Brahma

If I could start over again, I would have a whole flock of them, over my Barred Rocks and Americaunas (sp?). However, I'm still a huge fan of Buff Orpingtons, they're the only other bird I've found as loving and personable.

I have a rooster and a hen in my mixed flock of 8 chickens, they get along with everyone fine. I should rehome the rooster since he is too big for most of my hens so he tears their backs up with his clumsy huge feet but he is just too sweet to let him be stew. The rooster is good with the hens (aside from his bulk) and is good about taking care of them. He limits his crowing mostly to before 8am and again at 5 ish for the bulk of his sessions and only occasionally throws single crows in ever few hours throughout the day. He is never aggressive with me and actually is more afraid of me than anything.
Both the hen and rooster are easy to catch which is helpful and once caught the rooster is calm enough to be doctored or healthchecked easily(he stands between my feet and lets me do what needs done) but neither of them are what I consider especiallydocile, they are more wary and the hen is the only one from my flock that has pecked me when she wasn't broody. The hen is near the top of the pecking order but not a terror. She lays a smallish dark brown egg finally after 9 1/2 months. They handled our high desert heat this summer pretty well but are much more comfortable in the Northern Utah winter than a lot of my others. Their amazing fluffy feathering keeps them warm and everyone wants to snuggle with them in the coop at night.
We have a big sturdy coop that can house much more than my 8 chickens and large run so they fit great but if you have a premade coop and typical suburban back yard run I feel there would not be enough room for them to be comfortable.

We have 5 Light Brahmas. They are very sweet birds, and their personalities are developing more and more everyday (currently 11 weeks old). They are big, currently the biggest we own, but they are so very pretty. Most bird breed have various characteristics that you can distinguish male from female. Currently, the males haven't gotten their tail feathers in, so we only have their combs to tell them apart. The males have rather large, bumpy combs, while the females have small, almost non-existent combs. They have always been the first to feed, even from our hands. From day 1, one of our males, Fatty, always stood up to us. We would reach our hands into the brooder box and he would jump up at us. Now that they are in the coop, he's typically the first to the door when we arrive. But they do peck at everything. And they aren't afraid to nip you on the hands. I wear two rings, my wedding ring on one hand and my green class ring on the other. Any time I reach my hand into the coop, even to pet them or another chicken, they immediately try to peck my rings on. In fact, this picture I uploaded is of Fatty pecking my phone camera as I took the picture. None the less, I love these beautiful birds. They are some of the friendliest birds we have.

My Brahma's name is Athena, and she's a very pretty bird. She's fairly friendly, although she will join the others in chasing the barn cats around. She's very scared of people, so I can't really give any Pros or Cons, because I don't know her enough. She is currently on the bottom of the the pecking order, and she can be found with "The Gang" as we call them. The Gang is made up of the entire bottom of the pecking order, mostly my brother's birds.

Here's my "Thee" during a rare time when I held her.

i got a Brahma at a festival for $20.00. she is a light Brahma, and is now one of my favorites of 20 chickens!


(April)
i love Brahmas! if u can, get one! i love them and so will u!

Let me preface this review by saying that I only have one light Brahma rooster. I have no experience with multiple Brahmas or any hens (or any type of rooster, for that matter!), so take this review with a grain of salt. I got him as a chick from a reputable local breeder and he was trouble from the start. He had repeated bouts of pasty butt and never liked being held. He is enormous and gorgeous, but a scaredy cat and clumsy (he knocks things over and will step all over other chickens to get away from people) and super skittish. He does not tolerate being held, although so far (at almost five months old) he is not aggressive to people or other birds. He hasn't started crowing yet, but with a flock of thirteen birds (eleven of which are hens and pullets) and living in a densely populated suburb, I think I will choose the Silkie roo over him even though that little one is a screamer. Hope to find a good home for him because he is truly striking looking and not aggressive.

My Light Brahmas are very quiet and HUGE...have not started to lay yet so I can't base a review off of that yet. They get along well with other breeds except the others tend to pick at the Brahma's leg feathers. Bloody leg clean ups have been in the works but for the most part we enjoy keeping them as pets

I only have one Brahma so take this review for what it's worth because it's hard to make an accurate assessment of the breed based on one hen. My eight month old hen is extremely broody and its been very difficult to break her of it. We haven't tried the cage isolation method because we just don't have the time. When she was laying, her eggs were surprisingly small for such a big beautiful bird. I will say that she is by far my quietest and most beautiful bird and has a very sweet temperament although she does tend to get cranky with the other birds in my little 7 bird flock when I repeatedly throw her out of the nesting box. I would not own another Brahma based on my experience with this one.

