Brahmas - Gentle Giants

(Deutsche Version)

This beautiful peace of art was designed by Chris Jones. It's called "Dark Brahma Cockerel Dusting" and was painted in oil on canvas, mounted on panel. You can buy this wonderful painting through the HP of Chris Jones: Wildlife Art, there are many other nice bird-pictures to explore, too.

Special Thanks To

My wife Tina for supporting me! My son Benni for co-operation with the bird duties sometimes. Dave for editing and reviewing some of my translations. Sandy for inspiring me to translate this site. Greg S. and Greg W., Glenda L, Tim, Ute, Henk, Jean, CBS and all other international message board-members, bird-fanciers or breeders I may have forgotten to mention for sharing their experience and helping a rookie in chicken-genetics! Brian Reeder for the permission to host his interesting website "The Asiatics" (formerly hosted on www.longtailfowl.com). His new homepage "Thoughts on Poultry Breeding and Genetics" is up and running since 2009! BTW, Brian Reeder is also the author of the book "An Introduction to Color Forms of the Domestic Fowl: A Look at Color Varieties and How They Are Made" (ISBN: 978 142 590 42 10), you can buy this informative book at Author House or Amazon.com or Amazon.de if you want. Speaking of books there´s another one that provides lots of information, it´s "Creative Poultry Breeding" by Carefoot, W.C. (1986). A reprint is availiable from Veronica Mayhew, her Email address is: veronica.mayhew"at"virgin"dot"net.

Mission Statement

We try to improve/preserve the valuable features for which the Brahma initially was famous for: a large and hardy dual-purpose bird. We want to develop our own strain of Brahmas without the need of "new blood" every year, since 2009 we have a purity of more than 90 % in our strain. Our aim is a healthy and large bird that lays well all year round, when we're there we will think about colors...;-)

Due to numerous requests we decided to provide additional informaton on selling birds: We are fanciers! We don't breed for a living! We breed because we love animals! We neither sell hatching-eggs nor chicks; we only sell adult, pedigreed breeding birds - sometimes (because we breed in small quantities). Why adult birds? Simple: because only by selling adult birds we can guaranty the very best quality. Hence we only give away healthy birds (for breeding) that either started to crow or to lay. We don´t give away birds that we wouldn´t breed ourself. We only give away birds (for breeding) that meet our own standard in at least several major points for 1 EUR per day and bird - regardless of sex. We don´t give away substandard birds! Because I think if a bird does not make a good breeder for us it would also not make a good breeder for anybody else. Optional we once in a blue moon part with so-called "cull birds" (dressed, for eating) for 50 EUR per kg dressed weight.

I also agree with Clive Carefoot who wrote:
Very few top breeders will sell a setting of eggs as it is impossible to be fair to both vendor and purchaser alike.
and, most important of all:
...for the egg one does not set (remark: because it´s sold) may contain the chick one has been aiming to produce for years!

Yet depending on where you live and due to rigorous import/export-restrictions it might be impossible to obtain breeding birds from us legally. Since this situation is not likely to change in the near future we decided to part with some hatching-eggs in case of need for 20 EUR per single egg plus P&P from 2009 on. Detailed Information on packing and shipping/sending can be found here: postage and packing of our Brahma hatching eggs!

Gene Pool

First we'd like to share our experiences with the local breeders here, hope it's of some value for any prospective new Brahma owners. Persons that are still included on some Breeder's List somewhere but in reality don't have Brahmas anymore are not listed here. In short: Beware! All that glitters is not gold! On the following page you can read our personal experiences: Breeders or Multipliers?

Next we´d like to introduce our naming system: our birds were divided into three groups/clans and we name our clans to the oldest male bird (alternatively we use the name of the first male offspring in case we bought females only) from the corresponding group. To give you an example: From the breeders V and W we bought Fridolin (male) with Berta, Frida, Emma and Wilma as well as Brunhild and Grimhild (all females). So all the birds we´ve got from the breeders V and W are members of the clan we name "Fridolin". Our other clan-names are "Thor" including birds from S and "Averell" including birds from H.

