Brahma - Bantam

I bought a trio of Brahma bantams expecting sweet, pretty birds that I could show and breed. Unfortunately, while the tiny rooster ruled the flock, the hens never laid in egg during their six month life and died of disease before I could even show them, despite the price tag. The rooster died soon after.

I purchased day-old bantam Buff Brahmas from a hatchery, ending up with 4 pullets and 1 cockerel, a nice little breeding group. The chicks were handled frequently but were never nearly as friendly as my Easter Egger bantams, and that was a bit disappointing, but they are gentle birds overall and easy to handle. There are two things I love about my Brahmas - my rooster is very gentle so far. He is 9 months old and his great temperament could change, but he's been a fine lad to this point. He has never once attempted to bite or scratch me, although he has tried to engage in a tug-of-war when I removed one of the girls from the coop. He is quite nice to his girls, too, and very protective, on top of being gorgeous. This I like a lot, because a nice rooster is worth a lot if you want to raise chicks, and I want to raise chicks.

The other thing I love is how these little girls lay. Bantam hens are the bomb, and Brahma bantams are quite respectable layers. I have four 9-month old pullets and I am collecting 18+ eggs per week, sometimes 21 per week, and they are quite large for bantam eggs. My little girls are a fraction the size of their large fowl counterparts, less than one fourth the weight, but they lay 70%-80%+ of the egg! Two of my pullets regularly lay eggs that weigh over 1-5/8 oz. A "large" egg from the grocery store will weigh an average 2 oz. This amazes me. It's magic that these little chickens lay these beautiful eggs that taste wonderful.

I cannot find many people who agree with me (although I have found a couple), but I think bantam eggs are tasty little gourmet things, due to that larger yolk-to-egg-size ratio that is well known in connection with baking using bantam eggs. More yolk ounce-per-ounce provides a richer tasting egg, and I think I can tell the difference. My neighbor thinks he can, too, and it completely surprised him when he first ate bantam eggs.

Obviously, because they are bantams they can be more inclined to go broody, which can be a pro or a con, depending on one's objectives in raising chickens.

I'm not crazy about the feathered feet because they can be messy, but I have to admit it's cute. And finally, one thing I really like is the adorable friendship between two of my pullets. They were picked on by one of the other pullets to the point of drawing blood. I removed them from the coop and gave them their own apartment. They are so fun to watch. They love each other and they do everything together, including seemingly help each other lay, at least it looks like "helping," and moving each other's eggs around. It endears them to me, it is so sweet to see. I cannot imagine separating them.

Out of the chickens I've had, this breed has been my favorite. They don't mind one bit if you pick them up and seem to quite enjoy your company. With their small size, it's easy to see how these hens could live in anyone's backyard, even in the densely populated city. The one rooster I had was such a gentleman. He would only make noise twice a day: once to let us know it was morning and once to let the hens know there was some good food. That was it! He was such a good boy. His death was very sad, but as I would imagine is not uncommon for this breed. My rooster was so friendly I'm sure he tried to make friends with the predator that laid the one fatal blow to his head. Poor guy spent a night in the "emergency ward," aka the bathroom of our cabin, before he succumbed to his wounds. The hens still live to this day and I must say they are similar to other bantam hens in that they don't lay many eggs. However, they do a great job at being mothers. Overall, this breed is has a great disposition, small compact size, and remains very quiet. I would recommend brahma bantams to anyone that just wants a friendly breed or a breed great for children. Did I mention they have really fluffy butts? I got mine through an auction house near our farm. It isn't always easy to find show quality versions, but try this website: http://www.horstmanspoultry.com/bantamshome/buffbrahma.html. I've heard great things about Dick Horstman's birds, and his pictures look just like my birds. If anything happen to my sweet hens, that's where I would go to find more.

I got 5 bantam brahmas along with some silkies and bantam easter eggers from cackle hatchery. My Brahmas were shy around people from the get go, despite my handling them as often as possible. They look gorgeous, but were slow to mature. Fat, fluffy little things that are wonderful mothers for baby chicks of any kind and are excellent mothers of my baby guinea keets! Our rooster makes a funny little crow that sounds like "ooooh-ooh!" instead of cock-a-doodle-do. It is charming and sweet. Calm rooster that has gorgeous feathering and is friendly with my other roosters!

Love these little birds, but I wish I had ordered a few more! We ordered 30 standard size Buff and Light Brahmas for our egg concern this year because we adore the little size so much!

One of my favorite breeds. the Buff and the Black and White are fun to have as pets and I had good egg production too, though eggs small.

Our Buff Brahma lays large dark brown to light brown eggs so far she has laid three times this week with two being laid two days in a row.
I wish she would announce that she laid and egg like our Black Star does.

Bought these Palomino Brahma hatching eggs last Oct .Supposed to be sort of rare
.I just like the color of the hens and the roo both
They SEEM to be sexlinked or i happen to have like colors in the same sex
Hard to find info on them.
.Story i read said Dan Powell created this color lookng for a Buff laced Brahma.
These are noiw 14 weeks old. Cockrels are getting the RIR red on their sides Before they looked exactly like a BB.Cant wait to see the finished . grown birds


Hens had a white not quite lacing not quite spotting all over but now at 14 weeks seems to have a lacing on thier neck but not their bodies Have no idea if it will go back to all over but hope it does. I like the all over speckled/laced effect.. BAD photo i know Neck is lightly laced.

