Ongoing Brahma Projects Thread

[armansourani]

Idk the answer but I really like that mostly white cockerel. He's cool!

SHe is cool

thanks brother its your kind favour

Depends what you want to do, and which color you like better. Looks like all four are based on some variation of the columbian feather pattern. As to color, not sure what exactly a silver Brahma, or a penciled brown columbian are pattern wise, but a silver based male over a gold(brown) based female should have produced silver based pullets. So again not sure how you got what looks to be gold based females. The gold male should produce gold based male and female chicks. The silver (white) male should produce silver females and split silver/gold males, if I am reading your hens correctly. Personally I think the gold male looks to have a much fuller chest than the white male, I would lean that way.

well Big Medicine...first of all: Thanks!
and then:tecnically Gold rooster has got black and darkbrown feathers to his tail and white/black/brown feathrers beneath his wings.i dont know how it may help to match them better..as mentioned above the silver brahma is realy a classic one but the neck dark feathers are under his white ones(Big hairs!time to have a cut!)..
i have this question:according to chick calculator you did favour before,is that possible if i cross the gold cock with these hens the result be a hen like this or not?thanks

 

[Sunshine0235]

I have some golden laced brahma eggs in the incubator, and just bought a buff laced brahma chick, according to the chicken color calculator, if bred together I should get 50% gold laced, and 50% buff laced. Is this an acceptable cross, or will it muddy up the coloring?
I know if you do buff laced together, there is a 25% chance of the black edging instead of the white, but Im curious to how they are related

 

[big medicine]

SHe is cool

thanks brother its your kind favour
well Big Medicine...first of all: Thanks!
and then:tecnically Gold rooster has got black and darkbrown feathers to his tail and white/black/brown feathrers beneath his wings.i dont know how it may help to match them better..as mentioned above the silver brahma is realy a classic one but the neck dark feathers are under his white ones(Big hairs!time to have a cut!)..
i have this question:according to chick calculator you did favour before,is that possible if i cross the gold cock with these hens the result be a hen like this or not?thanks

I think both your males are based on some variation of columbian pattern. Both are considerably different from what I would call a classic columbian pattern. This first depiction is somewhat dated, now days the males have much more color in the saddle, at least in the shows over here.




As to getting hens similar to the one in your last photo, I would think you would need to introduce penciling into the mix, from say a dark Brahma. If you were to come up with something close I doubt you will be able to reproduce it reliably after that as it is probably a collection of one copy, or mixed genetic components. Breeding two similarly patterned birds together would like produce a very mixed collection of patterned chicks.

 

[big medicine]

I have some golden laced brahma eggs in the incubator, and just bought a buff laced brahma chick, according to the chicken color calculator, if bred together I should get 50% gold laced, and 50% buff laced. Is this an acceptable cross, or will it muddy up the coloring?
I know if you do buff laced together, there is a 25% chance of the black edging instead of the white, but Im curious to how they are related

Dominant white as denoted by it's name is dominant, only needs a single copy to show it's presence, as compared to recessive white that requires two copies to show itself. The other big difference is that dominant white mainly only affects the part of a feather that would normally be black, were as recessive white is much more effective at covering all pigment.

If your buff laced carries two copies of dominant white, then all chicks will receive a copy, thereby turning any parts that would be black to white. If your buff laced carries one copy of dominant only half it's chicks would receive a copy.

Breeding two single copy birds would produce in theory, 50% one copy whites, 25% two copy whites, and 25% no copy black trimmed chicks.

I have never owned any buff laced Brahmas, but from what I have gathered from reading there seems to be a issue with losing lacing definition after multiple generation breeding buff laced to buff laced. It seems be somewhat correctable by breeding gold laced into the program at regular intervals.

One other thing I might bring up. When working on breeding projects like this, one thing you have to watch out for is putting too much emphasis on color/pattern and neglecting type. The old saying " type makes the breed, color makes the variety ". Too often some very pretty colored birds of very questionable type are produced. With such a limited start point, especially starting with chicks, ( Even long established breeding programs will produce a percentage of duds, which is why most show breeders will not sell eggs or chicks. They don't want some sub par birds associated to their name floating around there.), you have to be very aware some will not be worth going forth with out setting your program back.

 

[bumpercarr]

My project is finally underway! Just set the last batch of eggs for the VH test, so far none of the pullets have tested positive for VHs, but the babies are still a little young to be able to tell. So, hatch in about 20 days and then 4-6 weeks of waiting for them to get big enough to ensure that there aren't any vulture hocks in the fields and then serious breeding can take place.

I have moved all of the cockerels to the bachelor pad, figure that by the time I know which pullets I can breed they will be clean of any VH male sperm. Hopefully, he did his business with everyone so I don't have to worry about a bunch of unfertile eggs.

Some things I have learned so far.....

1. Every hen lays a different size, color of egg. If you watch them (assuming you don't have a million to watch), remove the eggs right after they are laid and mark them, you can learn within a few days just who is laying what. I thought about using food coloring in the vent, but after I discovered that I could tell the eggs apart I just went with that method.

2. Males have their favorites and will breed those exclusively if there are too many pullets/hens for them to cover. I removed the favorites from the pen as soon as I had enough eggs from them so that he was forced to cover the other hens as well (most of whom were less cooperative than the favorites).

3. No matter how many pens you have, you never have enough. Again, no matter how many pens you have you never have enough. When setting up your coop, think hard about how you are going to separate the males, how you are going to set up your breeding, where are you going to put the pullets that you're not currently using....I could go on and on.

4. Male brahmas get along just fine if they are separated from females. Unlike some other breeds, the males are pretty calm and are actually better with growing chicks than the females are. Males tend to ignore the chicks....just remove the females before they get too mature, otherwise the fighting will start and the girls will be stuck in the middle in a pen full of cockerels/cock birds.

I've done a ton of studying, everything from color genetics to type improvement (and what the type is supposed to be) and personalities. I've tried to set up my pens in the best method that works for me. I've looked at a million pictures, have talked to experts (thank you big medicine), have gone to see show brahmas in person so that I know what I'm looking for. I'm not saying that I'm going to stop studying, reading, talking or looking; but I finally feel like I am ready to do some serious breeding.

Just thought I'd share, I'm feeling pretty good about my project right now.

 

[Sunshine0235]

Great thanks Big Medicine. I just didn't want to completely ruin color by mixing too much.

 

[Cfmills]

Big medicine, just wondering what 2 blue laced gold brahmas would look like? I know it should produce splash but can't recall seeing the color.

 

[big medicine]

Big medicine, just wondering what 2 blue laced gold brahmas would look like? I know it should produce splash but can't recall seeing the color.

Not sure if you are asking what a single laced splash laced gold would look like ? If so the percentages would be like any blue to blue breeding, 50% blue, 25% black, and 25% splash.



The hen in the above photo not a very good example of proper single laced pattern, but you get the idea.

 

[Cfmills]

Yes, I was talking single laced. So best I can guess the off spring of male and female blue laced gold breeding should look like buff laced. Then breed that back to black laced gold to get all blue laced gold chicks?

 

[big medicine]

Yes, I was talking single laced. So best I can guess the off spring of male and female blue laced gold breeding should look like buff laced. Then breed that back to black laced gold to get all blue laced gold chicks?

No, a blue laced gold to blue laced gold breeding will produce 50% blue laced gold chicks. 25% black laced gold chicks (also called gold laced), and 25% splash laced gold chicks ( as the result of receiving two copies of blue, where as buff laced achieves it's color from receiving at least one copy of dominant white. Similar looks, but genetically different.)

But yes a black to splash breeding will produce 100% blue chicks.