Ongoing Brahma Projects Thread

[big medicine]

No particular reason. Just seems that nice partridge are hard to come by and I might need to add in a different color just to have the numbers that I'm looking for. The buff have the body type that I like, darks tend to have vulture hocks and I just don't really like the looks of the lights for some reason. The male is blue, his parents were both gold/blue partridge. He's one of the 50% that hatch black.

I'm not sure that I'm going to breed him yet....I need to look around at some other cockerels to see if I can find one that I absolutely adore. I've bred horses and dogs before, but this is my first venture with chickens. One thing I learned, if you're not sure you like the breeder (male or female, doesn't matter) then you probably shouldn't breed them. I'm just not convinced yet that he has what I'm looking for. With that said, I know that Brahmas mature slowly, so I'm going to give him some more time to grow up before I make my decision. I'm just not thrilled with his foot feathering and his body type seems a little narrow across the chest to me. The chest may widen when the hormones start popping, the foot feathering is what it is. I do love his color, his brow is really nice but I'm waiting to see about the head breadth.

At one time, I thought that difference between laced and partridge was the absence of the Columbian gene in the partridge, but both of mine show some strong Columbian characteristics. Can you clarify this for me? I assume that is why the first gen cross would bring out stronger Columbian characteristics?

In no particular order.

Agreed, if a particular breed, or variety doesn't capture your full attention, move on. Life is too short to raise birds you are not enamored with.

The 25% of the chicks that hatch black from a blue to blue breeding are still black, genetically the same as a chick from gold partridge parents.(With the possible exception that some old time breeders say a black chick out of a blue breeding seems to lack all the proper beetle green sheen that a black bird should have.)

If you remove columbian from a single laced bird you get a double laced bird. If you add columbian to a pencilled (partridge) bird you get a columbian patterned bird. I have seen some folks describe a pencilled (partridge) patern feather as being double laced, which in fact is a completely different pattern.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Big Medicine maybe one day I will have half the knowledge of you when it comes to breeding birds.

 

[bumpercarr]

In no particular order.

Agreed, if a particular breed, or variety doesn't capture your full attention, move on. Life is too short to raise birds you are not enamored with.

The 25% of the chicks that hatch black from a blue to blue breeding are still black, genetically the same as a chick from gold partridge parents.(With the possible exception that some old time breeders say a black chick out of a blue breeding seems to lack all the proper beetle green sheen that a black bird should have.)

If you remove columbian from a single laced bird you get a double laced bird. If you add columbian to a pencilled (partridge) bird you get a columbian patterned bird. I have seen some folks describe a pencilled (partridge) patern feather as being double laced, which in fact is a completely different pattern.

I will say that is one thing that is striking about this particular cockerel, is the beetle sheen on the black feathers. He has beautiful feathering, the black almost glows and the penciling is spectacular, almost looks like a pheasant coloring. The red on the shoulders is beautiful, but his head color lacks luster for me. None of those traits show up very well in a picture though. So, are you saying I should call him a black because he is black (his under feathers are blue)? It certainly would save me some explaining. I've been trying to play with the chicken calculator to determine what the offspring would look like with various pairings, but I end up confused. I suppose the best bet would be to calculate him from the gold/blue partridge pair and then select him for the next pundit square? I guess I should have payed closer attention in biology class

 

[bumpercarr]

I will say that is one thing that is striking about this particular cockerel, is the beetle sheen on the black feathers. He has beautiful feathering, the black almost glows and the penciling is spectacular, almost looks like a pheasant coloring. The red on the shoulders is beautiful, but his head color lacks luster for me. None of those traits show up very well in a picture though. So, are you saying I should call him a black because he is black (his under feathers are blue)? It certainly would save me some explaining. I've been trying to play with the chicken calculator to determine what the offspring would look like with various pairings, but I end up confused. I suppose the best bet would be to calculate him from the gold/blue partridge pair and then select him for the next pundit square? I guess I should have payed closer attention in biology class

I meant punnit square.....and paid. I guess it is getting late.

 

[big medicine]

I have had some birds that were so dark that I frst thought them black untill they matured some and I looked closer. But if he was blue, he wouldn't have those greenish black tail feathers. A good light Brahma, black and white bird, also have blue undercolor.

 

[big medicine]

Big Medicine maybe one day I will have half the knowledge of you when it comes to breeding birds.

In this day and age, if you have access to the internet, you can educate yourself on just about anything you have an interest in.

 

[bumpercarr]

In this day and age, if you have access to the internet, you can educate yourself on just about anything you have an interest in.

I just love the information that you have and are willing to share with us all. There is a lot out there on the internet, but there still isn't anything close to actually having someone to ask who's been there done that. Thanks BigMedicine, you are a huge, HUGE help!

