Brahma

Brahma's are the most popular big breed in my country, and for a good reason. They're gentle giants. The males are impressive looking, and the hens surprisingly good layers for their size. They also go broody often.

my girls are getting bigger they are almost 10 weeks old now they are very sweet and don't run from my hand when i go to pet them or pick them up

I have 4 lights and 2 dark they are great chicken!I wonder what a dark brahma rooster with a light hen chicks would look like.

I haven't had them for yet 2 years, but so far they are so far great!

I think the pea comb is much nicer than a rose comb.

They are heavy and big so I would not suggest them as a little kid friendly chicken,
they could be great with small children, I don't know, but they are tough and protective.

The Brahmas do awesome with other Brahmas. I have Buff!

So far so good!

-The Angry Hen

We had two Brahma hens for a couple of years in our mixed-breed flock before we gave the whole flock away due to them not laying many eggs anymore. Their color was Partridge, which I find stuning. They were all-in-all very beautiful, with a burly and fluffy sort of built, unlike most other chicken breeds that have a more streamlined look to them.

They hade a rose comb, meaning they barely had a comb at all, merely a low ridge of skin on the top of their head. Such a comb is unusually resistant to frost-bite. That, along with the hens' tight plumage and large size, made them resistant to the cold of Swedish winter. On the down side, our Brahmas stood around panting in the summer heat more than any other of our chickens.

Another double-edged sword about them is that they have heavily feathered feet. This is beautiful and rather unusual, but I've read that it makes it easier for them to get scaly leg mites, and our Brahas did indeed suffer from that condition. One treatment seemed to cure them, though. Furthermore, such feet-feathers are prone to get muddy, and wet in winter, which increases the risk of them getting frostbitten toes. And apparantly they don't help the chickens' feet stay warm in the cold. All in all, I think the downsides of foot feathering outweigh the upsides.

The Brahmas got broody a lot, which for us was mostly a con, beause we were more interested in getting eggs than more chickens. When we let them sit on the eggs, they became great mothers.

As I said, they are very large chickens, which has pros and cons of its own. I've already mentioned temperature handling. Apart from that, large size seems to deter raptors around our area; they are more interested in small birds. But their heaviness makes them bad fliers. And while this may make it easier to fence them in, it also forced us to build a ramp for them to reach the roost that was sitting five feet above the floor. They had no problem jumping up into the nests that were about three feet up. Also, we made an extra wide roost, because I'd read that a normal-sized one would risk defoming their breast bone, due to the high pressure such a thin object would cause on their heavy bodies.

One of my favourite things about this breed is that they have heavy brow ridges, giving them a unique eagle gaze.

Another good thing about them is that they seem to be generally restistant to disease. Some of our other chickens got a bit under the weather occasionally, but not the Brahmas.

They are docile, but not overly so. They are not like the Orpingtons we had that just lay around all day; the Bramas aren't super active, but not super-lazy eather, and will forage if allowed to free-range. And while they were rather tame, they wouldn't let us touch them.

Overall I would recommend the breed for anyone wanting to add a huge chicken to the flock.

My five week old light brahma is AWESOME! Stars is curious and bright-eyed and is the first to inspect a new thing in her coop。

I love my Light Brahmas! They are so sweet and tame! They make an excellent pet, and their egg laying is very good! When I sit down they jump into my lap and go to sleep. I highly recommend the Light Brahma to any backyard flock.

Very good breed for the novice with a small flock. They do tend towards obesity if you let them and that only adds to the hot-weather problems. Easily tamed- I consider them one of the most intelligent birds in my flock! Lays many tan eggs if not overweight. Even the roosters tend to be gentle... but that leads to them being on the lowest ranks of flock hierarchy, which also lends itself to the slight chance of cannibalism. Great bird for a small flock of non-aggressive breeds!

I have had a Bantam Dark Brahma, River Styx, who was as friendly (and as fast) as could be. she would never beat up on other birds or struggle in my arms. My current Brahma bird, India (no, I didn't name her) is much like River Styx. She comes right up to me. When her sister died, she was sad for a week, not eating and drinking at her normal level. Despite her size, she is friendly to all of my other chickens, and her feathered feet are always very gentle when she paws at my legs. Wonderful birds.

My sweet buff brahma, Coconut Korma, is very docile and friendly. She is my hen that will wait to go into the coop at night until I get home from work, so that I will pick her up and hold her before tucking her in. She is gentle enough that my four year old daughter is able to carry her around, but that can be both a blessing and a frustration-- she is so sweet that she never, ever fights back. She is the only brahma in my flock (she was a mystery chick), and even though she is the biggest hen now, everyone still is extra rough with her because they can. Even the dogs know she's the one that will run instead of dish it back. I would recommend that, if you have a mixed flock, you get 2-3 brahmas, so they can be their own little pacifist mini-flock. Just the one is not enough. They do also mature very slowly because they're giant, but my lands is it worth it, it's like having a giant teddybear that's actually a chicken. Good winter layer as well, and she doesn't even notice the cold. I do have to check her leg feathering every night when it's cold though-- if the feathering gets wet, it will freeze and damage her feet. I just bring a towel out with me at bed time and dry off everyone's toes, so it's not that much extra work for me, but something to be aware of if you live in extremely cold climates.