Fridolin Strain

We have bought birds and eggs from more than 7 different people for our breeding program or for comparison reasons. We have not used "new blood" for breeding since 2005. We use birds from our three unrelated clans for breeding under normal circumstances. We only use "clanless" birds for breeding under exceptional circumstances. Here´s our strain-development-chart:

% of Dippold-blood:

Year	%
2005	0.000 - start
2006	50.000
2007	75.000
2008	87.500
2009	93.750
2010	96.875

Breeding Program

We breed for constitutional vigor! This said, I know we break with the line of Austrian breeders who are mainly looking for color and pattern. We think a healthy and vital Brahma is much more important than a beautifully colored bird, and we try not to inbreed too much. We pedigree our Brahmas and we allow our birds hatched prior to 2005 to die a natural death. We don't sell or give away, nor do we slaughter birds hatched prior to 2005. If they don´t conform with our selection-criteria we do take them out of the breeding gene-pool and provide them a wonderful place to live in just the same - we don´t give away unwanted/old birds! In 2005 we decided to start breeding "seriously" and hence of course we process some of our birds for personal use (selection leads to surplus birds). A well fed Brahma fills your stomach for 2-3 days! We pay respect to our birds by processing all parts of the bird: the feathers are used for handcraft, the bones are fed to our dogs, the innards are fed to our birds, the meat we eat ourselves. We don't breed for exhibition. We try to preserve the genetic diversity in our flock, hence we don't select for color on the cost of other (far more important) points but try to use breeding birds from several different clans regularly.

Our breeding plan is a variation of "Breeding Method C" by Dick Demasky, Sr., found at the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (S.P.P.A.) with the main two differences being: first, we name our clans to the Sires even if we only use the Dams for breeding. The clan-name always comes from the male bird-name. We try to keep the inbreeding coefficient (IC) in a range where we can sort out the recessives but without the fear of loosing the entire flock. So the second difference is that we do breed a cock and hen of the same clan to each other depending on their IC. The article The effect of Male Numbers in a Population on the Coefficient of Inbreeding by David Caveny was of great help for us.

Our recourses are rather limited, we don't incubate but only hatch naturally with our cluckies. We want/allow our birds to be able to reproduce naturally because we think this is important. We provide at least 10 m² (107 ft²) of enriched environment per bird to roam and we raise our birds until they either crow or lay before we process them, because we think they deserve it. This is why we are able to raise a maximum of 50 chicks per season according to our own standards.

Here are some of the major points we want to improve in our birds (this is what we breed for): constitutional vigor, disease resistance, hatchability, longlivity, weight, height, broodiness, dominance, type, social competence, egg weight, foraging abilities, to name just a few.

Standard of Perfection

Because of the official SOP does not represent the majestic Brahma the way we think it should, we have decided to breed according to our own standard. I wrote down both standards for you to be able to compare and see where are the major differences. Quick link to the Dippold Standard.

German Standard, 2005

The Brahma Standard is taken from the book Brahma und Zwerg-Brahma, Cochin und Zwerg-Cochin (Oertel+Spörer, ISBN 3-88627-519-1, Pages 13 ff). Our personal amendment statements have been added in Italics for easy differentiation.