In my opinion, Brahma Bantams are the perfect city chicken. They are super docile. Easy for kids to pick up and carry. Their feathered feet don't damage your yard. Best of all, they rooster's crow is low and deep, not easily heard in all the surrounding area. They tolerate cold temperatures extremely well. They lay well (for a bantam) and usually lay during the wintertime when other hens are "on vacation". They are a good chicken for beginners to start showing, since they are very patient with bathing, etc.

I have two little hens. They are pets only, so egg laying and meat are of no importance to me, so my review is based strictly on personality. If you want a nice compact feathered best friend, I highly recommend them. Mine are super sweet and snuggly. I got them as companions for my Red Jungle Fowl rooster, and they are really tolerant of his antics as well. I wouldn't trade my girls for anything. I get major snuggle time with them daily where they can't seem to get close enough to me, and thrive on face rubs and (yes you read it right) kisses. They are bright little birds that are curious about everything around them, and a joy to have around. I got mine from a rescue, so purchase price is also irrelevant.

Our Buff Brahma, Goldie, is such a sweet girl. She is beta, and helper to the alpha, Pearl. She is the mother chicken of our flock, always keeping peace between the more flighty birds of my flock. She is also such a card to watch! When she runs, I can't help but laugh at her fluffy self . She doesn't fly much, which is good because we have a lot of ways to get out of our yard. I would recommend this breed to a beginner, although bleaching and the feathers on her feet make it hard to let her out when it's especially sunny.

I love my two little bantam brahmas, one light and one buff. They are the sweetest, cutest chickens I have ever owned and I have owned EE's, Australorps, Sussex, and Hamburg. They are flat adorable really.

One just hatched 6/8 eggs and is an excellent momma! However they have been such sporadic layers that I didn't even notice when she started hoarding eggs. She had eight, we figure five days of gathering with donations from her sister based on egg shades.

As to the "not the brightest" comment. Neither one of them could figure out how to get up the ramp into the eglu we had. We even modified it to improve the angle and make it a solid ramp, ground to door. Every night for six months we crawled under the coop to pull them out and put them in the coop. We ended up getting a lower coop with a lower angle on the rungs. It still took them two weeks to figure it out.

Bantam buff brahmas - the most beautiful breed of all, IMO. Both the hens and roosters are gorgeous. I've had 2 hens and 4 roos (not all at same time) and currently have 4 chicks in the brooder. Calm, but not bumps on a log, like some calm breeds. I have them in a mixed flock of mostly large sized chickens, and while the bantam brahmas are low on the peck order, they hold their own quite well. I've never seen one get bullied. The baby chicks are generally lively, and grow and feather out quickly. One of my roos was slightly aggressive towards people, but that did not begin until an aggressive child chased him and the hens around the coop, trying to corner and grab them. Very winter hardy, with pea combs, round bodies, and heavy feathering.

Egg production - better than bantam EE's and cochins, but not nearly as productive as my full sized EE's and barred rocks. They lay well in late winter and spring, but peter off quickly in June, and lay off and on through fall. That's without any artificial lighting. Eggs from my two hens are on the larger side for a bantam.

Meat - I have never used them for meat, but am considering doing so in the future. They are meaty little nuggets, and the roosters would make a nice meal.

Broodiness - People say they tend to go broody, but neither my 3 yr old nor my 4 yr old hen has ever gone broody.

My 4 little ones are just 3 weeks old. When I got them (1 week old) they had pasty butts and had to have baths each day. They are doing well now and last bath was a few days ago. Love the little feathers on their legs. Very cute and inquisitive. I have 1 light, who I think is a little roo, and 4 dark, 1 of which may be a roo.....If they are roos I will have to determine whether or not they will get along with my Silkie roo (1 yr old) and my EE roo who is 8 weeks old. Not sure if they can all get along or not....waiting game for now.

My buff Brahma bantam is one of the feistiest chickens I own. I bought her as a chick from My Pet Chicken and I named her piglet because whenever I would pick her up she would squeal like a pig in indignation. She kind of darts around like a little football player as if she's dodging tackles. As an adult she squeals a little less because I think she's realized mostly that there's no point in protesting, I'm going to pick her up anyway, but she's no less vigorous. She's the smallest chicken in my flock but she's by no means at the bottom; I've seen her take on chickens twice her size. I like her a lot but if I had anything to gripe about it would be how she treats new comers in the flock. Very few of my chickens make a point to go after new additions but she does and she's downright vicious. I think it's the bantam breeding that makes her the way she is because she definitely does not fit into the typical Brahma personality.

It's true they lay 'smaller' eggs and maybe not as many as other breeds do, but they more then make up for that with their calm manners. Beautiful birds to have around the yard! We have two of these and love ours. The Brahma will be a breed we hope to raise forever!

Very nice chicken great for a small set up

We love our Brahmas. We had several standard light brahmas and now we have one buff bantam. They are so docile and nice to be around.

relatively calm, easy to care for.

A great chicken for kids. They are really sweet and can be tamed very easy. They do lay small eggs so these are mostly just pet chickens. If you want a pet get this chicken.