Brabanters and Spitzhaubens--The Differences PIC HEAVY!

[EweSheep]

Really?

He carries his wings too low. And he looks a bit too lean....maybe if he would stop and pose a picture with his best pose, we can see if we can help him.

I don't know enough about German birds, IMO, I think certain breeds imported from there were a bit darker but lack refinement. See the Faverolles, Hamburgs....they are a bit different.

 

[EweSheep]

Really?

Chrisf, I found the picture on Ebay and he said they were originally from GF so no, it was NOT imported by his owner but it is very possible that GF must have sold him the Black roo that probably was original import. We simply just don't have enough information to verify it yet.

 

[Blair75214]

Our 6 week old Spitzhauben named Chooka!

She loves a good snuggle!

 

[birdsss]

Can't blame her! I've got a bunch about that age now and they're super friendly

 

[tazcat70]

He also has eggs listed on eBay.

 

[Blue]

For those who have brabanters, how has their overall health been for you? Mine seem to be having health issues recently. I have 4 now (My rooster and 2 hens got killed, and I found one hen dead in the lot one day with no visible injury signs when she was still only a few months old). They are all around 2 years old. Of the 4 I have left, all of them have stopped laying eggs. One developed a swollen, crusty face, like she has warts all over her face. I posted her on the diseases/injury page last summer, and people seemed to think it was fowl pox, which was also what I was thinking as well. I waited for it to run its course, but it hasn't, and her condition has now started to worsen.

Now, she has started losing weight and feathers, and her face has never gone back to normal. She is still eating and drinking but doesn't look well at all and feels very emaciated when I pick her up. Her keel bone is very prominent.

I have also been treating another brabanter who developed an ear infection(?) a couple weeks ago. Her ear lobe on one side is swollen and distended, and she seems to have developed some kind of abscess underneath it on the side of her beak.

The other 2 hens look healthy, but none have been laying for the past several months. All of my chickens took a winter break, but the brabanters still haven't started back even though the rest of the birds they were with have.

I've wormed all 4 of the brabanter hens, treated the 2 sickly ones with Sulmet, mixed some ACV with all their water before I started the Sulmet treatment to see if that helped first. I've been mixing yogurt and powdered milk in with the feed of the 2 getting the Sulmet to promote good intestinal bacteria and help east the Sulmet treatment. I've also sprayed Blue-Kote/Wound-Kote on the ear of the one hen.

I'm not noticing any improvement, and the other 2 that also got wormed are still not laying any eggs. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Are brabanters prone to illness due to there being such a small gene pool of them in the U.S.? None of my other birds are showing any similar signs as these, so I don't ~think~ they have anything contagious, but I'm wondering if it would be better to keep treating the sickly ones or cull the 2 sickly ones or all of them and maybe wait and order some more eventually (all of mine came from Ideal)? I was planning on trying to breed them, but I lost my rooster early on so never had a chance to do that.

 

[EweSheep]

It appears to be fowl pox, nasty thing it is! Hard to cure and some folks would let it run its course or cull them out because it is a vicious cycle that would happen again and again. Looks like the hen with ear infection, without any photos, could be fowl pox "internally". I honestly don't know.

If it was me, I would cull them out. The remaining survivors, you can keep them as pets or cull them if you really want offsprings or raise Brabanters.

I never owned any Brabanters but Spitzhaubens and as far as they go, they are very healthy and never had any health issues, no MG/MS or any CRD of any kinde. I got mine from Ideal Hatchery and they are not vaccinated for Merck's.

 

[Blue]

I had thought that too, but everything I read about fowl pox seemed to point to it being very fast moving. If these two don't improve, I'll have to cull them. I already removed them from the rest for treatment. I wonder why none of my brabanter hens are laying, though. I've been watching my other birds, but the brabanters appear to be the only ones affected. Mine haven't been vaccinated for Marek's either, but none of the pics I've looked at of Marek's seem to fit with the symptoms I'm seeing except maybe the weight loss.

 

[hallerlake]

I had thought that too, but everything I read about fowl pox seemed to point to it being very fast moving. If these two don't improve, I'll have to cull them. I already removed them from the rest for treatment. I wonder why none of my brabanter hens are laying, though. I've been watching my other birds, but the brabanters appear to be the only ones affected. Mine haven't been vaccinated for Marek's either, but none of the pics I've looked at of Marek's seem to fit with the symptoms I'm seeing except maybe the weight loss.

I've lost a mother and daughter to internal laying,but otherwise, my brabanters have been healthy. Sorry I don't have anything more useful than my sympathy.

 

[danib]

Where did you buy yours, Ewesheep?