Brahma Thread

[Carolynspeeps]

Quote:
I am not a Brahma expert, but I feed my large fowl Cochins and Brahmas 20% crumbles til they start to lay then switch to 20% layer pellets. They have done well so far.

I have also been told you can add high quality dry cat food to their diet. If you want to keep the rats out of your coop, you will need to use 1/2 inch hardware cloth for your enclosure. Good luck...sounds like you will have a very exciting spring!

 

[NewHopePoultry]

Quote:
I'll take new & better pictures

 

[NewHopePoultry]

Heres new pictures:

 

[Tim63]

A few of my Buff Bantams.

 

[itsiebitsiefarm]

Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself, to the Brahma fanciers, on this BYC forum.....and see if any of you, can offer any suggestions and/or help.

I recently purchased a beautiful, LARGE Brahma roo, from the BYC member- Sjisty. THANKS JANICE!!!

Due to his size, and color...we are having a bit of a hard time, finding QUALITY large hens, for him.
I know we will not find any hens his color, in the US. So we are looking for SQ buff hens. We are more than willing to pay to have chicks/started birds, or hatching eggs, shipped to us.

He is above the US breed standards, as he weighs 14 pounds, right now. (We weighed him yesterday)
So, we would like to try and find hens or bloodlines, that are on the larger size. We would like to find lines, that have good brows, combs, and minimal vulture hocks...as these are his breed faults.

We currently have him in, with our 8-10 pound LF Cochin hens. I know, we are currently breeding mutts (gasp).

If anyone can offer us any SQ Buff Brahma's Breeders info, we would greatly appreciate it.
You can see more pics of our roo, "Gomer," on our FB page. It's Itsie Bitsie Farm, on FB.

 

[Sjisty]

Hi Mel -

It's so good to see him. He looks happy to have his own girls! I have been hatching like crazy lately, and have a chick in the brooder that I think might be his son/daughter

It is already standing a head over it's hatch mates and has loooong legs and his coloring starting to come out.

Good luck finding the perfect girl for Gomer!

 

[itsiebitsiefarm]

Hey Janice!!

He seems very happy, with his 7 GF's. lol
They might have a different take on the situation, if I were to ask them. LOL
No, truth be told, they all seem happy with him. I took these pics of him and his brood, this morning, before I posted on here.
It is so funny to watch him, try and impress his hens, every time he finds a new stick, rock, or feather on the ground. He will call them over, and they all run to him... and give him the "you called us over for that!?" look.

He is such a big beautiful goofy boy.

His first cochin mixed chicks, are due to hatch next week. Should be interesting to see, what those will look like.

We will be at the Pampered Pullet swap, on April16th. If you have anything for sale, that might work for us...let me know!
Please send me a pic of the "maybe Gomer chick," when you get a chance. I would love to see it!

 

[Sjisty]

Here are two maybe Gomer babies. The darker one we have named Hobo. The other we have been calling Stork because it's all legs. Their mothers are blue partridge Brahmas. Dummy me, didn't write down the hatch date, but it was somewhere in the middle of February.

 

[itsiebitsiefarm]

BEAUTIFUL!!

I know who would love to buy, any baby, you are not planning on keeping. (WINK WINK)

We could make the drive your way, to pick them up, anytime. LOL

 

[SarahIrl]

Quote:
I am not a Brahma expert, but I feed my large fowl Cochins and Brahmas 20% crumbles til they start to lay then switch to 20% layer pellets. They have done well so far.

I have also been told you can add high quality dry cat food to their diet. If you want to keep the rats out of your coop, you will need to use 1/2 inch hardware cloth for your enclosure. Good luck...sounds like you will have a very exciting spring!

Ok, for 1) Try and ask a good vet over there to import you coccisiosis vacciations or a product like coxoid, it is added to drinking water. They may help you, but it will probably be expensive.

2) Feed: you can add to their diet of pellets, no problem. They will eat bugs and creepy crawlies anyway (mostly protein) but add fish to their diet, mine love tinned sardines in oil and it also a good source of calcium for hens laying eggs. If your feed is only 16% or 19% you can supplement without too mmuch hassle. Also, mealworms are available from alot of pet shops, but I have no idea what may be available to you in Thailand! Fish however, preferably the canned/tinned kind, is ideal. Mine get all the fresh fish skins and scraps in the summer here wen we live on fish (Ireland).

3) Smell isn't really a problem if you plan your coop and run well. Research for the best odour absorbing materials for bedding, and contemplate ow you are going to dispose of it when it gets soiled. If you can bin it, shavings is good, but they take forever to rot down if you compost them and then milled straw (finely chopped) is better. For runs, I use tree mulch, the result of pines/evergreens going through a wood chipper. It is nice and chunky so doesn't disappear in the muddy winter and is naturally fragrant due to the oils in the wood. Also a nice hiding ground for insects which chickens love to hunt down! Can also be hosed to get rid of surface muck in the sunny dry times.

As for size, brahmas want about a foot of roosting space each, and without the roosts being too high. Two or three nesting boxes will suffice for loads of birds as tey all tend to lay in the same places anyway.
If you are prone to very bad rainy weather/scorching eat, make a sheltered roof over some section of your run so they can get out of the worst of the weather. Two walls and a roof for a 6 foot square area should be perfect, maybe attatched to the front of the house? Brahmas are big birds and very well feathered so they survive winters really well in colder places but might suffer a bit in extreme heat (I consider anything over 25C fairly extreme, I do live in Ireland!!)

And enjoy them!!!!