Brahma Thread

[sharron]

These are mature Dark Brahma. lemmerich's birds are clearly poorly colored Dark cockerels.

maybe what lemmerich has are one of the silver brahma, they don't even look like poorly colored brahma to me, but i'm just starting out.

 

[big medicine]

Need help what are these birds hen or Roo I been reading so much but just don't no

Look like cockerels to me, possible exception being the dark headed bird looking left. Would like to see a few better photos to be sure.

 

[Tim63]

If you click on the photo on the original post it will blow up Gary. I don't think the bird lookg left is even a Brahma. Looks like just the three are Brahmas, TO ME they look like under colored Dark Males.

Tim

 

[big medicine]

I agree, just wanted to see a little more of them, maybe some front shots to make up my mind if they were trying to be under penciled, or possibly under laced maybe.

 

[lemmerich]

There is two Cochins in there, and I am not trying to mix the two Breds together. I got them for free a lady wanted them to go and we bought 3 other Breds off her. I was told they were dark braham bantams just trying to figure it out before I go any further with them. I will take some more pics of them when I go to my friends farm we have them separated from the rest of our chickens to make sure they don't spread anything if have anything. Pls help me we were told they were show birda

 

[MMB53]

They do look like a dark Brahma but I didn't know the Darks were available as bantams. My Dark Brahmas are big birds.

 

[Shark Akhrrana]

This is coo coo. I had a thread here about a year ago cause I was not sure if she was light or dark. It was decided it was dark. But I was wondering if she was half light half dark.

 

[Helen in the Desert]

As someone who likes to futs with genetics and make cool new things - what does every one think of the making of new colors for Brahma and why? Do you like it and want to see more, do you dislike it and just want to remain with the standard 3? Do you think it would damage/promote the breed?

I think developing new varieties should be left to those with the ability and genetic knowledge to do it, Big Medicine for example. I think a firm idea of Brahma type would be necessary. So many with no idea what a Brahma is try to cross this onto that and end up with garbage. They then pawn them off as "whatever" "Brahmas" to the uninformed for ridiculous prices. Those who buy them continue to hatch every egg laid and sell them as some super rare variety of "Brahma". They don't breed true, they are not Brahmas. I think it is damaging to the breed. The recognized varieties need improvement, especially the Darks.

OMG doing multiple quotes is a pain in the butt - Thanks for you answer Tim, I value your opinion and am looking at the long haul and not the short term in my own ditzing around with stuff. I love a particular color (double laced white) and I love the Brahma breed. Since the Dark Brahma has 1/2 the ingredient to make double laced white, and I have Barnvelders, I thought it might be a fun long term project. The emphasis being LONG term.

However; I have seen so much trash being sold as "rare" that I don't in any way want to contribute to that. I am trying to get top notch Darks to start with and keep a line of, but that is proving frustrating as they are not easy to find. I am working with one person on this thread to ship to me when it cools down, but would also like to have a couple of unrelated lines. (I can tell you that the Barnvelders are a nightmare as they have been so inbred). I can't find anyone to get eggs from that I know is reputable and some of the birds I have seen listed as "Dark Brahma" are the wrong color, the wrong conformation and then I don't know if I can trust the photo's of the decent ones I have seen from other sellers (Ebay and BYC) as being accurate - having been burned before.

I guess my point is that I half agree. I think bringing some new color into the breed would be good for the growth and popularity but that is has to be done carefully and correctly or we end up with a bunch of junk not even coming close to SOP, and I would never want that to happen. I would like to do this project but want to go about it in the right manner with the right foundation stock.

What is Big Medicine working on? I cant' remember, I read so much. And feel free to tell me what you think, honestly, as I very much value your expertise. I don't get offended by honesty.

And on another note - How do we improve our Darks? Do we cross with excellent Lights and then back breed or do we just keep trucking with Dark to Dark? I ask this as I did pick up the most excellent lights I mentioned a while ago and will breed them just because (proven show stock, the guy had to let his birds go after an accident) but would also like to use them as improvement birds as well, unless it is totally going to mess things up. Any insight? I did ask that question before but got mixed answers. I will post pics next week - had surgery and can't go out with the birds yet...

Helen

 

[big medicine]

This is coo coo. I had a thread here about a year ago cause I was not sure if she was light or dark. It was decided it was dark. But I was wondering if she was half light half dark.

I would say it is likely this hen's pattern is a mix of silver columbian (light) and silver penciled (dark). Her comb kind of makes me wonder if all her ancestors were all Brahmas though.

 

[big medicine]

OMG doing multiple quotes is a pain in the butt - Thanks for you answer Tim, I value your opinion and am looking at the long haul and not the short term in my own ditzing around with stuff. I love a particular color (double laced white) and I love the Brahma breed. Since the Dark Brahma has 1/2 the ingredient to make double laced white, and I have Barnvelders, I thought it might be a fun long term project. The emphasis being LONG term.

However; I have seen so much trash being sold as "rare" that I don't in any way want to contribute to that. I am trying to get top notch Darks to start with and keep a line of, but that is proving frustrating as they are not easy to find. I am working with one person on this thread to ship to me when it cools down, but would also like to have a couple of unrelated lines. (I can tell you that the Barnvelders are a nightmare as they have been so inbred). I can't find anyone to get eggs from that I know is reputable and some of the birds I have seen listed as "Dark Brahma" are the wrong color, the wrong conformation and then I don't know if I can trust the photo's of the decent ones I have seen from other sellers (Ebay and BYC) as being accurate - having been burned before.

I guess my point is that I half agree. I think bringing some new color into the breed would be good for the growth and popularity but that is has to be done carefully and correctly or we end up with a bunch of junk not even coming close to SOP, and I would never want that to happen. I would like to do this project but want to go about it in the right manner with the right foundation stock.

What is Big Medicine working on? I cant' remember, I read so much. And feel free to tell me what you think, honestly, as I very much value your expertise. I don't get offended by honesty.

And on another note - How do we improve our Darks? Do we cross with excellent Lights and then back breed or do we just keep trucking with Dark to Dark? I ask this as I did pick up the most excellent lights I mentioned a while ago and will breed them just because (proven show stock, the guy had to let his birds go after an accident) but would also like to use them as improvement birds as well, unless it is totally going to mess things up. Any insight? I did ask that question before but got mixed answers. I will post pics next week - had surgery and can't go out with the birds yet...

Helen

I can relate, only it was the silver single laced pattern that caught my eye.

I believe I might consider an alternative path to get to a silver double lace Brahma. Silver penciled (dark Brahma) has everything you need but MI (melonotic). What I would do is cross to a silver laced Brahma, which has everything you need, (including MI), but does have Co (columbian), which you don't need. You could avoid having to deal with gold, single comb, clean legs, and a completely different body type by going this route. According to Henk's calculator, should be do-able in two generations. The original silver laced Cochin/white Cornish cross that started me on the path to silver laced Brahmas was a silver double laced pullet.

As far as what I'm currently working on. Still have the (single) silver laced , blue laced red, (the typiest pullet I hatched last year is a double laced blue laced red), and started putzing around with a blue/splash red columbian color.

Now to Tim's comment, my knowledge of genetics is pretty much limited to anything I needed to learn for these projects, there are many, far better educated folks that frequent this forum.

I think the most important thing with these projects, or breeding in general, is knowing and recognizing what proper Brahma type is. Having a pea comb and feathered legs do not make a Brahma.