Dark brahma chick colouring?

[Godiva]

I have 4 dark brahma bantam chicks from Ideal... I know that they are probably not the best specimens of the breed however I was wondering about the colors of the first feathers that come in... Three of them are getting barred looking feathers on their wings and they are not the black and white that I was expecting to see, more of a light buff or creamy color. I was wondering if the hens feather in looking barred initially? and then look better after their more adult plumage comes in? And the one that I am convinced is a roo does not have the same coloration on his wings, mostly black and is MUCH slower at feathering in ... 'he' only has the first bits of primaries in whereas the 'girls' have quite a bit of feathering already. I am making the assumption that since the brahma roos are large framed that roos will take longer to feather as they are busy growing frame etc? is this erroneous? I have pics I wanted to post but for some reason I cannot get them onto my uploads this evening. Will try again tomorrow.

 

[Godiva]

OK, I got the uploads working so here are a few shots of the brahmas, as you can see three of them have the 'barred' wings whereas the one has only a few mostly black wing feathers.
first pic shows two fuzz butts with the barred wings

SEcond pic has the 'male' in the foreground and the 'pullet' in the background

Third pic shows the 'roo' standing his ground against a rebellious piece of straw

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Yes they are 'normal' for dark brahmas

They will change ALOT as they get some size on them. I believe you are right about that one being a roo. the wing feathers aren't a big give away, because they are likely as they grow out some to look more like the girls' wings for a bit...However his light body color compared to the girls and his stocky upright carriage says boy brahma, my Dark hatchery boys were much paler and lacked the bold markings the girls had...Also my boys usually start feathering like the girls till they get to to the back and chest feathers in...Biggest know I have to tell the boys is how SLOW they are to feather in. I raised up 2 dozen this year, and some of the boys were SO slow, they were half fuzz still and the girls had gotten full feathering and getting the bigger teenage bodies, and the boys were so weird looking, like a leggy awkward teenager.

You will definately see a color difference as they age, the males wings will be black and silver, he will not have any lacing like the girls. The girls' what now look like barring, as they mature those marks clear out and turn into a nice penciling.

my flock is mixed, some are hatchery some are a breeder's PQ birds I acquired.


Hawk my rooster :

Marie one of my Ideal hatchery girls :

 

[Godiva]

Ooh! So pretty! Ok, so we'll see how the feathering changes as they go along. about how old when the 'true' colours start to show. I have one other brahma that is feathering in slower ... will keep an eye on that one too, will take more pics next week and see how things are progressing. THanks for those pics.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

depends...when their chest and back feathers come in, the girls will get uniform laces all over the body, and start to lighten up. However the neck/hackles will be darker, thats normal...The boy may go ahead and come in dark chested, but usually they are really splotchy looking with white/silver mottled in almost like they may come in silver laced..but should lose the light feathers and finish out dark. Say around 7 weeks you should be very sure who is what