Brahma Thread

[DEEINIOWA]

Studies of commercial flocks have shown caged birds to be the healthiest. Insects, worms, wild animals and birds, can carry bacteria on their feet, bodies and fur, and in their droppings and saliva. Sharing ground, eating them, and eating or drinking from the same reservior can play a role in fowl cholera, pox, infectious bursal disease, mareks and probably many other diseases. I would think may also be more likely to get into natural or created toxins/poisons. Having said all that, I still like to give them a little free run time every couple days.
As far as predation, that just depends on where you live. I have coyotes, dogs, hawks, birds, raccoons, skunks, and bobcats. I have to cover my pens with chicken wire, twice on the sides and once on the top,and bury it 6 inches into a trench, followed with fence post cement and a base board. A neighbor had a bear tear the door off his henhouse. After he replaced and reinforced it, the bear came back and tore the siding off. He's out of chicken raising.

yes,Dirt Farmer, you are correct. BUT the key here is "commercial flocks".... as in those large factory farms with flocks of hundreds, or sometimes over a thousand birds per building. But if you are talking about small sustainable farms raising heritage breeds of poultry then the finding of these "studies" do not apply.
We raise only heritage breeds here on our farm, and they do better on pasture than in confinement. We raise them all natural & in smaller numbers than tose commercial operations, and they are moved to large pens & allowed out on the pasture starting at age of 5-7 weeks old.
We do vaccinate for Mareks & LT as those are 2 diseases common to our area.
As for predator control we use 6 ft. high fencing around their whole pasture & have 2 livestock guardian dogs, a Great Pyrenees & a Belgium Malinois. .As long as the chickens stay INSIDE the fence line they are safe. Birds that habitually fly over the fences?? I usually start naming them "fox bait."...... LOL
Just as there is more than one way to skin cats, there is more than one way to raise poultry. It all comes down to what breeds & method works best for you & of course what the intended purpose for your flock...... personally, the welfare of my chickens is my main concern. I have used just about every system there is and this is what works best for me.... pasture raised, grass fed chickens are happier & healtiher chickens, in my book....

 

[big medicine]

This guy is a pretty decent representative of silver laced Brahma color pattern.

 

[big medicine]

Last question

...I has a pair of laced brahmas hatched a few clutches of eggs last spring . A gold laced hen and silver laced roo. When i collect their eggs to hatch i kept coming up with chicks that didn't have the lacing on body much only the pullets

Do the cockrels get lace on places other than the chest and also most importantly can the pattern be different on wings and back as i have 4 roos that are the color of silver laced roo my male but their patterns are all the same... black and white areas.... but not like my roo Hes about 1/2 white where as they are mostly black with some wing white sort of lace on chests Is this common or do i have a sneak LB in the laced nest
The MAYBE Laced roo from eggs in nest.Truthfully i cant figure what else these would be by colors ande pattern
MY Silver Laced Roo from bought shipped eggs

2 of the questionable Laced from the top(They are really pretty ugly)5 or so months old

The male in the second picture looks similier to what you get when crossing a silver laced (single lace) and a light(columbian), such as the young male on the right in this photo. Likely you need to breed to improve the melanonic and pattern genes in your flock to improve the lacing.

 

[Roxannemc]

The male in the second picture looks similier to what you get when crossing a silver laced (single lace) and a light(columbian), such as the young male on the right in this photo. Likely you need to breed to improve the melanonic and pattern genes in your flock to improve the lacing.

 

[Roxannemc]

I belive iit as all ths eggs were supiposed to be sikver laced brahma and i hatched out one silver laced pullet .one gold laced pulket and t his middle guy!

any thought on the others first and 3rd?

 

[BGMatt]

yes,Dirt Farmer, you are correct. BUT the key here is "commercial flocks".... as in those large factory farms with flocks of hundreds, or sometimes over a thousand birds per building. But if you are talking about small sustainable farms raising heritage breeds of poultry then the finding of these "studies" do not apply.
We raise only heritage breeds here on our farm, and they do better on pasture than in confinement. We raise them all natural & in smaller numbers than tose commercial operations, and they are moved to large pens & allowed out on the pasture starting at age of 5-7 weeks old.
We do vaccinate for Mareks & LT as those are 2 diseases common to our area.
As for predator control we use 6 ft. high fencing around their whole pasture & have 2 livestock guardian dogs, a Great Pyrenees & a Belgium Malinois. .As long as the chickens stay INSIDE the fence line they are safe. Birds that habitually fly over the fences?? I usually start naming them "fox bait."...... LOL
Just as there is more than one way to skin cats, there is more than one way to raise poultry. It all comes down to what breeds & method works best for you & of course what the intended purpose for your flock...... personally, the welfare of my chickens is my main concern. I have used just about every system there is and this is what works best for me.... pasture raised, grass fed chickens are happier & healtiher chickens, in my book....

Just to butt in here (since her answer was in response to a question about a comment I made), you're both right. The commercial operations do it because it's more cost effective (and while birds may thrive and be happier on range, they are NOT more productive, equal or even less), they can't take the risk of exposing the birds to disease carried by wild animals, nor the losses from predators. The studies still apply to smaller scale, because the animals are still at just as high of a risk, we as small flock owners just handle it differently.

There are also plenty of health benefits to ranging, fresh air and pasture. I don't think anyone would argue that. My original point that started this little derail was in response to a comment made about poultry shows being a health risk, when in fact they're much less a health risk than allowing birds free range or pasture.

 

[dak]

These are Cochins and Cochin x Brahma crosses. The first is a good example of partial lacing from a sold bird crossed to a laced bird.

The second shows lacing on the wing coverts on a cockerel. It is not as complete as I would like, though the chest lacing looks good. It is another place to evaluate lacing on a male laced bird.

Clare











Do the cockrels get lace on places other than the chest

 

[Mrsfoote]

My Buff Laced Brahma Rooster.

 

[big medicine]

I belive iit as all ths eggs were supiposed to be sikver laced brahma and i hatched out one silver laced pullet .one gold laced pulket and t his middle guy!

any thought on the others first and 3rd?

Really can't tell enough from the angle of the photos to see what you have there, other than the two in the last shot are split gold/silver.

 

[big medicine]

Coming along there Clare, other than that whole Cochin thing. I went through a similar phase in my misspent youth