Chicken Breed Focus - Brabanter

[ShrekDawg]

Do you have pictures of yours?

Sorry this took so long but here you go

 

[Newyorkrita]

Beautiful birds, very striking.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Beautiful birds, very striking.

Thank you

 

[Hermits Garden]

kdogg331
I love 'em! Are they two golds and two creams?

I had to cancel my order--no, I didn't have to. The hubs was getting stressed out because we still have a lot of work to do to finish the house. And even though my ship date was the end of April, having a deadline was messing him up.

So. I'm still getting brabanters, come hell or high water, but I'll wait. If they have them this summer (or whenever we are ready) then good. If not, I'll have it all ready and order in Spring of 2022. But your pictures remind me why I want them in the first place. I'll enjoy yours vicariously in the meantime.

 

[ShrekDawg]

kdogg331
I love 'em! Are they two golds and two creams?

I had to cancel my order--no, I didn't have to. The hubs was getting stressed out because we still have a lot of work to do to finish the house. And even though my ship date was the end of April, having a deadline was messing him up.

So. I'm still getting brabanters, come hell or high water, but I'll wait. If they have them this summer (or whenever we are ready) then good. If not, I'll have it all ready and order in Spring of 2022. But your pictures remind me why I want them in the first place. I'll enjoy yours vicariously in the meantime.

Aww I hope you can get them soon!! I love mine! And yup, mine are two cream and two gold

 

[FoxySonia]

More of Dottie the cream brabanter and some gold brabaters

The pullet on 1st and last photo look just like a golden Appenzeller Spitzhauben. All your chickens are beautiful. I have a 1 year old Sil
ver Spangle Appenzeller Spitzhauben, named Princess Leia, that's my favorite. Just today I received 4 cream Brabanters and 3 golden Brabanters pullets from Ideal Poultry. I hope they turn out as lovely as yours.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The pullet on 1st and last photo look just like a golden Appenzeller Spitzhauben. All your chickens are beautiful. I have a 1 year old Sirver Spangle Appenzeller Spitzhauben, named Princess Leia, that's my favorite. Just today I received 4 cream Brabanters and 3 golden Brabanters pullets from Ideal Poultry. I hope they turn out as lovely as yours.

View attachment 2691968

View attachment 2691971

Adorable!!!

 

[FoxySonia]

Here's photos of my little Brabanters:

I love them. A few look like a tiny balding old man, I think those wont hace a large crest, unfortunately. Some look like they might get a nice puff on the top of their head that'll turn into a nice Crest. They seem quite hardy, I think only 1 of the 7 Brabanter chicke I got from Ideal Poultry had pasty butt for 1 day, I think the smallest 1, which is 1 of the feistiest and skitish 1 to handle when II need to get them out of the brooder yo clean it. 1 of the larger 1 is also quite skitish yo handle, same as 2 of my tiniest chicks, a golden neck d'Uccle and a mille fleur d'Uccle, so those are the hardest to take a photo of.

Here's link to a video clip taken a few days ago, when they were 4 days old.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5wexYf6SbWiehS9Y7

Every day I put the chicks in a box while I cleaned their blooder. Some of the other chicks with them are from My Pet Chicken, they came 2 days before the ones from 13 chicks from Ideal Poultry. I got 10 chicks from My Pet Chicken and 3 came dead (seemed crushed in shipping), and a few got pasty butt for a couple of days, and 1 died on the 3rd day. I was charged $55 for 2-day USPS Express Shipping of 10 chicks in a small box with a heat pack, and I paid about $26 per pullet, because I wanted only females. It was sad that so many died due to a horrible experience with shipping, which is the postal service fault, but My Pet Chicken has great customer service, and refunded me for those chicks that died, and for part of the high shipping charge.

 

[FoxySonia]

A few of my babies, got 7 (3 golden and 4 cream). They are now a month old. Love them, and the Appenzeller Spitzhauben pullets, so much. They are so curious, love to fly out of their brooder cage and get on my arm or shoulder. I'll be keeping some and selling the rest locally Queens, NYC.