Very good breed. I have one Buff Brahma pullet named Annika. Like I said up there she's very sweet and gentle towards people butt gets bullied easily by my older hens but she's still a baby so things will hopefully change. She hasn't started laying eggs yet so I can not inform you on how that goes.

I love my brahmas. My three buff brahmas are BBF's - constantly hanging out - ALL. DAY. LONG. They were raised by a broody hen and are still quite happy to come up and sit in your lap. My light brahma, Babs, is always one of the first ones to come up to me so she can make "The funny sound" of her beak scraping my jeans. Babs also lays eggs with purple spots. Yes, purple spots. They're so cool! The three younger girls haven't started laying yet, but if they are better Layers than Babs, I will update. I would definitely recommend this breed to a beginner.

This is the second breed of chicken I had and I loved them at the time. But soon realized that the roosters will fight through the fence to the point that they both could die. The hens lay ok but I he eggs are small for their size. I did like the he fact that they sat well. And the rooster are very large and goofy. Probably won't get them again. I did have a batcheler group running together one winter and a huge red tail hawk decided to attack the largest one. Well I came running when I heard the commotion and all of the roosters were attacking the hawk. When the hawk finally flew up to a branch he looked like he had took a beating and was happy to fly away. So they take care of each other.

We recently got two Brahma's and they are the two most docile chickens I have ever seen. They let you walk right up and pick them up, look them over. They won't eat out of my hand...but that's ok.
When we got them one of them had large marble size balls of poop and dirt stuck to her toes. We literally put her in the bathtub with only a few inches of water, shut the door and tended the others. We wanted to let the poop soften up so we could get them off. We came back 15 min or so later and she was still just standing there. She then let my husband break the balls up by squeezing with pliers without a fuss! When she was done we realized some of her toes where nubbies...looks like maybe frostbite. She kept picking her feet up and studying them intently. I think she had those balls on there for a while. I can't comment on whether or not they are good layers or not as mine aren't laying...not really sure how old they are either. So far we just love them.
**UPDATE***
After spending some time with them we are still loving them but we have had to add a second feeder as Lavern runs everyone off of one. She isn't completely mean to them and as long as she's not eating they can all snuggle up together, but when fat girl wants to eat...LOOK OUT!
We also found out that they are 2 yrs old so I'm not sure why they aren't laying. They aren't molting and seem healthy enough other than their feet. They have way too long of nails that we have been slowly trimming back. They are catching them on things all the time and start bleeding and I have to pack it in flour or corn starch so they stop bleeding. They are still very docile toward humans and she doesn't mind us trimming her nails too much. I just really hope they start laying again. I realize with their age it won't be constant but some jumbo brown eggs would be great!!

**UPDATE**Lavern has started laying***YAY*** so far we have gotten two small, light brown eggs. She started working on it saturday...we added a dish of oyster shell to their coop on Friday...not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. For the size of her we were expecting some bigger eggs so we will have to wait and see if the size increases. An egg is an egg though and all in all we are very happy with our girls!

I'm basing my review off of my dark brahma bantam roo. He came with my batch of 8 day old dominique chicks (all hatched together) for free so I said why not. As a chick he would run away whenever I would go to pick him up. However, he is a decent little rooster. I already have a big dom rooster and the two get along great. He is second in command and basically follows the big guy around and does whatever he does, which makes for quite the show sometimes. I like that he is gentle toward his flockmates. He doesn't start fights nor is he bossy. He is a bit lower on the pecking order but nonetheless everyone respects him and no one bosses him around aggressively or chases him. My guy is quite the ornament, I absolutely LOVE his colors, and his feathers are so soft. Only thing is he is not forthcoming. He runs away if you try to pet him or pick him up. He hasn't ever eaten out of my hand, even as a chick. The doms on the other hand are the exact opposite. You would think they would imprint on each other and he would be somewhat like them but no. Overall I love my little guy and think he's funny, I would be open to trying LF brahma hens.

We have a hen and she lays all the time and we are hatching 4 of her eggs.

Amazing breed for all!

If I could start over again, I would have a whole flock of them, over my Barred Rocks and Americaunas (sp?). However, I'm still a huge fan of Buff Orpingtons, they're the only other bird I've found as loving and personable.