Backyard Brahmas!!

[bumpercarr]

I have some strange mutt brahmas. They are the offspring of a buff brahma cock over a light x dark brahma hen. ( i bought them like that as my very 1st chicks. The cockerels are colored like lights and pullets are buff colored. Anyways i got a bator and hatched 1 of the eggs. Any ideas on what it will look like. Its still wet but it looks like a dark brahma color now

I'm assuming that you bred the siblings back to each other? I ran the chicken calculator with what you are describing and you can basically get anything from yellow, buff, golden, red, light....biggest percentage is yellow/golden in a male. I don't see the dark brahma coloring as one of the outcomes, but I guessed a bit on the coloring because the male from the original mix that you mentioned should have come out yellow/golden, not silver (I used the yellow/golden, not light). Should be interesting. After it dries a bit, take a picture for us! We can't wait to see what you end up with!

 

[bamadude]

I did breed them back to each other. They were easilly sexed at a few days old. The males were light colored and females were buff

 

[livininbrazil]

Vulture hocks won't affect anything, they will still lay eggs, they will still be lovely birds, some would say more lovely than those without the VHs. They'll go broody and raise a clutch if they are so inclined. The only thing wrong with vulture hocks is that they are a disqualification if you plan on showing your Brahmas in the US or if you are planning a breeding for sale program (hatching eggs, chicks etc) it would be irresponsible to sell without telling the person you are selling to that your birds may pass on VHs.

So for those of us that are striving for the perfect bird, we don't want vulture hocks in our breeding program. For those of us that just love the gentle giants, we don't really care. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with either point of view. Just like in other things in life, we need to learn to be tolerant of both sides and not judgmental.

Hopefully, there is enough room under this big tent for all of us!

Of course, that´s the perfect American bird, just a reminder or a note for people who don´t know, it´s quite ok in a lot of countries to have VHs. All mine have VHs, it´s extremely difficult to find them without here, and they´re great birds.

Good! Sometimes after talking to some of the serious breeders, I just want to go cry! Then I go outside and Comet jumps in my lap. I look at him with his goofy looking vulture hocks and straight comb. He snakes his long neck around my neck for a hug, and suddenly I don't care what he looks like!

Looks full of character! Pretty, too.

 

[big medicine]

I have some strange mutt brahmas. They are the offspring of a buff brahma cock over a light x dark brahma hen. ( i bought them like that as my very 1st chicks. The cockerels are colored like lights and pullets are buff colored. Anyways i got a bator and hatched 1 of the eggs. Any ideas on what it will look like. Its still wet but it looks like a dark brahma color now

You say your males look like lights. If you look close, do they have some brassy/straw ting to their hackles (neck) and saddle feathers ? I'm betting they do, and basing this answer like they do.
Being the result of a gold / silver breeding all the male chicks would be split gold/silver, (possessing one of each) The pullets out of that same breeding would be the color of their sire, gold based (buff in this case)

Now breeding these chicks together, the females only contribution will be in helping determine what color the male chicks are, as the female chicks will be determined by their sire. Now your male being split gold/silver will throw both silver(light) and gold(buff) pullets.

The male chicks can also receive either a gold or silver gene from Dad, Being that in this case Mom will be only throwing gold (buff), if it meets up with a gold from Dad, you will get a buff male chick. If Dad throw a silver, along with Mom's gold you will end up with a split gold/silver male, like Dad.

When you have a split gold/silver male it has been my experience that the silver(light in this case) is much more apparent, the gold only giving hints it is in there by the brassy hackle and saddle feathers. Female having only one color base gene are either gold, or silver.

So now that I probably have you bored to tears, you will get light and buff pullets, buff cockerels, and split gold/silver cockerels. What you will not get is pure silver (light) cockerels.

The wildcard in this scenario might be pattern, the Columbian pattern of both the lights and buffs tend to dominate over the penciling of darks, so columbian should be the prominent pattern in your chicks, but depending how smutty (extra dark markings, most often on back) your hens have, there is the outside chance you could get some chicks with some degree of penciling.

There may also be some variation in the depth of the buff color seen as well.

 

[big medicine]

Good! Sometimes after talking to some of the serious breeders, I just want to go cry! Then I go outside and Comet jumps in my lap. I look at him with his goofy looking vulture hocks and straight comb. He snakes his long neck around my neck for a hug, and suddenly I don't care what he looks like!

I hope I have not been unduly hard on you, unless of course you start talking pyles, then all bets are off.

Everybody should raise birds that appeal to them, life is too short to do otherwise.

Serious question for you guys. At what point do vulture hocked, single combed birds, stop being referred to as Brahmas, and move over into Cochin territory ?

 

[WolfenKitty]

i am very new to chicken owning, and we got two light brahma chickens that we raise in our backyard in the city. Unfortunately one of them died a month or so after we got them.

Now I spend as much of my free time that I can spare playing with him/her, and she seems pretty happy in the brooder. Hopefully we can get more chicks soon.

P.S. the one still living is cookie. The one who passed was cream.

 

[big medicine]

I'm assuming that you bred the siblings back to each other? I ran the chicken calculator with what you are describing and you can basically get anything from yellow, buff, golden, red, light....biggest percentage is yellow/golden in a male. I don't see the dark brahma coloring as one of the outcomes, but I guessed a bit on the coloring because the male from the original mix that you mentioned should have come out yellow/golden, not silver (I used the yellow/golden, not light). Should be interesting. After it dries a bit, take a picture for us! We can't wait to see what you end up with!

What I do when needing to calculate darks is use the "black patterned gold multiple laced partridge/brown" scroll down and switch it from " s+/- gold/wildtype" to " S/- silver" . That would be for the female side.

The male side would be s+/s+, S/S, or the split S/s+ They call "golden".

 

[bumpercarr]

I hope I have not been unduly hard on you, unless of course you start talking pyles, then all bets are off.

Everybody should raise birds that appeal to them, life is too short to do otherwise.

Serious question for you guys. At what point do vulture hocked, single combed birds, stop being referred to as Brahmas, and move over into Cochin territory ?

I think that this is a very good question. After all, I've been told that there are no "purebreds" in chickens, that all of the chickens breeds come from other breeds, crossings, etc. What was the first "breed" of chicken? Who knows, but my point is that we think Brahmas come from a cross between Cochins and Malays. So, if they pick up too many traits from one or the other, are they still Brahmas or are they back to their roots as either a Cochin or a Malays? If you breed a Brahma to a Cochin, which one is it, are you able to call it one or the other as you please depending on which breed is the more popular at the moment? As far as I can tell, there isn't a breed registry like in Thoroughbred or Quarter horses or the AKC that defines the bird as a particular breed regardless of the traits they possess. It is the traits that they possess that define them as one breed or another. So, for me personally, the Cochin tail is one trait that if a bird possesses it they are closer to Cochin than Brahma. If I had to list the differences in the two breeds, I would say the comb, the hocks, the tail, feather softness and the topline are the traits that really stick out to me. I guess the question becomes how many of those traits are Cochin in your bird and how many are Brahma. If the answer is that more of these particular traits fall in the Cochin category, then you should probably call your bird a Cochin rather than a Brahma.

Thoughts?

 

[cabinchicky]

Wow,deep thoughts there. my head hurts. I being novice still I am trying to learn but ow!! if I get a brahma cross with EE or Cochin with EE I gonna say its a EE with the feets! (I hope!!)

 

[bamadude]

these are the parents of my new hatchlings. I will take pics of the chicks soon.