Brahma Breeders thread

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LOL, it will be interesting to see what they turn out to look like.
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Hi folks!
I'm in Eastern Canada-- at the beginning of May I was able to locate and buy 14 Large fowl Buff Brahmas as chicks. This is huge, because they are reasonably rare on this coast, and I had never actually seen a standard, though I had a couple pairs of bantams.
While I've owned and bred different breeds for quite a few years- this is probably the project that I will have until the end of my days- I absolutely love these birds, everything about them.
I'm supremely lucky in that I have exactly 7 pairs, if I chose to keep or sell 7 pairs. We just built a building for them this weekend, and I'm considering pens, though I understand they mature far slower than other breeds I've worked with.
Now, I don't know whose lines these are, but this is the history- the young man I got them from had some nice standards that laid poorly- he countered that by adding hatchery stock which laid better, but weren't as large or as good conformation. So, he bought a couple of very nice and VERY large pullets from Ontario and they improved his stock overall. I can say for sure that I got some of those hen's chicks, as there are a few quite large birds in my batch, several males are really large compared to their hatch mates.

Ok, so here's my question- or 2 actually. At 10 weeks the cockerels are just getting their saddle feathers, and are giving me an idea of what they will look like. There are 2 pullets who are pretty clear of ticking or smut, but they are very pale compared to the other pullets. Like almost dilute- I would expect them to be blue buff if they were another breed, but they are buff.
The other pullets are deeper buff, but several have ticking towards their tails, and I understand that can be a problem to clear up. It is better than it was even 2-3 weeks ago, so perhaps they will clean up more yet?

While my interest isn't in exhibition- I want to only work towards SOP birds who are dual use. Pretty and practical. I'm a reasonably good judge once I see the finished bird, but I don't have the ability yet to look at a chick and think how it will look when it's grown.
In regards to colour- should I be breeding the pale pullets to the deepest darkest male? Cleanest patterned birds to each other and what to do with the slightly messier ones? (Stew pot, I know I know...)
Thanks very much
 
very nice, wouldn't kick her out out of my flock sop?
I'm thinking that her head might be a tad on the small side, but she's young yet. Most of the time I notice that the heads are nice until about 4 months, then the body catches up and overcomes the head and then at about a year old the head matures. We'll see. I like her topline and I wish she had a little less fluff on her thighs (don't we all wish that we had smaller thighs) but overall I like her look. Not too bad of a result for one of my first cracks at breeding to the standard, but I have to admit that she was part of a test hatch.
 

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