Brahma Breeders thread

[snowbird]

Three year old cockbird from our long time breedings

 

[DesertBrahma]

Thank you Big Medicine. I'm going to have to slowly figure everything out. I have the plastic bins I'm going to use for nest areas, and need to get them done. I'm just going to cut a hole in the side of them and put some shavings in them. That way I can just pop the top and grab the egg. When I decide to try to hatch some then I can put them all in at 1 time to hatch. I would probably only do 5 or 6 eggs at a time or less. My main thing is I want eggs, and meat from my healthy beautiful chickens. Plus I'm kinda scared to try and incubate eggs in an incubator. I'm afraid I'd really screw it up bad so that I would have baked eggs that stink uplease my home.

 

[DesertBrahma]

I've got my doubts that 4 generations from hatchery stock will get you anywhere near the size breeders have been working on since, (or before) Brahmas were included in the first American Standard of Perfection in 1874.

I've gotten to feeling pretty good about the size of some of the birds in my various Brahma projects over the years, until I get to a large show and stand next to a row of top flight large fowl lights. Talk about a reality check.

As ocap and others have mentioned throughout these threads, you would be light years, and money, ahead in the long run by attaining quality stock from a top breeder.

I might advise you to work with what you have for the time being, to work out the bugs, learn some of the finer points of raising, breeding, hatching, managing a healthy flock while you cultivate some contacts and relationships with breeders, and save up for taking the next step.   I know I have sold birds to people who would call back in a couple months wanting to know if I had any more I might part with. They really liked them, but had no idea a coon could squeeze through such a small space, or could tear through chicken wire, or so on. All things a person should learn with their practice birds before laying out the cash for good breeding stock.

I can do this and really start learning. Mine are so easy to care for. As long as they have clean shavings, feed, fresh water, and I give them some treats they're happy. I don't have coons here but we do have skunks, coyotes, cats and dogs people let wander. I use hardware cloth, and am looking at a big metal shed I can make into a bigger coop. Then I would have a lot more room to work with.

 

[brahmapapa]

Thank you Big Medicine. I'm going to have to slowly figure everything out. I have the plastic bins I'm going to use for nest areas, and need to get them done. I'm just going to cut a hole in the side of them and put some shavings in them. That way I can just pop the top and grab the egg. When I decide to try to hatch some then I can put them all in at 1 time to hatch. I would probably only do 5 or 6 eggs at a time or less. My main thing is I want eggs, and meat from my healthy beautiful chickens. Plus I'm kinda scared to try and incubate eggs in an incubator. I'm afraid I'd really screw it up bad so that I would have baked eggs that stink uplease my home.

i totally agree with Big Medecine's recommendation to not use brahmas as broodies, for all the reasons he mentioned and more. your fear of stinking eggs is without foundation. Except for a bad egg which in hatching thousands of eggs i have never had, you have very little chance of anything going wrong in 21 days. get an incubator and experiment, its not only fun, but its the easiest way to replace laying hens. most breeders hatch hundreds of chicks and cull to get the best. its not difficult to find people to take culls if you have too many. You will find if you try, that letting a hen go broody, first of all takes them out of production. There are so many things that can go wrong unless you isolate the hen. Big Medecine really knows his stuff from years of experience, don't take his advice lightly.

 

[DesertBrahma]

I'm actually printing all the advice on here and making a binder with it. I'm going to reread all of it as I go along with this adventure. I want the advice, and to learn from the people who have been where I am now. If I hatch any chicks the ones I cull will go to feed my family. I got into raising these chickens to feed my family healthier. I liked this breed because they are really pretty, dual purpose, and gentle. I know it's going to take a while for them to get up to size but that's ok. I'm tired of getting chicken from the grocery store that is full of chemicals, and junk we don't need. I want healthy, and big. I have 2 boys and a husband that eat a lot. I also like the bug patrols they do lol. Mine don't like being handled but that's ok too. I don't have them to have an oddly shaped cat as my dog thinks of them. Should I get a smaller hen to be a broody, or should I use an incubator?

