Brahma Thread

[curlique12]

How can you tell a rooster from a hen when they are younger?

 

[big medicine]

Quote:
If the dark male catches your eye, go with it. With a dark male, you will obviously get dark chicks of both sexes(provided you have some dark hens). Over light hens he should produce chicks closer to a light pattern in both sexes. Over buff hens should produce pullets that are closer to a light, while the males will have some buff bleeding through.

A buff male over dark hens should produce pullets closer to buffs, males should also be closer to the columbian pattern of lights and buffs and somewhere between in base color of silver(white) with buff showing. Over light hens,buff pullets, and again blended cockerels.

A light male over dark hens should produce closer to light pullets and cockerels. Over a buff hen, light pullets, and blended cockerels.

So your dark male will get you dark, and near light pullets. The other two will basically only produce pullets similiar to themselves. The cockerels when mixing silver and buff will all be mixed, the pullets should look true to the color of their sire. Now this projection is based on the parent stock being of relatively pure breeding, if not your mileage may vary.

 

[carolynm]

Thanks that's what I needed to know...and I'm glad the dark boy will work.

 

[sableboi]

Big Medicine - that is a nice looking LF light roo - I'm not a huge fan of lights or buffs, but that is a good looking bird. I agree with Tim - throw in some light hens for fun!

 

[Tim63]

Hey Matt, or anyone with the big birds: what size legbands do ya'll use? We have the eight growing large Darks and i'm fixing to place an order for some supplies.

Thanks!
Tim

 

[dak]

Tim, how is the White bantam project going?

 

[Tim63]

Quote:
Not at all yet, Clare. I am waiting till fall to get some quality white Cornish bantams to use. I am hoping to get at least two good trios. In addition to the project, I would like to raise some good white Cornish as well. If I get two trios, I can put two females with a light brahma male and have two pairs of White Cornish to start from. Having messed with the Dark Cornish for my Nephew this hatching season, I have really grown fond of Cornish bantams. They have a quiet, proud disposition like the Brahmas and are very powerfully built as well. Even the babies are like little cubes of muscle! Its easy for me to see how someone interested in Brahmas would like the Cornish as well.

Tim

 

[sableboi]

I use 12's, but they are HARD to get for some reason.... and I dont care for the bandettes, I like the plastic bands with the numbers, it makes it easier to do record keeping that way. The metal are ok, but they are hard to read from a distance.

 

[sableboi]

Lots of discussion about sexing Chicks early - with the Darks and Partridge (or Gold) it's realtively easy. Noted breeder Susan Nicolas told me the trick about darker vs. lighter in the Dark Brahmas, and it holds true for the Partridge as well. Light, less mottled chicks tend to mature into Roosters and the dark more mottled chicks tend to be hens.

Here is an example of Partridge:
Cockeral - 1 week old

Pullet - 1 week old

Dark Pullet - 1 week old

I don't have a cockeral pic for the darks (My roo doesnt tend to throw boys for some reason) and the few I have had, I didnt get young pics of. But they look much like the Partridge with no head mottling and much smokier grey color than the mottled dark girls. As with most Brahmas (LF anyway) the boys tend to feather last and tend to tower over the girls by 2-3 weeks (Although that has not been the case with my dark boys this season) - but the Partridge Boys are holding that true.

 

[Tim63]

Quote:
Thanks Matt. I use 11's for my Bantams, I thought the large birds would require much larger bands. I use numberd bands. I do use the bandettes to quickly identify which sire they are from for future matings. I get most of my supplies from Twin City, they usually have all sizes of bands. I buy from vendors at the bigger shows.

We ended up with 4 of each in the large darks.