*suspicious face* "buff" brahmas?

[silverlining]

All right chicken experts. Rally! I'm a newbie. Did my research, and one of the breeds I picked was Brahmas. Liked the buff color best on the adult pics I saw. Never occured to me to look at CHICK pics!

Went to the feed store, picked out three little fluffy butts from the tank clearly labeled *drumroll* BUFF brahmas! But...they were all gray. So I'm thinking, "fine, whatever! I'm sure the feed store people know what they are doing. The chicks probably start out gray and feather out buff."

So...my precious babies are now getting their first feathers on their wings. But the feather are dark (almost black) with white/gray tips. Not silver laced wyandotte looking, just kind of dark with an edging. Of course I would never ever get rid of them because of their color, because they are SOOOO sweet. Like to be picked up (they are about two weeks old), and follow me around when I let them out of the brooder.

Anyway, back to the point. Can anybody tell me if this color thing is normal? Do chicks get a set of intermediate feather in between baby fluff and feathering out?! I'm utterly flummoxed.

 

[gritsar]

Here are some pics. Buff brahma and light brahma chicks at 3 days old. The other pics are a buff brahma pair at 5 weeks old and a light brahma pair, also five weeks old.

 

[silverlining]

oh thank you so much! yes, mine are looking less buff by the minute x). I'm trying to post pics on my reply, but I'm not exactly sure how to. Advice?

 

[silverlining]

sorry about the giant pic! I repel technology!

 

[silverlining]

oh, and what time do different chick breeds usually feather out? my EEs are feathering much faster than my Brahmas!

 

[Cetawin]

I noticed that different breeds feather differently. My light brahma stayed fuzzier longer than the other girls which were australorps, SLW, NHR and EE.

I cannot see the legs are they feathered? If they are, I would say brahma. The face and head looks like a brahma but the color looks like a dark brahma.

They are great either way.

 

[gritsar]

I'm thinking your chicks are either light brahmas or a cross of light & buff brahmas. They wouldn't be dark brahmas. Darks look totally different and actually have the "chipmunk stripes" on their backs when really young.
I wouldn't be concerned about them feathering slower than other breeds. They are a slow maturing breed.

 

[ChickenMama09]

I am also quite new to this. We are 7 weeks into our first set of 9 buff orps, 10 black astralorps, 3 light brahmas, 1 salmon faverolle and 2 cornish roasters.

The chicks you are describing sound a lot like our 3 light brahmas. They were also a grayish color and have white/black wing tips. They really are turning out to be quite beautiful girls. I'm very pleased with mine.

Our light brahmas did feather out slower than the other 2 types we have. Probably a week behind or so.

Good luck!

 

[silverlining]

thanks everyone! Yes, it seems the feed store was wrong. Oh well, I'm still qyite happy with the Brahma breed, nomatter what color they are haha. They are so sweet to handle, and they are SO gentle with me much younger EEs