Ongoing Brahma Projects Thread

[Violetsfeathers]

I know. The rules suck. I just moved here from Iowa and they didn't have that rule. I hatch eggs the old fashion way because we don't have an incubator. Hopefully one of these chick will go broody in the spring

 

[brahmapapa]

all my chicks are doing ok that hatched or were shipped live....before purchasing eggs from anyone i ask if thier birds are free of vulture hocks, this year i was assured no vulture hocks in flock and no reports from people who purchased and yet as the chicks feather out there are the vulture hocks. unfortunately that means all the money spent purchasing, shipping and hatching culminated in a big zero net gain for my breeding program as they will have to be culled. i wish sellers would stop misrepresenting what they are selling, its just greedy. the only thing i will say is what goes around comes around, so when they get burned on a purchase its the cosmos balancing things out. I can't even be comfortable breeding from those birds from same seller that don't show vulture hocks as they are prob. carrying the genes... I also purchased very expensive eggs from a well known breeder, i asked the box to be marked live embryos...I have found the postal workers to shake boxes marked eggs... out of curiosity to see if any broke. If marked live embryos they get special handling without the shaking. After i recieved the eggs and box was beat up but recieved unmarked, i contacted seller who said i never marked them that way and never will. Since that was a special request of mine that he didn't honor i was very disappointed when out of 12 eggs purchased of a desired breed (the breed that i wanted) only one hatched. This breeder had included additional eggs of another breed and said i hope you don't mind, only 4 of those eggs hattched. i hatch in a RCOM-50 and had good hatch rates with all other eggs in the bator at same time. In short it doesn't seem like i am having good luck with my purchase and or hatching programs this year. I really love my brahmas and honestly want to improve my flock.

 

[bumpercarr]

all my chicks are doing ok that hatched or were shipped live....before purchasing eggs from anyone i ask if thier birds are free of vulture hocks, this year i was assured no vulture hocks in flock and no reports from people who purchased and yet as the chicks feather out there are the vulture hocks. unfortunately that means all the money spent purchasing, shipping and hatching culminated in a big zero net gain for my breeding program as they will have to be culled. i wish sellers would stop misrepresenting what they are selling, its just greedy. the only thing i will say is what goes around comes around, so when they get burned on a purchase its the cosmos balancing things out. I can't even be comfortable breeding from those birds from same seller that don't show vulture hocks as they are prob. carrying the genes... I also purchased very expensive eggs from a well known breeder, i asked the box to be marked live embryos...I have found the postal workers to shake boxes marked eggs... out of curiosity to see if any broke. If marked live embryos they get special handling without the shaking. After i recieved the eggs and box was beat up but recieved unmarked, i contacted seller who said i never marked them that way and never will. Since that was a special request of mine that he didn't honor i was very disappointed when out of 12 eggs purchased of a desired breed (the breed that i wanted) only one hatched. This breeder had included additional eggs of another breed and said i hope you don't mind, only 4 of those eggs hattched. i hatch in a RCOM-50 and had good hatch rates with all other eggs in the bator at same time. In short it doesn't seem like i am having good luck with my purchase and or hatching programs this year. I really love my brahmas and honestly want to improve my flock.

Sorry to hear that you've had such a bad experience this year. I also have had some problems with shipped eggs, only 4 starters out of 18 eggs in one shipment, only one hatched. The second shipment I had great prospects, 10 out of 12 started, 8 matured and then the day before hatch the power went out for 15 hours. Four still hatched, but didn't make it. Last year I set over 100 shipped eggs, 4 hatched. That's when I realized that I would be better off finding a breeder to buy some breeding stock from, the cost was less to buy the stock than to buy all of those eggs....of course, I'd already wasted a tremendous amount of money on hatching eggs and then still had to buy some breeding stock.

Shipped eggs are always a risky proposition, even if you get a decent hatch there are no guarantees that those that hatch will be the quality that you want. Even from my own flock, knowing what I'm hatching from, less than 25% of those that I hatch are actually of a quality that I'll breed, even fewer are good enough to show (maybe 5%?).

