Brahma Breeders thread

[bumpercarr]

Just a side note. The reason I have stopped feeding grains/scratch is the birds prefer it over the breeder pellets. They will fill up on the grains and miss the nutritional value of the pellets. I have tried feeding all kinds of stuff and concluded the birds do better on the nutritionally balanced pellets. I feed chick starter grower to about three months and then the pellets. I do feed a small amount of black oil sunflower seed to birds I am conditioning to show. The high oil content does help feather quality. Just five or so a day per bird. This of course is from my personal experience. I have done lots of dumb stuff and made plenty of mistakes.

Tim

P.S. and please don't kid yourselves......birds do better on feed that contains ANIMAL protein. All this vegetarian diet feed crap is pure B.S. Chickens are omnivores.

Mine did the same. They'd not touch the pellets and would beg for more scratch. I also completely stopped with the scratch because they were all losing weight. X2....good post!

 

[cdover15]

I have never heard that. However, the key ingredient in most feeds is corn.

It is probably near impossible to get away from corn completely. Unless you mix your own feed. It's one of the main ingredients in most animal feeds at local feed stores.
I have just stopped giving cracked corn. I heard the cracked corn make brassy birds from a judge at the poultry show at my local fair. It could just be an old-wives tale, but to be honest I'm scared my birds will get brassy then not be as good as they can be at a show.

 

[Tim63]

I was not saying it was not true. Just never heard it before. My observation was just that if it were true, it would not matter if it were whole, cracked, chopped or the key ingredient in my breeder pellets. My personal experience with my birds(Bantam Lights) tells me the sun makes my birds brassy. I do not feed cracked corn so I can not confirm or deny your theory.

Tim

P.S. just following your theory to its logical conclusion: if it were true would it not make Buff birds darker? That might be a good thing. I agree diet can have an effect on shank color(yellow legs)..just not convinced it affects feather color. (ALL my opinion)

 

[bumpercarr]

I was not saying it was not true. Just never heard it before. My observation was just that if it were true, it would not matter if it were whole, cracked, chopped or the key ingredient in my breeder pellets. My personal experience with my birds(Bantam Lights) tells me the sun makes my birds brassy. I do not feed cracked corn so I can not confirm or deny your theory.

Tim

P.S. just following your theory to its logical conclusion: if it were true would it not make Buff birds darker? That might be a good thing. I agree diet can have an effect on shank color(yellow legs)..just not convinced it affects feather color. (ALL my opinion)

Diet has an effect on shank color? I hadn't heard that before, what in the diet causes what effect?

 

[big medicine]

I think diet, sun exposure, and water can all effect color of plumage. A high mineral content in hard well water (iron for example) can also show itself.

I agree with Tim on the corn, the ingredients in corn would likely still be the same in which ever form, be it whole, ground, crumbles, or pellets.

I never did see the draw for cracked corn, the quality starts to degrade as soon as you break that kernel. . My daughters old english games could swallow whole kernels no problem, I've cleaned both dove, and quail that had corn in their crops. I do make one concession, when the young birds are first on the ground I often put an old male in with them, for two reasons. One is to kind of ride herd over the young bucks, keeping the earlier hatched chicks from being as rough on the younger ones. And secondly he will clean up the corn from the limited scratch I throw untill they are big/brave enough to start eating it.

 

[big medicine]

Probably my biggest vice with corn is, when really studying my birds I like to go out with an ear or two, of corn, and strategically flip a kernel here or there, to get them to move around, turn, and so forth. They probably get more overall corn that way than they do from the little scratch I feed. Especially when evaluating the youngsters as the grow, sorting out keepers, setting up breeding pens.

 

[Crystalwhite]

My new Light Brahmas Let me know what you think.

 

[Tim63]

Diet has an effect on shank color? I hadn't heard that before, what in the diet causes what effect?

Well, plenty of green grass will keep yellow legs bright. Birds with no greens in their diet quickly loose the bright yellow color. Laying hens legs tend to bleach some anyway. Brahmas are supposed to have yellow legs and feet.

Tim

 

[Tim63]

My new Light Brahmas Let me know what you think.

I think I commented on your birds over on SBB. Very nice. Good width. Good top-lines. Color looks good.

Tim

 

[bumpercarr]

Well, plenty of green grass will keep yellow legs bright. Birds with no greens in their diet quickly loose the bright yellow color. Laying hens legs tend to bleach some anyway. Brahmas are supposed to have yellow legs and feet.

Tim

I knew that they were supposed to be yellow, but how yellow is sufficient? I suppose brighter yellow is always better than dull yellow. Nice to know that greens help them to keep bright yellow legs. Thanks!