We love our Light Brahma's! We bought ours (Salt and Pepperat a farm store, and everyone loves them! Would love to have a complete Brahma Flock and someday hope to try the Buff variety!

i Love these birds! i a pair and i am considering getting a whole flock of them! my rooster if a huge fluffball. and he is one of the nicest roos i have ever had! the hen if like a cat, she walks through your legs all the time lol.

I have several laced Brahmas that I got from a local breeder. They're all gorgeous and quiet. They're big birds, so they're not great prey for hawks.
My rooster is so sweet; he's never attacked anyone. He actually gets picked on by a little silkie rooster!
The hens lay about 4-5 eggs each a week. One of them has gone broody twice in the last 8 months. The first time she hatched 8 healthy chicks (all roosters).
They do take lots of dust baths, meaning you'll have lots of holes, but that's not something I would worry about.

This is my second year raising Brahmas. Last spring, I picked up three sexed pullets, and one was still a roo. Out of the ordinary for Brahma roos, he was kind of a jerk when it came to his ladies once the hormones kicked in. A nice couple who had recently lost all but one of their Brahma flock fell in love with mine while seeing me about a guinea cock late last summer, so I may never know if he aged out of raping every female bird in the yard (including the ducks). While all were big and fluffy, the hens were exceptionally submissive in flock dynamics but still easily handled (more afraid of us than I'd hoped though).

This year, I have two Light Brahmas and three Dark Brahmas, all of whom are incredibly sweet natured, fluffy and quiet. The Light Brahmas are super hard to sex and feather very slowly. They're also bad about sending out mixed signals in that one will have a comb that says it might be a boy, but have perfectly rounded feathers. One might have the stature but no comb. Stuff like that.

The Dark Brahmas are supposedly easier to sex but take for freaking ever to get feathers. Mine are about six weeks old, and I think I might know which genders they are now. They're still not well feathered. I can pick up and cuddle of the five Brahmas, pretty much anytime I want. Some of them will also seek my company out and request cuddles. They are all closer to the bottom than the top of the pecking order, but this may change as they get bigger (they're one to a few weeks growth behind the biggest birds).

***EDIT 6/8/15***

Pretty sure both Light Brahmas are hens. The three Dark Brahmas are 2 Roos and 1 Hen. The bigger LB is now dubbed Shakira because she's a big bootied Columbian gal. Despite being very low on the hierarchy, she helps my SLW break up fights between the turkeys (who all outweigh them by multiples). She is a fearsome bozen and bouncer, but is completely safe with other birds and children (so long as nobody's yelping for help). The smaller of the LB pair is super quiet and strangely small for a Brahma. The little one has a big pale comb; the big one has almost no comb still, but it's flaming red.

The Dark Brahmas are some of the sweetest birds I've ever met. Incredibly sweet natured, huge, fluffy, soft cuddle buddies. They like being held and pet [especially the boys, who are now informally dubbed "Mag the Mighty" and "Wun Wun" (recently finished the fifth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, in case you're wondering)]. Super sweet birds, and super quiet. Days go by without these birds so much as peeping. They're four months old and have never crowed. Never peck anyone or other birds, though they do take note of invaders to the yard (and stare down cats). They are the number one offenders of raiding my house at every opportunity. Any means available, these birds find to enter my house and will cheerfully peruse my floors for anything the kids may have dropped from the table. They are fiends for all things people. Hands down top birds of this year's purchases for overall temperament (and this includes the turkeys, which I love oodles).

*A sexing note on Dark Brahmas*

Once DBs feather out and get those later juvenile feathers (the "big boy" and "big girl" feathers prior to adult plumage), you can sex them by looking at them. DBs are really just silver partridge colored, so all the same sexing tricks should hold. Look for black chests and honest-to-goodness lacing patterns. Boys will get lacing on their heads, necks and saddles, but girls are laced everywhere. At first the chicks were brown and initially feathered brown as well--much like my other partridge colored birds. Some people have told me that funky mottled feathers imply this "lacing", but THAT'S NOT TRUE. You've gotta wait for bigger girl and boy feathers to show up. They can have substantial red and brown feathering even into the latest juvenile plumage. Both of my DB roos have red on their wings, though Wun Wun has a lot more (and is much larger). Some of it may be breeding or the genetics behind the silver partridge coloring, but the fact remains that many people have been told to expect something very different from what hatcheries will deliver. Expect a lot of red and brown and mottling in both genders for the first few months until the black and white big kid feathers start cropping up (they start on the head and make these chicks look super awkward for a long time).

