Backyard Brahmas!!

[Blooie]

Hi everyone. Until this season I haven't been a Brahma owner, but I've been a Brahma wanter. Does that count? I was so excited to get 5 Light Brahmas and 3 Buff Brahmas, but as soon as I got them home I realized that I'd made a mistake. It doesn't change anything - I still like all of the chicks, but I don't know how I let that little detail of no feathers on the legs escape notice before. I feel like such a dummy - I'm not stupid but this sure makes me look that way.

Now I'm confused. These are what I have:






As you can see they have a very rich, dark color with white on the wings and black wing tips. But no feathering on the legs. In this photo they are one day old.


Here are two of the three at just between one and two weeks old. The other one looks identical to these.





These are the same chicks at 5 weeks old. Personality plus, running about the same size (maybe a hair smaller than the Lights) and such a deep, rich mahogany color coming through on them.






Now that I've inundated you with photos, I just know one of you is going to tell me, "Well, you have 3 specimens of a rare and endangered species known as the "Buff Bald-footed Brahma." Right? Oh, jeepers!

Somebody help me........

 

[speckledhen]

Blooie, you have some RIR cockerels there, looks like. I see a Dark Brahma in there, 5th photo down.


Believe it or not, my Buff Brahma, Caroline, is still with me. She is my last direct-from-a-hatchery hen and is 8 years, 3 mths old. I cannot believe she already passed her 8th hatch-day. Her only issue is a little pendulous crop and a touch of arthritis, but otherwise, she rules the Old Hens' Retirement Home & Hospice. She laid two or three eggs at the beginning of 2014 but none since. Her age shows a lot in her face now, but she's still a big pretty gal to us.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Hi everyone. Until this season I haven't been a Brahma owner, but I've been a Brahma wanter. Does that count? I was so excited to get 5 Light Brahmas and 3 Buff Brahmas, but as soon as I got them home I realized that I'd made a mistake. It doesn't change anything - I still like all of the chicks, but I don't know how I let that little detail of no feathers on the legs escape notice before. I feel like such a dummy - I'm not stupid but this sure makes me look that way.

Now I'm confused. These are what I have:

Here are two of the three at just between one and two weeks old. The other one looks identical to these.


I would like to see another pic of the dark one in this photo. From the side showing the leg if possible. (Thinking it may be a Brahma if there be feathers on them thar legs.)


These are the same chicks at 5 weeks old. Personality plus, running about the same size (maybe a hair smaller than the Lights) and such a deep, rich mahogany color coming through on them.
A pic of the yellow headed one in the background would be nice as well if you do not know breed.

These look to be Rhode Island Reds and one is a male. The one on the far right looks to be a red star from what I can see.

Now that I've inundated you with photos, I just know one of you is going to tell me, "Well, you have 3 specimens of a rare and endangered species known as the "Buff Bald-footed Brahma." Right? Oh, jeepers!

Somebody help me........

 

[newmarch2014]

@Blooie Those look like Production Reds ...Usually labeled as Rhode Island Reds at feed stores. Here is a pic of mine from last year...
as chicks....
and now....
Though I am afraid that one of yours may be a roo.... these 2 in the pic lay an egg almost every day. They only missed about 10 days in the past 8 mos.

 

[Blooie]

Thanks, Speckled Hen....but you were supposed to tell me I have Buff Bald-footed Brahmas. <sigh> If in the fifth picture down you mean the little grayish chick with the feathers on his feet, let me show him to you now at 5 weeks. His/her head is still downy, but so pretty! I thought those were Light Brahmas, but now I'm so unsure of myself that I couldn't tell if my sandwich at lunch today was really tuna like I thought it was.

At this point I'm starting to think I should just get a goldfish and call it good!

@21hens-incharge The little gray one that you're asking about is the same one that Speckled Hen asked about too....I have 4 of them and they were almost identical as chicks, and still are. So I just chose one at random, taken the day before yesterday, since they all look pretty much alike. That's it right above this. The one with the golden head you aske about is an Easter Egger, and indeed, the one on the roost with the RIRs (aka Buff Bald-foooted Brahmas) is a Red Star - I have 3 of those. The only ones that stumped me were those pesky dark red ones.

