Light, Buff, Dark, Gold, Black, White, Blue, and Blue Columbian.
Breed Size
Large Fowl
APA/ABA Class
Asiatic
There has been considerable controversy over the true origins of the Brahma breed, but appears to have developed in the US originally, from birds imported from China. They were send off from the port of Shanghai and were thus known as "Shanghai birds". Brahmas as we know them were first exported to England in December 1852, when George Burnham sent nine "Gray Shanghaes" to Queen Victoria as a gift. The Dark Brahma variety was developed by English breeders from this stock and later exported to the United States, where the Brahma was the principal meat bird from the 1850's to around 1930. Some of these birds were very big, with males weighing in at up to 18 lb and females at 13 lb.
The Light and Dark Brahma were developed and included in the first edition of the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1874 and the Buff variety was added in 1924. The Australian Poultry Association has accepted black, blue, partridge, crele and barred varieties of Brahma in addition to the standard light, dark, and buff.
Brahma eggs
Brahma chick
Brahma juveniles
Brahma hen
Brahma rooster
For more about Brahmas and their owners' and breeders' experiences with this breed, see our breed discussion here:
Pros: So fluffy!
Cuddly
I love the feather pattern!
Cons: not heat hardy
My brahma is so cuddly and fluffy. I love her so much even though i'm pretty sure she hates me. I'm in New England, and we have cold winters (why I got a brahma) and very hot summers (which i forgot to consider). Also very unpredictable weather. My Light brahma is very big and covered with dense fluff, not great when we got a heat wave this year. However I'm definitely getting more brahmas, I love their massiveness, maybe a buff.
Yes! wonderful birds. I don't know about them being diggers though. I bought 5 Brahmas, 5 Marans and the same of Amearucana-yes laugh I messed the name up. My picture profile is my favorite chicken.
Hmm several weeks ago it got pretty cold here and I had trouble keeping the coop warm, the heat light bulb burnt out towards the end of the cold. I felt really bad for the guys; it got down to -twenty in there.
my mom got a brahma roo was the best roo EVER when we got babies each year he would let them eat food out of his mouth. and her was like 3 ft tall!! But whe nhe turned 4 he disappeared with like 3 of his hens and after that his fav hen(amerucana named Speck) was lonly and wouldn't let any of the other roos mate with her for like a year!
I love these birds too, we had a light hen ( Joey ) who was the sweetest. she would follow you around ( at a safe distance Lol) we didnt keep her until she was old enough to lay. The feather feet never bothered me (I loved feather feet) since our wet season is for like a month or so.
I have a lot of chickens but I have 5 of these and I love them. They are my tamest chickens and they are real sweeties. If you want a good layer but also a great pet this is the breed for you.
I have one Brahma. She's too timid, both of me and the other chickens. I think I wouldn't keep Brahmas in a mixed flock again, although this may just be one very timid bird rather than a breed trait. It's the first and only Brahma I've ever had. She's in with two Wyandottes and a Barred Rock. She doesn't get picked on too badly, but I feel like she gets left out a lot. She seems to hang out alone a lot, which is unlike the other chickens I've had. But at about a year old, she's getting braver. Her lack of interest in me may be mostly my fault. The whole lot of hens I got at the same time hate having contact with me, probably because I didn't handle them enough as chicks.
I have 2 light brahmas I call "Brah and Ma", they stick together around the yard. One is very friendly and walks right up to me whether I am sitting or standing. The other is more wary. Even though this is a larger breed, they lay slightly smaller eggs than my production reds, barred rocks, and cochins. I still love them though.
thats cool mine are only 3months old no complaints so far hope the roosters are not too noisy because i have 1light male named iceberg,1buff named stewie and 1 buff/dark mix named gambino.
I love my brahmas. I have four hens and one rooster( buff columbian ). Then I just hatched out 16 buff chicks this year. I also hatched 4 light chicks. More eggs going in the bator in a week or two.
i love brahmas!!! i don't have any standerd at the moment, but i do have 5 beautiful Dark Brahma Bantams that are adorable. i hope to get some Buff Laced soon
Ours is a good forager, yours must've been odd because we've never had a chicken that was a "bad forager", but we throw our food on the ground VS in a feed dish so that it promotes foraging.
Well, at least their nice lol
