columbian patterned male.



A splash phase single laced male.

 

[Marthab1953]

Beautiful chickens Big Medicine. I would love to buy eggs from you if you sell eggs. I know this time of year is too late! But later.

 

[bumpercarr]

Wow. They are very nice. I love how mine feather out so beautifully as they head into winter too. I love the black head on that second hen, did you work specifically to get black heads on your BLRs? Really fantastic looking birds, I think you've done a great job!

 

[big medicine]

I have a couple looking like this right now too.

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

I love, love, love the BLRs...gorgeous birds..hoping to have some someday... High View Farm is supposed to have BLRs as well....

 

[bumpercarr]

I have a couple looking like this right now too.

I don't have any looking quite like that, but I do have some that might need a winter coat knitted for them pretty soon.

 

[big medicine]

Wow. They are very nice. I love how mine feather out so beautifully as they head into winter too. I love the black head on that second hen, did you work specifically to get black heads on your BLRs? Really fantastic looking birds, I think you've done a great job!

The solid black head/neck hackles (or blue, or splash in some cases) is a carry over from these guys distant Cornish ancestry. I bred it out in the silver laced line. In the gold laced line I tolerated it in a few birds of exceptional type. But when I bred in the blue, it really seemed to pop, and I started to breed for it. I guess that's an advantage with creating your own varieties, you can breed for what you like to some degree.

The blue laced reds still need considerable work. For example the male I said that will likely head up a double laced pen this spring, I would have preferred he be the darker red/ mahogany that some of the others posses. But he has so much better type and size I will put up with a little orange for a couple years in favor of improving type. As the old breeders say, you have to build the barn before you paint it.

I looked up the high view farms birds. They I am sure are out of a couple of blue laced gold verging on buff birds I gave Dan Powell several years ago to help with his buff laced project. He went a little off his intended use of these along with some gift silver laced I sent him for a spangled Brahma project,. He instead started producing and selling both colors, worse he later tried to claim he had created both varieties, which resulted in me calling him out and setting the facts straight, getting the Brahma thread shut down for a while. Dan removing all his posts, changing his user name, and eventually quit posting here altogether. If you scroll down the page linked below you can read the cleaned up version the moderators deemed fit to leave, considerably more pasteurized, but you can get most of the drift.https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/169790/brahma-thread/2990 As you maybe can tell, this still gets my feathers up a bit. A person works too long and hard developing a variety for the results to be muddied after the fact. Back to what got me going on my little rant here is the birds I see on that website are gold, blue laced gold, I see no sign of red/mahogany and should be listed as such.