So back to the question of what my cockerel is, then he is black. His feathers outside of the tail that are black also have the green in them, even some of his chest feathers have that beetle quality. It truly amazes me when the sun hits him. Like I said, it is probably his best feature. So, if I cross him with the blue (and she is really blue, not a black feather on her so far) I should get 50/50 black/blue gold partridge birds. According to the calculator, if I cross him with buff hens, I will get Columbian buff. Would you say that is your experience as well or am I completely goofing up the calculator?

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

BIG Medicine there is a lot of info and sometimes it blows me away what one can find with just a little research but I still like talking to someone experienced.

 

[big medicine]

I just love the information that you have and are willing to share with us all. There is a lot out there on the internet, but there still isn't anything close to actually having someone to ask who's been there done that. Thanks BigMedicine, you are a huge, HUGE help!

So back to the question of what my cockerel is, then he is black. His feathers outside of the tail that are black also have the green in them, even some of his chest feathers have that beetle quality. It truly amazes me when the sun hits him. Like I said, it is probably his best feature. So, if I cross him with the blue (and she is really blue, not a black feather on her so far) I should get 50/50 black/blue gold partridge birds. According to the calculator, if I cross him with buff hens, I will get Columbian buff. Would you say that is your experience as well or am I completely goofing up the calculator?

He looks to be a black to me.

Now to your pullet. I can't make up my mind if I think she is a very light blue, or possibly a dark splash. Leaning toward a light blue. Either way she does not appaer to be a typical blue partridge color. Wondering if she is buff, and the enhancing/inhibiting genetics that turn a gold bird buff maybe is also why her pecilled feather pattern is so light. Never dealt with buffs much so never red up on the finer points to their genetics. Which I need to, because a suprising number of the chicks out of the blue/splash red columbian breeding have turned out a buffish base color.

Breeding her to yor black male will tell us what she is. If you get a 50/50 blue/black hatch she is blue. If you get a 100% blue hatch, she is splash.

Crossing your male to buff Brahma females should produce chicks looking much more columbian patterned, but I would expect to see some extra ticking showing. Maybe some smut, or mossy
pattern on the cushion of the females.

Just to give you something else to worry about, when looking back at the photos you posted, a couple side shots of your pullet give me a somewhat masculine impression. Not sure what to make of that.

 

[bumpercarr]

He looks to be a black to me.

Now to your pullet. I can't make up my mind if I think she is a very light blue, or possibly a dark splash. Leaning toward a light blue. Either way she does not appaer to be a typical blue partridge color. Wondering if she is buff, and the enhancing/inhibiting genetics that turn a gold bird buff maybe is also why her pecilled feather pattern is so light. Never dealt with buffs much so never red up on the finer points to their genetics. Which I need to, because a suprising number of the chicks out of the blue/splash red columbian breeding have turned out a buffish base color.

Breeding her to yor black male will tell us what she is. If you get a 50/50 blue/black hatch she is blue. If you get a 100% blue hatch, she is splash.

Crossing your male to buff Brahma females should produce chicks looking much more columbian patterned, but I would expect to see some extra ticking showing. Maybe some smut, or mossy
pattern on the cushion of the females.

Just to give you something else to worry about, when looking back at the photos you posted, a couple side shots of your pullet give me a somewhat masculine impression. Not sure what to make of that.

I would agree that she has some masculine characteristics, but so far, I'm pretty sure she's a pullet. It would make breeding pretty difficult to do if she's not a pullet

It is mostly her body type that looks masculine to me, seems very heavy in the chest which is good, but looks a little mannish. When I let the two of them free range with the other chickens (I do this now because they aren't breeding age yet) my cock picks on the one that is a cockerel pushing him away and tries to bring the pullet into his flock. I'm sure that the cock has more awareness of who is what than I do.

I'll try to get some close ups of both of their feathering. I'm not exactly sure what a splash looks like, but you may be right. I've noticed that she looks more laced than penciled. Is there a particular area that the feathers are more telling than another? The chicken calculator added a note about buffs, I tried to read it but didn't really understand what it was saying. It won't let me copy and paste the comments, so I can't post them here for you.

My newest non-brahma problem is that I thought that the other hens in my mixed coop were cutting down on their laying because winter is here. They laid all last winter, but it was their first year laying. Anyway, only getting a few eggs a day until I found the silkie mix broody sitting on top of a bunch of them this morning. I guess she's gotten smarter, now she moved her eggs to a corner of the coop that is almost unreachable. I've got to figure out a way to get to her to get those eggs out from under her.......or maybe just let her hatch what will hatch. Usually I'll put some hatching eggs under her because she's such a great mom, but it really isn't the season to find eggs for her to hatch. I've lost a few and need some new layers anyway. I really try to keep my chicken population under control, my husband does not want me turning into the "crazy chicken lady".