 

[FoxySonia]

A few of my babies, got 7 (3 golden and 4 cream). They are now a month old. Love them, and the Appenzeller Spitzhauben pullets, so much. They are so curious, love to fly out of their brooder cage and get on my arm or shoulder. I'll be keeping some and selling the rest locally Queens, NYC.View attachment 2735397

It's been nearly a year since these Brabanter chicks hatched. I kept 3 hens and still have 1 rooster I unfortunately haven't been able to sell even though he is gorgeous. I sold the other 3 chicks.

Sadly, 1 of the hens recently died after she got eggbound while I was out shopping. When I came back and went to change the water, I found her dead in the coop, next to another hen's egg. It was the 2nd time she got eggbound. She always laid huge eggs that were very difficult for her to pass through her vent. The 1st time it happened she got a blowout prolapsed vent. I gave her 2 epson salt baths, spread lots of vaseline, avocado and coconut oil on her vent and around the stuck egg, syringes oil into her vent/oviduct, and tried to massage the egg out but it remained stuck inside the vent. I even had to use a sterilized surgical blade to make 2 tiny slits but that also didn't work. When I let go of her to ho get something to make a hole in the egg she jumped up from the table to the counter and that made the huge egg popped out of her finally. When I saw that her swollen uterus and part of her intestines had also come out through her vent I was in shock. I thought for sure she would die, but she was walking and acting normal and ate food I offered her. I carefully pushed the swollen uterus and intestines back inside, hoping that they were placed in the right place and that the intestines hadn't gotten twisted. Every day after I kept expecting her to die but she survived.

On the second day after she had gotten eggbound, same thing happened with 1 of her Brabanter sisters that also laid huge eggs, and I had to do pretty much the same things for her, except didn't have to do the cuts with the blade. That hen's uterus also came out but not her intestines. I had the 2 of them indoors for 2 weeks to recover and grow some of their vent feathers back before returning them with the flock. It really seemed miraculous to me that they were able to survive such trauma. I can't imagine any other animal that would or could survive what the 1st hen did. Sadly, she only survived for about 9 more weeks.

I can't help wonder if reproductive problems are common in the Brabanter breed, if more Brabanter hens tend to get eggbound more than other breeds. Am I doing anything wrong?

So far her sister seems fine. I hope she continues to do well. It was the first time I had to deal with eggbound hens, as none of my other hens have gotten eggbound. I really hope it never happens to any other of my hens or to anyone's hens. It is such a scary and nervewrecking experience. Please let me know if you ever had Brabanter hens that have experience similar problems.

The 3rd Brabanter hen and the rooster have had no health problems and seem healthy. The rooster, Studmuffin/Muñeco, have grown to be a stunningly handsome rooster, though he could gain some weight. He's so obsessed with stalking the hens to mate with, that he barely eats. He's also afraid of the other roosters, even the 2 OEG bantam ones, so that he's always running away whenever he sees them coming near, so that's another reason he don't get enough to eat, even though I put him up high to give him food separate from the others, but he just eats some in a rush, then jumps off to go hunting for females. He recently lost his long tail feathers, either because of fighting with 1 of my other 3 roosters, which he finally started standing up to, or from molting. Here's still quite good looking.

Sadly, I desperately need to find him and my other 3 roosters (1 buff Polish named Bowie, and 2 golden neck Old English Game bantams named Sweetpea and Napoleon (formerly Captain Kirk) new home/s because someone made an anonymous noise complaint and yesterday morning I got a visit from a NY DEP inspector who warned me that I need to get rid of them ASAP or I'll be getting some stiff fined that I simply cannot afford, and which would ruin me financially. I will make a separate post about them.

Here are a few other photos of my grown up, friendly, sometimes shy but inquisitive Brabanters:

T
he healthy girl

The eggbound girls:

The survivor