New Brahmas in 3 weeks (hopefully)

[eliseswart]

Hello everybody,

I live in the middle of France in a small village. I keep 5 chickens and a rooster, just ordinary farm chickens, for laying eggs. Last year one of them got broody, but this year no one of the ladies seems to care about motherhood, so I got myself a incubator.

I started to collect the eggs of the best layers until my neighbour told me that her niece (a village 3 km uphill) had these wonderful Brahmas and wanted to give me 24 eggs to hatch! However nice and lovely, 24 is a bit to many, so today or tomorrow I'll have 12 Brahma eggs in the incubator, with my own eggs. We keep the chickens for meat as well trying to live as much self sufficient as possible. Last year I had 7 roosters and 1 hen.

The niece's Brahmas go broody all the time, so hopefully there will be a mother between them to raise chicks next year. My neighbour is having the same problem: no broody chickens, so we need at least 2.
If this is successful, I'll keep a some hens and one rooster and sell or give away the rest. They are so beautiful!

I'll keep you guys posted.

Elise


(watching the world cup football with a little outcast chick who needed warmth)

 

[Michael OShay]

I've had Light Brahmas. They were very friendly and docile birds, and pretty good layers as well, particularly in the cold winter months when many breeds quit laying. Good luck with your Brahmas.

 

[b.hromada]

Best of luck to you! That's and adorable picture!!!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[eliseswart]

Thanks!
We're on day 12 and the eggs look very promising when I candle them.
I'm nervous and I'm very excited, checking humidity and temperature every 2 hours etc. Humidity is not very stable at the moment, due to the weather here in central France at the moment, thunderstorm and rain and very humid. I hope the electricity keeps on working...
But, hey, I'm an optimist and looking forward to meeting the little ones. Fingers crossed, though.

 

[eliseswart]

All 10 Brahma eggs hatched Sunday and Monday, earlier than expected. They are gorgeous!

 

[Buff Beauty]

What colour are they?

 

[eliseswart]

I don't know the chicken names of the colours, so I've got 4 blacks, 2 grey, 2 striped with a bit of a wild colour and 2 light yellow ones. Maybe they are not 100% Brahma, it's possible, but they are very sweet met their legs covered and I just love those colours.

 

[eliseswart]

Yesterday they went out for the first time, a pic of one of them (and some sweet common farm chicks)