Rooster:

Body: wide, low yet stretched, horizontally worn/leveled/carried
Neck: medium length and maned (very rich and standing neck hackles)
Back: (like a shoe-box seen from above), straight back from the broad shoulders and then slightly raising to the upper bow in the main tail sickles; saddle hackle should be richly feathered
Brest: wide, full and round
Wings: short but strong, worn/carried close to the body, pinions covered by saddle hackle
Tail: short, but longer than Cochin, open tail with sickles parting to make the tail look sort of open with full side sickles
Belly: wide and full because of the soft, down-like feathers
Head: small, wide, strongly arched with wide vertex/zenith
Face: few or no feathers
Comb: triple pea comb, small, without a pointed leader, barely developed (with this I totally disagree, for I love big combs)
Wattles: small, perfectly rounded and thin, dewlap showing
Ear lobes: red and longish
Beak: short, strong, yellow with dark parts at the tip/front end or ridge allowed
Eyes: orange-red with wide eyebrows
Thighs and shanks: middle long, not low, fully and richly feathered, gauntlet-like at the joint but no vulture-hocks, yellow, strong boned, middle- and outer toe with long and hard feathers (contrary to Cochin)

Now here we had to find out what vulture-hocks are;-) Thankfully Sandy and her question inspired us to do some research and I managed to find out this:

[Quote starting here]
Sandy: What exactly is meant by the "gauntlet-like" on the joint of the leg? Is that what we refer to as "vulture hock?" In other words, are the Brahmas in that Standard to have hard wing-like feathers protruding from the hock joint? It's a terrible problem over here, but I understand in Great Britain that is allowed.

Me: The German term for "vulture hock" is "Geierfersen" and they are not allowed but the feathering should be abundant.

I think the difference is the softness of the feathers, the wing looks much more stiff than she shank-feathers, what do you think?

One breeder told us that it is called a vulture hock only if the feathers are stiff. If the feathers are soft they call it gauntlet-like. If the feathers have a strong, hard shaft they call it vulture hock.

Sandy: Aha! Yes, we're thinking the same thing. Soft and curly feathering about the hocks is desirable, and we all strive for that! It does sort of look like a cuff, or gauntlet, I just never thought of it that way. And your description of vulture hocks is the same as ours: stiff, wing-like feathers on the hocks that stick out. Bad, bad, bad! And so hard to breed out!
[Quote ending, taken from the American Brahma Club]

Hen:

Standing low with her short neck makes her look more compact then the male. Hens also have lower breasts and her feathering on saddle and thighs is much fluffier. The highest point is the tip of her main tail feathers.

(Here we have a difference to hens from the US-line: American girls should look like an upside-down U when looked at from behind, Austrian breeders told us the tail should look like an upside-down V.)

Weight Rooster: 3.5 kg (7.72 lb) up to 5.0 kg (11.02 lb) {bantam: 1.7 kg (3.75 lb)} (2003 it was 5.5 kg (12.13 lb), the Germans are currently cutting down rapidly on size and weight, I don't understand why and thus totally disagree at this point!)
Weight Hen: 3.0 kg (6.61 lb) up to 4.5 kg (9.92 lb) {bantam: 1.3 kg (2.87 lb)}
Hatching-egg minimum weight: 53 g (1.87 oz) {bantam: 35 g (1.23 oz)} (2003 it was 56 g (1.98 oz), our own hatching-eggs are 65 g (2.29 oz) to 74 g (2.61 oz)!)
Egg-color: yellow-brown, light brown
Broodiness: yes
Ring-size: cock 27 {bantam: 18} and hen 24 {bantam: 16}

Things to avoid:

Small, low, narrow birds as well as leaking feathering on middle-toe and other than pea-comb; white earlobes.

Dippold Standard, 2008

First we breed for health, next for type & temper and last for color. There are some points in every group we consider very important and there are some points less important for us. The various points are therefore sorted alphabetically, not to give a wrong impression of priorities. The order of importance is: health -> type & temper -> color. Since some of our aims are very optimistic we may be forced to alter our standard from time to time, this will happen when we can't achieve the desired results without the birds suffering - or if it's impossible;-) I only list numbers for the males, that's on purpose, I haven't forgotten the females;-) Sexual dimorphism causes the females of our Brahmas to differ from the males. We don't know what the difference in size might be in the future, I guess it to be around 20-30 %.

