Brahma Thread

[CluckyCharms]

The full moon affects the tidal action of the airsack in the egg, therefore, it does affect hatching.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, any takers?

 

[oshun55555]

Hi Gary,
I have a question for you as the creator of the Silver Laced Line, I procured a massive Silver Laced split to Gold Laced from Daniel Powell just prior to his going out of business, I love these birds but i am having some issues breeding them, I have a total of 20 Cockerels left of which i may have to cull all 20 depending on your answer. The big Massive Silver has good type, no vulture hocks (however he throws a good % of Vulture Hocked offspring 6 of his sons look good but do not have good middle toe feathering, the other cockerls have very good type, beautiful lacing, magnificent foot feathering, but have mini vulture hocks as oposed to some of the hens that have full blown european style vulture hocks. Now for the question ... do I cull all the cockerls and go with the sire who has good middle toe feathering and no outer signs of vulture hocks and see what I get next year? Or maybe put him over some breeder line Lights from Darlene Hobbs line that I have, then breed the hens back to their sire? Although your birds have good type, good heads, great tails, I am trying to breed out the gold laced and have a pure Silver Laced flock. Any advice will be much apreciated.

Good job there dak and son, with an assist to Tim.

Now dak, I tried to warn you about Brahmas. Are those Cochins beginning to look a little "common" in comparison yet ?

Resistance is futile.

 

[CluckyCharms]

Can someone clarify why Cochins are common in comparison to Brahmas? I was thinking about having 1 of our hens be an LF Cochin, but now I'm not sure, since I have Brahmas hatching soon...? The only reason I wanted a Cochin was because I've heard they are the friendliest aside from Silkies. Are Brahmas people-friendly too?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

Can someone clarify why Cochins are common in comparison to Brahmas? I was thinking about having 1 of our hens be an LF Cochin, but now I'm not sure, since I have Brahmas hatching soon...? The only reason I wanted a Cochin was because I've heard they are the friendliest aside from Silkies. Are Brahmas people-friendly too?

I have both, but the friendliest of all my many breeds are the brahma LF, then silkies then my barred rocks then my blue n black cochins

 

[CluckyCharms]

Quote:
I have both, but the friendliest of all my many breeds are the brahma LF, then silkies then my barred rocks then my blue n black cochins

Hmm...interesting! Thanks =) There are times I wish I wasn't such a weirdo. Barred Rocks are really popular, but I don't like them because of their coloring. Actually, any bird that is black and white just reminds me of a spider web. Silver Laced birds, barred rocks, hamburgs, just creep me out. LOL


(Google images)

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

 

[wantbantams]

by far the best. brahmas rock

 

[wantbantams]

are you ever willing to sell day olds or hatching eggs?

 

[big medicine]

Hi Gary,
I have a question for you as the creator of the Silver Laced Line, I procured a massive Silver Laced split to Gold Laced from Daniel Powell just prior to his going out of business, I love these birds but i am having some issues breeding them, I have a total of 20 Cockerels left of which i may have to cull all 20 depending on your answer. The big Massive Silver has good type, no vulture hocks (however he throws a good % of Vulture Hocked offspring 6 of his sons look good but do not have good middle toe feathering, the other cockerls have very good type, beautiful lacing, magnificent foot feathering, but have mini vulture hocks as oposed to some of the hens that have full blown european style vulture hocks. Now for the question ... do I cull all the cockerls and go with the sire who has good middle toe feathering and no outer signs of vulture hocks and see what I get next year? Or maybe put him over some breeder line Lights from Darlene Hobbs line that I have, then breed the hens back to their sire? Although your birds have good type, good heads, great tails, I am trying to breed out the gold laced and have a pure Silver Laced flock. Any advice will be much apreciated.

Ok, let me see if if I have this right. The old male is split silver/gold, so he looks silver with brassy hackles/saddle ? So he also produced gold pullets ?

The fact he is producing vulture hocked young tells us he is carrying a copy of VH, along with at least some of the females. It takes a copy from each parent to show full blown VH.

To breed out vulture hocks, first step remove all the VH females from the breeding pen. These VH females will pass a copy to each and every one of their young. But I would hold on to a few of them, as they will valuable to test mate with, showing you if a normal looking hocked male may be carrying a single copy of VH. Second step, I believe I would look to the cockerels for next years breeders, Your old male is giving a copy of VH to 50% of his offspring, plus the gold split thing. I would suspect the weak middle toe feathered cockerels are likely not carrying VH. The VH birds always seem to have massive foot/leg feathering.

The mini vulture hocked guys are the mystery factor for me. There are other enhancer or modifier genetics at play here. These often seem to develope late on what was previously a promising looking bird. I do not use them for breeders. I suspect this same trait can go easily unnoticed on females, as it blends into their fluff.

Breeding the old male to some good lights will only mess up the color pattern and still have half carrying a copy of VH. Breeding these pullets back to the old male will only increase the % of VH.

I believe I would go with the best of the weak middle toe feathered cockerels with good type, cleanest silver, good pattern. You will not clean up the hocks or the gold by continuing with the old male. Improving foot feathering will prove much easier than getting rid of VH. Use only the clean hocked females, some of these clean hocked gals will still likely carry a single copy. You could test mate these as well, with a VH male, any that produce chicks that shoot hock feathers when wing feathering, you know carry a copy.

I hope this helps some.

 

[big medicine]

Can someone clarify why Cochins are common in comparison to Brahmas? I was thinking about having 1 of our hens be an LF Cochin, but now I'm not sure, since I have Brahmas hatching soon...? The only reason I wanted a Cochin was because I've heard they are the friendliest aside from Silkies. Are Brahmas people-friendly too?

A common problem for many back yard chicken folks is, once they get a few Brahmas, their other chickens soon start to pale in comparrison. Then there is often the mental anguish of wondering why it took them so long to try Brahmas. Thinking of all the time/feed/work they had invested in raising common chickens when their were Brahmas out there the whole time can be quite disheartning for some folks.