Backyard Brahmas!!

[Huntress78]

Computer's been locking up but looks like Bumpercarr's got it covered. Good luck!

 

[bumpercarr]

Ok I've got a lamp, do I just nest them or so they still need to be covered? If so should the sponge also be covered to keep the humidity in with them?

I would personally keep them covered and the sponge close to them under the cover as well. You will probably have to wet the sponge with hot water several times a day....not boiling water, just hot from the tap is fine. Otherwise, the moisture on the sponge will cause the eggs to cool as it cools (evaporative affect, unless you live where it is really humid...if so, forget about the sponge). If you have a broody to slide them under tomorrow, that would be the best option. Usually eggs can be nursed along for a day or two, but anything longer than that and they will probably die.

 

[livininbrazil]

I am going to throw a wrench into this and complicate things! I hatched 11 brahmas and kept six and sold five. I chose which ones to keep by the feather development ie long tail and wing feathers. I ended up keeping mostly males and only a few girls!!! Brahmas are soo hard to sex. I think it's fair to say that you will know at two months old by the combs and wattles and my boys matured quite quickly.

It´s so difficult with Brahmas. I can usually tell mine by their lack of feathers on the wings of the cockerels, and by the height and stance. I´ve so far never had a pullet that lacked wing feathers. I´ve had pullets with no tail, pullets with really red wattles, etc, and also quite tall pullets, so they definitely are difficult. The only thing that´s always been reliable in mine, as I said, has been the wings.
The pulling the legs in thing is rather interesting.

 

[livininbrazil]

Nice wide head. Is this a pure brahma? No feathering on the toe there.

 

[livininbrazil]

Thank you huntress. Like I said, praying for a miracle. I think if I can keep them warm enough my friend has one that just went broody yesterday. Going to candle them in a minute and see if there's any hope.

Just out of interest, someone on the goose thread had an emergency and managed to hatch out 3 live goslings after 4 days on a heating pad. She laid a towel over the heating pad, temperature kept at the right point, and a damp cloth over the top. There is hope!

 

[big medicine]

They all came from the same farm (John Neff), but not necessarily related. I don't mind line breeding, but my plan is to breed these with my partridge brahmas to improve type, so which sexes I get are almost irrelevant right now. As long as I have at least one of each I'm good. My plan is to put a partridge male over dark females, getting dark females and split gold/silver males. Put the split male back to a partridge female and I'll get 50/50 partridge & dark females and 50/50 partridge and split males. In another pen, put a dark male over partridge females and get partridge females and split males. Take the split males back to all of the partridge females and I'll again get 50/50 partridge/dark females. I'll also keep breeding my blue partridges so that I can keep the color going until I can improve the type. Once I get a partridge male out of the second generation (it isn't really F2 since we won't be breeding siblings) I can breed him back to the blue females to try to improve their type as well. I know, TMI! Most people's eyes glaze over when I start talking like this! I won't be trying to hatch any more darks in the near future, I'm tired of incubating and would like to take the summer off!

Starting this fall when everyone reaches sexual maturity again, I'll start hatching again. As you can see, this is a multi year project, which is one reason that I was so bummed out when my flock was destroyed. BTW, the bantam was a "peanut" egg, just used to fill up the shipping container. I may go ahead and get more bantams, but I think right now I have my hands full.

You got a couple things a little backwards there. A partridge male over a dark female will produce partridge pullets, and a dark male over partridge female = dark pullets. Pullets get their base color from their sire.

Give your chicks another week or two and feathering pattern should make it fairly easy to determine sex.

 

[bumpercarr]

You got a couple things a little backwards there. A partridge male over a dark female will produce partridge pullets, and a dark male over partridge female = dark pullets. Pullets get their base color from their sire.

Give your chicks another week or two and feathering pattern should make it fairly easy to determine sex.

Thanks Big Medicine....I knew that, just probably wrote it wrong or my alzheimers is getting worse. I don't even usually look at them to guess sexes until they are about 4 weeks old, but I thought I'd give it a try on the darks. I probably won't be any more successful with them than I am with the partridges.

I'm usually about 50% with my sexing, I could do as well just by randomly assigning sex. But thanks for the correction on the dark/partridge breeding. Either way, I'm breeding darks to partridge in the hopes of fixing some of my topline issues. Honestly, I think I'm just happy to have any birds to experiment with after the disasters I've had this spring. Hopefully, the rest of the year will go better!

How is the adorable grandbaby? A new picture would be welcome!

 

[carcar80]

Any advice would be a God-send. Praying for a miracle.

I'm sure you've worked this out by now, just wanted to say I've finished off abandoned eggs on a heating pad. Started some on one too. Just turn more often than you might in a bator (until lockdown).. When finishing/hatching, I covered with a wet paper towel and then a thin dish cloth. Good luck!

 

[The Colonel]

Ok so not sure if the disaster was completely diverted. But they are back happy and warm at 100F. I nested them in a basket with a damp warm washcloth and then covered with a hand towel, under our heat lamp. Candled them last night after they had a chance to cope a little bit and I think they are going to be ok. Thank you everyone for your help. Will keep updated as the week goes by. Hoping for the best.

 

[bumpercarr]

Ok so not sure if the disaster was completely diverted. But they are back happy and warm at 100F. I nested them in a basket with a damp warm washcloth and then covered with a hand towel, under our heat lamp. Candled them last night after they had a chance to cope a little bit and I think they are going to be ok. Thank you everyone for your help. Will keep updated as the week goes by. Hoping for the best.

Remember to keep turning them. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

Also, there are many articles about allowing eggs to cool for a little while every day (simulating the broody getting up and eating/pooping). You might want to google some of those articles and see if you want to incorporate that into your routine. My understanding is that it increases the hatch rate....also, it is why brinsea incubators are so popular (and good according to those that have them) because they cool each day automatically.