You might have noticed I didn´t mention productivity. This is because it´s essential anyway to ensure a minimum number of chicks as well as a minimum size. So depending on our overall flock-productivity we take single-bird-productivity into consideration as well. We distinguish egg-laying and meat-production both in quantity and quality.

Quality

As for quality we distinguish food-quality and environmental-quality. For us food-quality means no preventive antibiotics. For us food-quality means no pesticides in the various kinds of grains we buy. For us food-quality means no pesticides on our own vegetables and fruits we grow for food. For us environmental-quality means no chemicals in our coops and runs, for example the straw and hay we use as bedding is grown pesticide-free and we use DE for parasite-control. For us environmental-quality means at last 10 m² enriched environment as free-range space per bird. We buy our food "BIO"/"Organic" whenever possible, preferably directly from surrounding farmers. As a side-effect we support our local economy, plus we use short transit and thus preserve the environment. And probably most important: we can guaranty food that meets our own, rather high standards and thus are able to ensure the best quality in both our eggs and meat.

For us egg-quality means healthy, omega-3-enriched eggs high in vitamins and minerals, superb taste, very solid egg-shell, high storage-life, high egg-yolk:egg-white ratio, all year round. For us meat-quality means minimum growing time of 10 months per bird to ensure both a "happy youth" for our birds plus the best of taste (due to the meat having time to develop a very rich taste). For us meat-quality means absolutly pain-free and stress-free processing to ensure both treating/handling of our birds respectfully plus high-quality meat. For us high-quality meat is neither PSE meat nor DFD meat and is well-hung in a short time. We distinguish "light" and "dark" meat: Light meat (as in breast) is light/whitish, very juicy, strongly fibered but yet tender and luscious. Dark meat (as in thigh) is dark/reddish, rather juicy, very fibered but yet tender and luscious plus very tasteful.

Production

As for egg-laying we take numbers from our main flock, which holds 35 hens minimum all year round. The birds are of different age, from 3 months up to 8 years. Depending on season there are more pullets than hens or vice versa, our pullets start to lay around 10 months. Egg-weight is an average of all eggs, including eggs for eating. Hatching-egg minimum weight differs, we have used hatching-eggs between 66 and 70 g for beeding in 2008.

As for meat-production we take into consideration several points. Feed:meat ratio does NOT matter for us, we feed our birds until they either start to lay or crow - as a minimum. (Abdominal) fat does matter, we want our birds to be active and muscular, we have bred birds with less than 100 g (abdominal) fat in 2008. Size matters, we have bred birds with a drumstick (tibia) size of 19 cm and a chicken breast/fillet weight of 400 g in 2008.

Below is our egg laying-chart from 2005 to 2008 (missing the whole year 2006 and part of the year 2007 due to loss of data), click to enlarge:

Egg-laying performance:
2004: 40 eggs @ 61 g per hen and year,
2005: 54 eggs @ 63 g per hen and year,
2006: n/a eggs @ 65 g per hen and year,
2007: 85 eggs @ 68 g per hen and year,
2008: 78 eggs @ 65 g per hen and year.

Meat-production performance:
2006: tibia-lenght: up to 15 cm, (abdominal) fat: 200 g and more, chicken breast: up to 350 g,
2007: tibia-lenght: 15 to 17 cm, (abdominal) fat: 200 g, chicken breast: 350 g,
2008: tibia-lenght: 17 to 19 cm, (abdominal) fat: 100 to 200 g, chicken breast: up to 400 g.

Breeding-cocks weight- and fertility-performance:
(weight in breeding condition unless otherwise noted)
2006 - Thor: 4.95 kg, fertility: 85 %,
2007 - Thor: 5.17 kg, fertility: 85 %,
2007 - John Doe (testmating, normal-weight): 4.65 kg, fertility: 90 %,
2008 - Red Friend: 5.27 kg, fertility: 80 %,
2008 - Little Blue (testmating, normal-weight): 4.21 kg, fertility: 60 %,
2008 - Johnny Doe: 6.21 (!) kg, fertility: 75 %.


