Brahma Thread

[trueblue1]

Tha

Anyone have both Cochins and Brahmas? I have both, and I have noticed that my Brahmas lay considerably less than my Cochins! I was kind of surprised, as Cochins certainly don't look like streamline egg machines, but apparently my girls did not get the memo. I also have an egg eater among my Brahmas, so maybe she is eating more eggs than I think she is. Anyone have a rebuttal?

 Trueblue1 - Nice babies! I can't wait to be in the midst of some Brahma chicks. I like them at that stage, they are cute in a gawky sort of way. 

Thank You Beanzie!!! Im loving watching my babies grow. Happy chicks means happy momma!!!

 

[trueblue1]

Yeah, I love taking pictures of my chicks.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

OK. I just sold off my 9 hatchery LB's. Will probably sell off my leghorns. So I have Heritage Reds and Dellies now.

So now I'm looking for some good Buff Brahmas to go with them. Looking for chicks. I had a bad deal with hatching eggs before. If anybody can point me in the right direction that would be great!!!

I should add I guess LF Brahmas.

 

[trueblue1]

I bought my 12 brahmas at TSC and was told they were 5 days old so that means today they are 31 days old.

8 of them look like the picture below:
almost fully feathered with just their necks and heads with down & some feathers.

While 4 of them look like the picture below:
The feathers on their backs are just taking a lot longer to develop than I thought. Their wing feathers are developed.

And the 8 are buff/black in color. The other 4 have wing feathers that are a reddish brown & black. I'm guessing that means these are 2 different kinds of brahmas....

 

[Sjisty]

I would guess that the first 8 are pullets and the last 4 are cockerels. Cockerels feather much more slowly than their sisters! Also, a buff cockerel/rooster is a darker shade than the pullets/hens.

 

[trueblue1]

I would guess that the first 8 are pullets and the last 4 are cockerels.  Cockerels feather much more slowly than their sisters!  Also, a buff cockerel/rooster is a darker shade than the pullets/hens.

Oh no!!! We were told they were all girls (pullets)!!!!! grrrrr!!!!

 

[ShayBaby]

TSC (any feed store for that matter) are notorious for not knowing what the heck they have. You just have to hope you deal with an employee who just happens to be chicken-savvy. I wouldn't trust an employee to sex anything correctly. Then again, they could have ordered pullets, in which case the hatchery may have screwed that one up. I ordered a group of 25 pullets from Meyer last month and got two little dudes playing pullet imposter.
Don't give up on them just yet, though. They may turn around and be gals yet.

 

[trueblue1]

TSC (any feed store for that matter) are notorious for not knowing what the heck they have. You just have to hope you deal with an employee who just happens to be chicken-savvy. I wouldn't trust an employee to sex anything correctly. Then again, they could have ordered pullets, in which case the hatchery may have screwed that one up. I ordered a group of 25 pullets from Meyer last month and got two little dudes playing pullet imposter.
Don't give up on them just yet, though. They may turn around and be gals yet.

Yeah I called and talked to the manager, he said they were supposed to be all pullets but sometimes that's not the case. I'm not gonna do anything rash at this point. Just let them grow and hope for the best. If they are boys among the girls then I'll figure out what to do at that time. It's just a bit heart breaking.

 

[Tikkijane]

TSC (any feed store for that matter) are notorious for not knowing what the heck they have. You just have to hope you deal with an employee who just happens to be chicken-savvy. I wouldn't trust an employee to sex anything correctly. Then again, they could have ordered pullets, in which case the hatchery may have screwed that one up. I ordered a group of 25 pullets from Meyer last month and got two little dudes playing pullet imposter.
Don't give up on them just yet, though. They may turn around and be gals yet.

TSC does not sex. The hatchery sexes. TSC writes down the info that comes from the hatchery.

 

[Kyzmette]

Quote:
Some of the employees in TSC TRY to sex in order to be helpful, but they use all sorts of old-school methods that may be wildly inaccurate. Like holding the chick's head between your fingers and letting the body dangle... I was told if the chick fights, it's a boy and if it just dangles, it's a girl. I bet that method is at least 50% right. If somebody is trying to sex chicks for you in TSC, just nod and smile and expect to be surprised down the road. The only ones that you can really count on are the ones that are bred to be autosexing because each gender is hatched with its own unique characteristics, and those will be displayed as pullets.