I can finally speak from experience about a breed! I have five bantam Buff Brahmas, one cockerel and four pullets, hatched July 4, 2016, so they are eight months old. The girls have been laying since sometime near the solstice in December, and that was completely unexpected given how short the days were. We are in Alaska, and at the winter solstice the days are really, really short. My experience so far is that my cockerel is a sweetheart. He is very good to everyone. He has never shown aggression toward me, and he even keeps his beak blunt for his girls. Has anyone ever seen that behavior? I noticed a couple of months ago how his beak is always short, with the top even with the bottom, and I also saw that it was chipped! One day I saw him purposely trimming his beak on the hardware cloth that covers the "window" to the coop. His name is Dude. Two of these girls are awesome little layers, and two of the four regularly lay eggs that weigh between 1-5/8 and 1-3/4 oz.! I'm getting 4-6 eggs per week each from them. The other two laid eggs for a while, but then both of them became glued to the nest, I suspect as much from being bullied as being broody. My best layer is a mean girl. I had to remove her victims from the coop because she was drawing blood, and they are currently in the house eating a lot, and hopefully remembering what it's like to feel the urge to lay those remarkably beautiful brown eggs. The Brahmas are docile, as described by all, but I wouldn't call them friendly or curious. I recently ordered hatching eggs from another large (relatively) bantam breed - bantam Speckled Sussex - and by comparison my Brahma eggs are much larger on average. I felt a new appreciation for the Brahmas when I saw that. I think my rooster is just beautiful. I love his feather patterns and colors, which remind me of a medieval court jester's collar, only much prettier. Some of the photos are distorted by the tinted heat lamp just outside the coop, and the birds appear redder than they are in reality. So far I like many things about the Brahmas. I want to try other large heritage breed bantams as well, including Orpingtons (most likely Buff) and Wyandottes, too, and as I wrote, I have some bantam Sussex eggs in the incubator now. One thing I'm not happy with is the degree of bullying from half my four females. They are confined at the moment with subzero temperatures and almost three feet of snow on the ground. Even so, the coop has a floor space of 32sf plus nest boxes and more. They aren't cramped. Unfortunately, the prettiest and sweetest natured pullets are not laying much so far. The mean girls lay great, and lay large. I'm thinking about getting the nice chickens back in the habit of laying, and then putting them back in with the rooster and taking the mean girls out, so I can at least obtain some hatching eggs from the better tempered hens, as well as seeing if they lay better without the mean girls around. Or conversely, seeing if my nice girls plan on being professional broodies.
I really, really want a good quality dark brahma bantam. Why is this breed so unpopular? I love my buff gal!
I just ordered 5 Bantam Brahma chicks! I am so excited! They should arrive next week. I have 1 Red Production hen. I got rid of her 3 coop mates because they started severaly picking on her. I hope she loves her new coop mates I picked for her.
I have two buff girls that I got from My Pet Chicken, along with a few other chicks. They are almost 8 weeks old and they are so sweet, tame, and docile. They are very pretty. I'm really happy with them! That picture of the egg you posted looks like a pretty good size egg for a bantam!
The egg pic maybe from my Red Production from last year, not sure. My Bantam Buff Brahmas should ship Monday from My Pet Chicken also. Glad to hear yours arrived well. It makes me nervous for them to go through the mail, but I cannot find any of those chicks anywhere. I had planned to get Milli Fleur D'uccle chicks in a couple of weeks, but my husband wants something had produced eggs and I wanted a smaller chicken. I don't know if I will still get the D'uccle or not.
