Chicken Breed Focus - Brahma

[kilby]

he just bein' his friendly self. Your his special person. You could hand feed him to show you notice and care. My LB hen does the same thing. Feel his breast bone to see if he lost weight? maybe he is not getting enough and needs help.

Update:

Mag the Mighty is feeling manlier every day. His crow now happens a few times any given morning and has more than one syllable. It's still lower and quieter than everyone else's.

The weirdest things is that he seems to be courting me and sometimes pecks my legs and wrists while I'm in the yard. So far, I've been turning him upside down when he doews it, and he'll give me goofy looks for my trouble. Ah, hormones...

 

[hamzah1708]

Hey!
I am curious about crele brahmas. I have heard that breeding blue partridge females with a barred brahma male creates crele brahmas. Is this true?
And what if I breed a barred brahma male with females of other brahma varieties such as black and blue. What will the results be like?

 

[Maryscoop]

This is Goldie she is a Golden Lace Brahma hen. She is 16 months old September, this picture was taken when we first got her (at 11 months old) She lays eggs about 6 days a week. Those organic eggs are delicious! She's a great backyard chicken

 

[Blooie]

Yayyy! The featured breed is one I just happen to have! I am fortunate enough to have 4 Light Brahmas and 8 Buff Brahmas in my flock. They are calm, steady, and boy, are they big! They get along very well with the other birds out there. Although mine are hatchery birds, I have great hopes for them being productive members of the flock. They have begun to lay regularly and their pullet eggs are light brown enough to look pink! It was kinda funny the first time one of them laid an egg - seeing this behemoth chicken get off the nest so proud of herself for the teensy little bantam sized egg was a hoot. The eggs are getting bigger now, but they still have a sort of pink look to them.

This was the first year I've used Mama Heating Pad in the outside run to brood chicks, and along with the Red Sex Link and Easter Egger chicks they just thrived, even when temps were in the teens and twenties. I'm really happy with them so far.


One of the little Light Brahmas hogging up the heating pad.


A Buff Brahma chick struts her stuff.


I'm still not sure how I lucked out and got all 8 Buff Brahmas sitting still in the same place at the same time! 3 of the 4 Lights are under the roost.



I must have a thing for black and white! Here Molly relaxes with one the Lights.

I haven't named them yet. My inexperienced eye just can't make out enough individual features to differentiate from them.

Edited to add: Months ago I tentatively named the Buffs Shuester, Brewster, Rooster, Booster, Moose-ter, Gooses-ter, Juiceter, and George. Didn't last. I couldn't find George. <sigh>

 

[kilby]

where did you get Mama Heating Pad. do they incubate on that too?

 

[Blooie]

where did you get Mama Heating Pad. do they incubate on that too?

I made it with a wire frame, a heating pad, a towel and Press 'n Seal. There are two links in my signature, kilby. Click on Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder and it explains everything. Then if you click on Yes You Certainly can Brood Chicks Outdoors it tells more about that.

Beekissed has a thread on here about incubating with a heating pad but my computer has been acting funky since I put Win 10 on it and it won't let me copy and paste a link. If you type The Natural Incubation Experiment it should take you to that thread.

 

[kilby]

There has been considerable controversy over the true origins of the Brahma breed, but appears to have developed in the US originally, from birds imported from China. They were send off from the port of Shanghai and were thus known as "Shanghai birds". Brahmas as we know them were first exported to England in December 1852, when George Burnham sent nine "Gray Shanghaes" to Queen Victoria as a gift. The Dark Brahma variety was developed by English breeders from this stock and later exported to the United States, where the Brahma was the principal meat bird from the 1850's to around 1930. Some of these birds were very big, with males weighing in at up to 18 lb and females at 13 lb.
The Light and Dark Brahma were developed and included in the first edition of the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1874 and the Buff variety was added in 1924. The Australian Poultry Association has accepted black, blue, partridge, crele and barred varieties of Brahma in addition to the standard light, dark, and buff.

Details:
Breed Purpose: Dual purpose
Comb: Pea
Broodiness: Average
Climate Tolerance: All climates
Egg Productivity: Average
Egg size: Large
Egg Colour: Light brown
Breed Temperament: Friendly, easily handled, calm, bears confinement well, docile
(Some) Breed Colours/Varieties: Light, Buff, Dark, Gold, Black, White, Blue and Blue Columbian (Breeders, please reply to thread with more)
APA/ABA Class: Asiatic


Rooster pic by @Sjisty



Hen pic by @Missi



Chicks pic by @NestingHillsSC



Pic by @bumpercarr



Pic by @Tim63

Breed reviews:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/brahma

Breed discussion threads:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/873000/brahma-breeders-thread/0_30
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/734972/backyard-brahmas/0_30

Do you own Brahmas? Are you a Brahma breeder? If so, please reply to this thread with the your thoughts and experiences, including:

· What made you decide to get this breed?
· Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose?
· What are your favorite characteristics about this breed?
· Post some pics of your birds; male/female, chicks, eggs, etc!

I bought my light brahma day old for fun. Now I would like more. She lays regularly and the details above are accurate for temperament. My spring hatch had some LB and CMoran crosses I think going by the coloring in the fourth pic. My Obeegee gal is same as the last pic. She is docile but comes up to me alot and lightly pecks me for food hand outs. I bought her also because if she was big maybe the Roos would not pick on her like some of the slower smaller hens that eventually died too early I believe. She gets hassled because she is docile and friendly. I don't want to kill the Roos either though. So more would be better I think, and I have Jersey Giant crosses to help out too. I will have the heaviest birds around hahaha

She is a great egg song bird too like the others say.

 

[mimi62]

Yes.

 

[XXJAWRIGHTXX]

Hi could some one help me I have a Blue partridge Brahma cockerel and I got him in late August along with seven chickens. Lately he has been getting to close for comfort and I felt as if he was going to attack me because when he ran up to me he flung his head back but stopped when I turned round. I was told that these birds were okay with children and my nine and ten year old girls always let them out in the mornings and play amongst the chickens. However after reading some posts on here I am concerned that my children might be harmed in some way. could someone please let me know if Blue Partridge Brahma cockerels are dangerous thanks.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Just speaking from my own experience with cockerels here. I have not had Brahma cockerels so these experiences are limited to other breeds.

Bantam cochin cockerel.... super docile and easy to handle. NO attacks on humans while we had them.

Silkie cockerels.... pure evil, launching from any surface to attack from behind, vile toward other cockerels in the flock.

Japanese blacktail..... super docile no attacks on humans but also skittish. Polite toward all the hens.

Speckeled Sussex.... Only ever had one and he was great with the hens, mean as all get out toward humans.

Black Australorp..... Polite with both humans and hens but would make one a little uneasy as he would always maneuver to be behind the human.

What I am saying is that the bantams were good except the silkies while the large breed were ones to watch out for. NOW not ALL large ones are that way for certain. I am sure in every breed there are exceptions to every rule out there.
There is a thread somewhere on taming a cockerel and handling roosters in general. It is worth the time to find it. Lots of information from very experienced folks.