 

[big medicine]

A incubator would give you much more opportunity to bring off larger hatches, when you want them, verses waiting on a hen to go broody. Having your chicks the same, or close, age makes it simpler managing your youngsters. Normal year I will set eggs every 10 days for 3 to 4 batches. I brood mine by individual hatch for the first few weeks, then as they start to catch up I usually combine hatches as the go out into the big brooders in the coop. As they feather out and no longer need heat they graduate to the coop floor. If there is enough age/size difference between the first and last hatch, and the littles are getting bossed around too much, I lean a couple pieces of plywood up against the back wall, giving them a place to take refuge. Also putting an old male in with the chicks seems to help keep everybody on their best behavior.

The only broody that I ever had really good results with was a probable American Game hen the adopted our place after the neighboring farm sold. She was money, you could always count on her bring off a large clutch and raise them till she decided she was done. The trick with her was finding her nest and swapping her eggs with the ones I wanted her to hatch. One year I could not find her nest and she brought off her own brood of Game/ Brahma cross chicks. Physically and temperament wise much more resembling the game side of their ancestry.

Back to the incubator. When I am getting ready to set my second batch of eggs, I candle the first batch, now 10 days in. Removing any clear eggs or quitters. Then again at about 19 days.when they go into the hatching tray on my incubator, for the last couple days with no turning. Again removing any eggs that have failed to continue to develop. Doing this pretty much limits you chance of having a bad egg going off in your incubator, that you seem to be worrying about.

 

[DesertBrahma]

Thank you Big Medicine. I need info like this. I was thinking of getting a Naked Neck chicken. I think they're really cool looking, and they're supposed to be docile like the brahma. Although I would probably end up just having a flock of Naked Necks because they're just so cool looking. I guess I might have to see about getting my reptile incubator out. It should serve as a chicken incubator since it's a little giant one lol. I got it and fried a batch of ball python eggs. That's why I'm kinda scared to incubate any other eggs. I had everything set in it perfect in it for a month before my ball python laid her clutch and I fried the eggs.

 

[big medicine]

I'm thinking something must have changed during your last incubation attempt. Either someone/something bumped the temp. control, or possibly conditions in the room may have changed. Perhaps the sun angle was now reaching and shining through a window, increasing the room temp. Or maybe started running the central heating, or maybe more likely being in New Mexico, turned off the central air. Or it could be, {if still an old school waiver type thermostat), the waiver may have crapped out.

I keep my incubator in a unheated/ uncooled room in the basement that was set up as a root cellar, to try to keep as constant a room temp. as possible. Keep an eye on temp. and humidity, and keep a spare waiver or two just in case.

 

[DesertBrahma]

The place I had it set didn't get sun, my house temp in November stays around 75 day and night. I have a neurological condition that hates the cold. I also don't allow my little goober boys, or stinker cats there. Its the most stable temp area of the house. Right in a corner on my kitchen table. We don't use it much unless I'm doing a lot of baking and I wasn't. I put an eelectric thermometer all over the house for a couple months just moving it around to see what area was the most stable before I bought the darn incubator so I could put it in 1 spot and leave it. Then I bought it from tractor supply, and set it up. I bred my ball and fed her as much as she wanted until she laid and I fried the eggs. I wouldn't doubt if the waifer fried. Even though my thermometers kept saying all themps were good, and the humidity was spot on. I might have to see about getting a new waifer, and installing a real thermostat to it before I decide to incubate. I know my house temps don't fluctuate but a couple degrees because I would be hurting big time. I would really like to raise some chicks that I bred. Heck I don't have snakes anymore and anything with fur is fixed around my home so chickens and fish are the only things that are allowed to have babies, and my fish is a boy lol. I would love to get one of those nice big incubators, but if I'm just hatching enough to feed my family I couldn't justify the prices I've seen to my husband.

 

[Tim63]

You could manage just fine with one quality GQF styrofoam incubator. It's getting painful watching you beat a dead horse over and over.