Braggs Mountain Buffs

[collaire]

I called these people a couple of years ago. As nearly as I could tell they were not really into shipping a lot of chicks,and kind of gave me the run around. I want all the people who see this post though to condider the amount of advertising that they do. They have display ads in every poultry publication. They are not big ads, but they are also not cheap. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some kind of scam or a front for something else.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Ok since my wife has done the communication with this gentleman over the last year, I asked her. She said she placed the original order by filling out the form on the website. She received a call from this fellow and has communicated with him alone about the birds. She did say he mentioned a partner in Oklahoma. My estimation is that this man did not originate the breed, he did not seem on the ball enough and his chickens were not in that good of order. He did have a bunch of these and only these. Don't really know anything for certain.

I think he told my wife he was not getting a good hatch rate. However he had a large wire basket of eggs hanging in the chicken coop. I'm talking several dozens of eggs and the temperature was over 90 degrees, maybe close to one hundred. She said he mentioned setting eggs weekly. So, a low hatch rate under those conditions does not surprise me.

We have the birds and once they and the roos are in good shape we will begin breeding them. As I said earlier they did seem large yet under weight, so we'll see how they fill out. We have several types of Marans so I had a good size bird to eyeball these against. We are optimistic about the birds .... we'll see.

I'm anxious to hear how things go for you. Thank you again for posting an letting us know about your experiences.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I called these people a couple of years ago. As nearly as I could tell they were not really into shipping a lot of chicks,and kind of gave me the run around. I want all the people who see this post though to condider the amount of advertising that they do. They have display ads in every poultry publication. They are not big ads, but they are also not cheap. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some kind of scam or a front for something else.

I have read one or two articles about the breed, those articles just seemed like teasers.

I have not talked with anyone or comunicated with anyone who has actually maintained this breed. If the articles and advertisements are accurate, then this could be a very cool breed to raise and maintain.

But that is a pretty big "IF".

 

[EweSheep]

Old posts from BYCers that had them said they were beautiful but there were some problems with them. They would lay HUGE eggs and often egg impactations and egg periodiontics were the usual problems and most of them would die from it. They are certainly NOT fugal eaters. Feather colors were inconsisent, some would be of washy color of buff instead of GOLD buff like the true Buff Orpingtons. They do lay lots of eggs but burn out by the time they got older or die. Longevity is not common with this breed. Some were disappointed and some said it's fine with the breed itself.

Good luck in your endevor in this breed.

 

[qball53]

One egg a day so far from 14 hens and not a very big egg at that. The birds are very tough looking, appear to be moulting and a lot of bare backs from too many roosters. We'll be patient and see how they perform when they are re-feathered.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Thank you for that post...I greatly appreciate it. Please keep us informed.

Do you have images of your flock?

 

[qball53]

I do not have any pictures at this time.... maybe I can find some time this weekend. The birds are still a bit leary of us so the pics will likely not be the best. Additionally if I do post some pics, keep in mind the birds condition is how we received them. They should look much better in a few months. We are a long way from making up our minds about this breed.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I appreciate any and all information that you are providing.

If the present photos show that the stock is indeed in poor condition, and yet producing eggs...And later photos show how much the flock has improved (along with temperment), that would give a good testimony to the durability and productivity of the Braggs Mountain Breed. Yes?

 

[qball53]

Well we got three eggs yesterday for the first time. One was cracked so my wife took the opportunity to check for fertility and yeah it was fertile. The other two eggs were considerably larger than the first so maybe the older hens are starting to recover and lay. One egg was large on the scale and one was dead center X-large on the scale. The shells were a bit thin so I made the oyster shell more accessible to them. None of these hens are using the roosts or the next boxes. Maybe I should lower the roosts and next boxes as I don't think they ever had the opportunity to learn to roost.

 

[qball53]

Well we got three eggs yesterday for the first time. One was cracked so my wife took the opportunity to check for fertility and yeah it was fertile. The other two eggs were considerably larger than the first so maybe the older hens are starting to recover and lay. One egg was large on the scale and one was dead center X-large on the scale. The shells were a bit thin so I made the oyster shell more accessible to them. None of these hens are using the roosts or the next boxes. Maybe I should lower the roosts and next boxes as I don't think they ever had the opportunity to learn to roost.

Don't know how to edit ...... obviously next boxes should have read nest boxes