I only have 1 standard Brahma (and 3 Bantams Brahmas) and she is amazing. She is VERY laid back, not flighty in any way and VERY personable. She will follow us around the yard just so she can see what we're doing whether we have treats or not.
I introduced my Brahma (and my 3 bantams) to my existing "flock" of 2 orpingtons. My standard had no issue becoming part of the flock, she was close to their size when she was introduced and she is laid back enough that she just went off and did her own thing when my orpingtons decide to get grumpy. Within 2 or 3 days my brahma was up and roosting between them without any problem.

My Brahma even hangs out with my 2 year old daughter. My bantams are the same way. I wish I had more of them. (and I probably will soon). I love my orpingtons, but if I could start my flock over, I would have gotten all Brahmas.

I love, love love brahmas!! I had 6 dark, 5 got eaten by a fox, one hen remaining. The rooster I had was HUGE! But he was super sweet and never beat up anyone, didn't crow until he was 6 months. Definitely gentle giants. I had one hen who would follow me around like a dog and loved to be held. Sadly she was one of the ones eaten by the fox. But, getting 5 more darks in March!! SO excited!!

I bought three light brahmas lay spring. One of them ended up being a rooster and he is by far the best rooster I have ever met! He loves to snuggle. When I go outside and sit down he immediately will jump on my lap along with the lady brahmas. One day I was standing in the coop and someone was pecking my shoe and then they started tugging on my pant leg! I looked down and Aggie, the rooster, was pulling on me. We made eye contact, he stopped and stood completely still until I picked him up and snuggled with him. I cannot stress enough what a good bird he is. It honestly amazes me. The other day I gave him a bath and be stood still nearly the entire time.
The girls are just as sweet. They are very easy to handle and you can pick them up and check them all over without a problem. They are just as sweet as they look.

I did not have a pleasant experience with my Brahmas. They were pretty mean, and had injured me on multiple occasions. Maybe it was just bad genetics, but I had to get rid of them.

I may try them out again, but they were never a favorite of mine.

My Buff Brahma is so beautiful, and she cracks me up when she runs towards me for treats! She's almost seven months old and I haven't seen an egg yet, but I'm okay with it. She's very large and it takes quite a hop to roost at night, she may benefit from a lower perch. Although she runs pretty fast, she gets almost no height, so getting away from predators isn't likely, but she can't get over the fence so, to me, that's a plus. An example of her demeanor; I brought home a New Hampshire Red about a month ago to keep her company after her sister was killed by a dog while free ranging. I didn't know what to expect and she surprised me, she pecked at her comb a couple times, it's totally different than hers, and followed her around, but I saw no aggression whatsoever, and within two days they were pals. For a big girl she eats like a dainty lady and barely makes a mess. I'm glad the Brahmas were my first chickens, it's because of them I am now addicted, I can't wait until spring so I can expand my flock and my coop!

I absolutely adore my Buff Brahma. She's the head hen, always runs up to me, and loves being held. If I kneel down she will fly up onto my lap and stay there until I pet her or give her attention. Because she is the head hen, she will peck at my RIR and EE, especially if I try to give them attention, but that is to be expected I think. She is big and beautiful, with gorgeous feathered feet. Probably my favorite breed so far!

I got my Light Brahma when she was about 6 weeks old already, I got her with a black sex linx, they hang together like sisters. Because we got them so big already, we weren't able to handle them as much as we would have liked to, they were already skiddish with handling. Although the 2 were only a few weeks apart in age, my Black Sex Linx started laying about a month ago but the Light Brahma has only layed a few I think, I don't see her in the nest much. I have looked all over the yard for hidden eggs but have not found any. Not sure what is happening with that, maybe she will start laying regularly soon! I wish she was more sociable.

I had 7 light Brahma's and 4 buff Brahma's that i raised from chicks. I ended up with only one light girl, and the rest were boys, but all the buff's were girls. Even the 6 roosters were friendly, though slightly obnoxious. The buff girls were super sweet, and all of them loved to be petted and held. I would defiantly get more, and the boys were not mean at all. The eggs were large, and they were pretty good layers. They are also big and quite beautiful. If you like big, feathery birds, i would totally get a Brahma.