Black Brahmas, anyone?

[Flock Leader]

My husband got me some chicks which he was told are Black Brahmas (not dark - actually black), however I haven't really heard of this color variety. I know it isn't recognized by the American Poultry Association. So is there such a thing as Black Brahmas, or are these crosses of something? Does anyone know? We've had Light Brahmas before and they were very docile birds. Are all Brahma varieties alike in this sense?

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Yes there is such thing.

 

[junebuggena]

If you post some pictures, we might be able to tell you what you have. Brahmas of any color variety should have pea combs, yellow feet, and feathered legs and feet.

 

[Michael OShay]

If you post some pictures, we might be able to tell you what you have. Brahmas of any color variety should have pea combs, yellow feet, and feathered legs and feet.

X2 on that.

 

[Flock Leader]

They definitely look like Brahma chicks (we've had Brahmas before). Just black. I'll try to upload some photos though.

 

[Flock Leader]

Bumping up this thread... the Brahmas have grown big and handsome by now, but the Brahma roos have some brilliant red feathers on their necks. Is that correct for Black Brahmas? Or are they supposed to be coal black all over, and what we have doesn't come from a very pure line? We want to be fair to people if we ever get to selling the Brahmas. Wouldn't want to sell something as pure-bred when it actually isn't.

 

[junebuggena]

If you post some pictures, we would be able to help better. From my understanding, black birds should be solid black. If there is red 'leakage' it would indicate that something else has been bred in at some point.

 

[Michael OShay]

If you post some pictures, we would be able to help better. From my understanding, black birds should be solid black. If there is red 'leakage' it would indicate that something else has been bred in at some point.

Agreed.

 

[Flock Leader]

If you post some pictures, we would be able to help better. From my understanding, black birds should be solid black. If there is red 'leakage' it would indicate that something else has been bred in at some point.

I see. I'll try to post a photo later. However I'm not astonished to hear that they might be bred with something else.

 

[big medicine]

If you post some pictures, we might be able to tell you what you have. Brahmas of any color variety should have pea combs, yellow feet, and feathered legs and feet.

More important, in my opinion, is that those features be arranged on a body of proper Brahma type and size.

Too often people focus on individual features, or color, at the expense of proper type, ending up with a bird with a non descript generic build. Examples of this can be found in most hatchery stock. If you were to take several examples of different breeds of your average hatchery quality birds and maybe with Photoshop you could hide the combs and leg color/ feathering, and make all birds solid white, you would be hard pressed to tell most of them apart. If you were to do the same thing with proper typed examples of the same breeds the difference would be quite striking.