My only thoughts are to keep at it, eventually it will pay off. Maybe you can find a breeding pair from someone close by? Take a look at the American Brahma Club website and facebook page, it might help you find what you are looking for.

 

[brahmapapa]

Sorry to hear that you've had such a bad experience this year. I also have had some problems with shipped eggs, only 4 starters out of 18 eggs in one shipment, only one hatched. The second shipment I had great prospects, 10 out of 12 started, 8 matured and then the day before hatch the power went out for 15 hours. Four still hatched, but didn't make it. Last year I set over 100 shipped eggs, 4 hatched. That's when I realized that I would be better off finding a breeder to buy some breeding stock from, the cost was less to buy the stock than to buy all of those eggs....of course, I'd already wasted a tremendous amount of money on hatching eggs and then still had to buy some breeding stock.

Shipped eggs are always a risky proposition, even if you get a decent hatch there are no guarantees that those that hatch will be the quality that you want. Even from my own flock, knowing what I'm hatching from, less than 25% of those that I hatch are actually of a quality that I'll breed, even fewer are good enough to show (maybe 5%?).

My only thoughts are to keep at it, eventually it will pay off. Maybe you can find a breeding pair from someone close by? Take a look at the American Brahma Club website and facebook page, it might help you find what you are looking for.

I hearyou...i know and have suffered the pitfalls of shipped eggs. I usually have pretty good results with most shipped eggs. i hatch with a RCOM-50 that digitally controls temp and humidity. I live in the northeast and its hard to find showstock breeding pairs of Dark Brahmas. Thats why i jumped at the chance to buy those show stock eggs even though they were expensive... I just wish the breeder had followed my request to mark outside of box LIVE EMBRYOS , at least if he had done what i requested any damage could not be avoided and i would have accepted that. I live on a fixed income and saved up a long time to buy those eggs. Sometimes i just feel doomed.. Thanks for your advice and encouragement..

 

[Sueg4332]

Hi I am Sue been reading the forum very interesting. these are my ranch chickens. saved there lives last year. lady was selling her flock off....


















the is young.7 month I think. I am not into showing so they're are good for me

 

[brahmapapa]

Hi I am Sue been reading the forum very interesting. these are my ranch chickens. saved there lives last year. lady was selling her flock off....


















the is young.7 month I think. I am not into showing so they're are good for me they look like blue and gold partridge Brahmas if I am not mistaken, they look nice and healthy, good luck with them... Brahmas are a pretty well tempered breed.

 

[bumpercarr]

Hi I am Sue been reading the forum very interesting. these are my ranch chickens. saved there lives last year. lady was selling her flock off....


















the is young.7 month I think. I am not into showing so they're are good for me

I think they are lovely.

 

[dustiep2006]

I just got a new Brahma puller and put her inmy mixed flock along with a back from her flock..some of my older light brahma are being cruel to her..is there anything I can do..she's about sixteen weeks I think

 

[bumpercarr]

@big medicine , do you have any idea what caused the mottling on this girls paint? I know that when you breed dark cocks that have white where they shouldn't that they can produce some great color. Do you think the same hold true for females? She has the most defined penciling I've ever seen, but I'd like to know why it is so splotchy (such a technical term...LOL).
Edited to add: She's about 5 months right now.

 

[big medicine]

Personally I like the term splotchy patterned over mottled. Mottled makes me think of a pattern having white tipped feathers.

As to why your pullet is displaying this mixed pattern ? Good question. It will be interesting to see how she comes out of her next molt. I suspect her pattern will fill in.

Can't say I have experienced this phenomenon with my birds. Although I may have had something somewhat similar, with a cockerel several years ago that kind of changed his pattern as he matured. He started out looking like a columbian pattern, red with blue trim, and then he started to transform into a blue chested partridge, or possibly double laced pattern way late.

He went from this.



To this





I bounced this off some much more experienced breeders at the time, their best guess was it may have been hormone related. He developed into a monster big, almost solid blue chested cockerel. Unfortunately he stroked out of in the yard the following spring before I was able to set any eggs. When I necropsied him he had an enlarged heart.

Your bird also looks like she can't make up her mind to be a penciled, or columbian pattern. That's all I got.