Finally, here's a chicken skeleton illustration and a hock angle illustration that you might also find useful:

   

Health

Adult Mortality rate: 5 % maximum
Chicken Mortality rate: 15 % maximum
Disease resistance: We breed for resistance to commonly/locally encountered pathogens. We send in poop-samples on a regular basis, the last 4 consecutive diagnosis were negative (= no parasites = healthy birds). So far our flock has developed resistance to Coccidiose, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT).
Fertility: 90 % minimum
Hatchability: 80 % minimum
Juvenile Mortality rate: 10 % maximum
Longlivity: 10 years minimum

Type & Temper

Body: massive;-)
Broodiness: males displaying courtship feeding, females going clucky according to the moon phase
Egg Weight: 65 to 68 g (2.29 to 2.40 oz) minimum
Femur: 15 cm (5.91 in) minimum
Head: malayoid
Hock angle: illustration #1)
Metatarsus: 15 cm (5.91 in) minimum
Social Competence: males calm and gentle to the females and very self confident but not aggressive, females possessing grafting abilities
Tallness: 90 cm (35.43 in) minimum
Tibia: 20 cm (7.87 in) minimum
Weight: Initially we aimed for 6 kg (13.23 lb) minimum including fat, then we settled down for 4 kg (8.82 lb) minimum excluding fat. Since we are rookies we first didn´t understand that there are 2 different weights indeed: "normal" and "breeding condition", and that those 2 differ in a range up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) easily! With "normal" weight I mean the weight of the cocks in the male-only-flock. This is the lower number because of several reasons, including competition and excercise. With "breeding condition" I mean cocks (for breeding) in a mixed flock of around 40 hens. Our cock:hen ratio in such a flock varies from 1:35 up to 1:45. In such a flock the cocks don´t have competition from other cocks, plus due to the many hens food is always availiable in surplus amounts. Those cocks gain up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) in just a few weeks and keep this high body-weight throughout the whole breeding-season.
So our new aim is:
Weight, normal: 4.5 kg (9.92 lb) minimum.
Weight, in breeding condition 5.5 kg (12.12 lb) minimum.

Color

We accept sexual dichromatism and therefore we don't try to breed males and females to look alike. We separate golden birds with gold-diluters into buffs and golden birds with gold-enhancers into reds. All colors with pattern or stippling we name under Partridge, all black-tails (resp. blue- and white-tails) we call Columbians. We also try to separate into Red Shouldered and non-Red Shouldered (Orange Back), and we divide between Salmon Breast and non-Salmon Breast.

We don't breed all colors of course;-) We divided our birds into 3 main groups of colors and aim to have several breeding birds in all 3 groups for enhanced flexibility. We try to use the genetic diversity in our flock to "extract" all possible colors at any given time. Of course this is a long term goal, and due to a lack of recourses we need to concentrate on a limited number of colors, also. We're satisfied when we have 10 breeding birds in every group;-) Other than that we breed for: red pea comb and face, yellow skin and feet.

Plain colored:

Black, Blue and White (Splash and/or White White Columbian), including Birchens.

Columbian:

We list the hackle/tail-colors first, then the body-color. So we have golden-based: Black Buff Columbian (AKA Buffs), Blue Buff Columbian, White Buff Columbian, Black Red Columbian, Blue Red Columbian, White Red Columbian; silver-based: Black White Columbian (AKA Lights) and Blue White Columbian.

Partridge:

We call the stippled ones Wild Type/Duck Wing and the laced/penciled ones Partridge, the golden-based colors include: Gold Partridge (AKA Partridge, AKA Gold) and Blue Gold Partridge as well as Wild Type and Blue Wild Type; silver-based: Silver Partridge (AKA Dark) and Blue Silver Partridge as well as Silver Duck Wing and Blue Silver Duck Wing, we also put Quail into this category.

 
(Deutsche Version)



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last update: 02-09-10