It's weird, too, because I was at Lintons Big R the day the chicks came in. I watched those little chicks come of out the shipping box, and their compartment was clearly marked by the hatchery "Buff Brahmas", and each of the kinds of chicks in each compartment of the shipping box were also marked. I also watched as they were put into their respective bins, and the sticker from inside the shipping compartment was put up on top of the waterer in that bin. After every single chick in that shipment was unpacked and checked over, the staff took their signs, matched them up with the stickers taken directly from the container that had been placed on the waterer, and only then were the signs identifying each kind of chick put up in front of the bins. We aren't talking a system like TSC. Here, I'll show you what I mean.



So how the heck I got Production Reds or RIRs I have no clue. Doggone it. Well, I might have nice chickens (and I figured that one was a roo) but I still don't have any Buff Brahmas. <sigh>

Thanks, everyone, for the help.

 

[21hens-incharge]

This is my little buff named Sandy. She is about 2 or 3 weeks in this pic. She was light like a BO with a smudge on top of her head and a darker grey/black body when I got her. I also noticed all my Brahma have a dark stripe on the beak as well. I hope that helps you find some in the future.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

RIR cockerels are often used as "packing peanuts" they may have been in the order to fill space of their buff Brahma hatch was smaller than required to handle the trip. Not saying that is what happened but its a possibility.

 

[speckledhen]

@Blooie , I was wrong! That is a Light Brahma! Are you sure that's the same chick? Must have been the lighting because it looked like a Dark Brahma, but hey, at least it's a Brahma, right??

Sorry, I told you the wrong thing about the Buff Bald-footed Brahmas. Twenty lashes for Specks, LOL.

 

[Blooie]

Then 1/4 of the huge shipping container was packing peanuts, because each box was divided into quadrants. I'm not worried about the cockerel....I knew the Buff Brahmas were supposed to be straight run - I just also expected them to BE Buff Brahmas.

So I guess the hatchery is the one who owns this mistake. I physically saw each chick come out of those boxes - I'd been waiting for them to arrive all day and I waited behind that yellow tape for my turn to choose my chicks - and I saw that there was no way the crew at the store messed up. They went by exactly what was on the sticker in each section of the box. Oh, well. In the overall scheme of life, it's not the end of the world, right? I still have some very friendly chicks to raise......I just don't have my Buff Brahmas. <sob, sob>

As for your 20 lashes, Speckled Hen - how about I just unroll an entire spool of quilting thread in the bottom of your sewing box?

Thanks, everyone, for letting me hog up your thread for a bit. If anyone has a stray for really Buff Brahma, I'll take it. Teehee

 

[Blooie]

<plop> So I need to tell you a story....a funny story......I think. After I left this thread my sweet hubby Ken said to me, "Well, you could check a few of the hatcheries and see if they have any left...the weather is nice enough now." (Last year's chicks arrived a day late and in 19 below zero weather) So I hemmed and hawed and finally went to MPC where I've shopped before. They just happened to show "limited availability" on Buff Brahmas. A click on that revealed that they had like 9 left, if I read what that number meant correctly. Boy, I turned into the Happy Clicker! I'd noticed the availability date shown was April 27 or some such. Okay, I can live with that - the Littles I have now have been living in the coop since day one and doing fine, so they should be able to be fully integrated with the rest of flock by then. I mean, right now the only thing that's been between The Bigs and The Littles since their first week here was a wire pen, and they are out among the flock all day long most days. So I proceed to the next step.

PRESTO...up pops a message that says there is an earlier available ship date....April 6th. Um, April 6th? As in tomorrow April 6th? Woohoo.....I'm doing my happy happy joy joy dance all over the kitchen. I ordered every single one they had, which, as it turns out, was actually only 8. I click "proceed". I enter all the information they ask for, then hit the chicken check out line. The only shipping method available is, of course, express mail. That turned out to be about 2 bucks more than I paid for the chicks, which included ordering all girls and having the Mareks Vaccine done. Chicks - $44.00 Shipping 46.93. I stopped dancing.

Ken said, "Aren't there other hatcheries?" Well, yeah, but I'm sure shipping is about the same, but he convinced me to look anyway. I closed the MPC order without completing it, then wandered around to see what I could find. No good. Went back to MPC, clicked on Buff Brahmas and it said, "Sold out." What???? I was just sick, but that shipping was pretty steep. I just looked up at him and said, "Well, in that short amount of time they sold out." On a whim I clicked on my shopping cart and there they were, still waiting to be adopted!! I was the one who made the SOLD OUT thingy pop up because I had them all hidden in my shopping cart. So, crazy or not, I paid that ridiculous shipping fee and I don't much care who knows it, so there!!

Now, if these little boogers get here and I have more fuzz on my legs than they do I'm going to be one unhappy lady!