Why do we need another chicken blog or forum?


Many chicken forums are moderated to sell commercial feed, chemicals and ideology.
I prefer to find my own balance between nature, welfare and cost in raising happy chickens.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Brahma rooster and friends...


This was Edgar, my gold partridge brahma rooster. A little on the short side, he was the gentlest of husbands. Unfortunately Edgar was one of the casualties of feed toxins...

Brahmas are not particularly productive egg-wise (at least in Australia), and they can be prone to brachydactyly (where the outer toe is too short) and undersize. As a recreated breed, though, they're doing well and have a number of afficionados.

As a meat breeder, the Australian birds seem a little limited by size deviations, and they're not as fast maturing as the earlier brahmas were reputed to be. Given some wyandotte influence they may also tend toward lower fertility than blade-combed birds. However you won't find a gentler animal in the yard, and the hens make excellent mothers. I've never seen an aggressive brahma rooster. Table prospects would be much increased by crossing to a game bird, but the result would most likely be unaggressive enough to keep in mixed groups until table age.

Lovely birds and much missed.