TWENTY-FIVE YEARS WITH DARK BRAHMAS. 



The Value of This Variety for Eggs and Meat— The Colors of the Male and Female Described- 

 Useful Hints Upon Mating for Best Results. 



By Ohahles A. Ballou. 



THIS breed is one of the oldest established breeds in 

 America, and I can say, after twenty-dive years 

 breeding them, that it is one of the best. They are 

 extra fine layers of rich, brown eggs; mature about 

 six weeks earlier than their cousins, the Light Brahmas, 

 and my experience has been that they will lay more, though 

 not so large eggs. For table fowls, they cannot be beat. In 

 competition with nearly all varieties at the Rhode Island 

 exhibition they won first three years in succession; first for 

 plumpness and first for best dressed poultry in the hall. 

 For broilers they are excellent; any time after the age of six 

 weeks they are ready to kill and a more toothsome piece 

 of flesh cannot be found. 



The hens make fine sitters and good mothers. They 

 will commence laying while with their chicks and care for 

 the chicks just the same. The chicks are very hardy and un- 

 der ordinary care there is no need of losing many. Feed them 

 well, keep them growing and no breed will show a more 

 rapid improvement than they will. 



It requires no fitting process to get them ready for the 

 show room. They are always dressed for exhibition, their 

 color being such that it needs no washing or cleaning, if 

 their surroundings are kept reasonably clean. 



They can be kept anywhere and under all conditions. 

 They always look well, the male bird having a stately car- 

 riage, a clean silvery white head, with a fine pea comb and 

 a beautiful hackle, with a dark stripe running down the cen- 

 ter and a pure silver edging to each feather. The back is 

 of medium length and a pure, silvery white in color. The 

 breast, although required to be pure black, is never so pretty 

 as when evenly mottled with silver, and males so marked 

 are particularly valuable to breed from to secure evenly pen- 

 ciled pullets. The tail should be black with flowing sickle 

 feathers, lesser sickles with black centers edged with silvery 

 white, like the saddle feathers. Wings must have a beauti- 

 ful black bar and the outer edge of the flight feathers silvery 

 white. 



The female presents a pure steel gray head, darker than 

 that of the male. Neck, the same color as in the males. 

 Back and breast must be gray penciled, not barred, with a 

 pure steel gray, the lines of penciling following the contour 

 of the feather. 



Don't think you must have a solid black breast in the 

 male; when you find a nice evenly mottled breast you will 

 find a bird with cleaner color on hackle and hack and one 

 more likely to he free from yellow. A certain cock bird 

 that won first at Boston and special for best shape and color 

 had a fine evenly mottled breast. Be careful in your nutt- 

 ings; the Dark Brahma is one of the hardest birds to breed 

 that there is in the Standard. Never use a short backed, 

 high tailed male, but if you have a female that is short in 

 back, that is extra good otherwise, it is safe to mate her to 



a long backed male, but if you have none such to use you 

 had better discard ber entirely. 



Another great trouble is with foot and toe feathering. 

 This is hard to reto-in and I know of only one way to keep 

 the feet and legs properly feathered, which is by using, 

 occasionally, vulture hocked hens and pullets, never sacri- 

 ficing an extra nice female because of this defect; but never 

 use a vuitured male, unless for some special purpose and 

 then only as a last resort. It is not advisable to use a male 

 with a poor comb, my experience having proven that the 

 male exerts far the greater influence upon the combs of the 



l?irst Prize Dark Brahma Hen at Ontario. 1904. Exhibited by ly. C. Sage. 



chicks. As in other breeds, we must look to the female for 

 size and we have always found it advisable to use females 

 of large size and males of medium size in preference to large 

 males and hens of medium Size or smaller. 



That this meritorious variety is not more widely bred is 

 due principally to ignorance of its practical qualities. Its 

 beauty is universally admitted and any one securing stock 

 from an up-to-date strain and giving them the intelligent 

 attention necessary to achieve success with any variety will 

 have no cause to look further for an all purpose fowl. 



The future of the variety is in the hands of its breeders 

 and they should not fail to give it the prominence it de- 

 serves. The quality is there, but it needs to be made known. 



This is the advice of a breeder who has bred this fine 

 Asiatic variety for twenty-five years. C. A. BALLOU. 



