February 6, 2025 • 27 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer (00:00):
Welcome poultry enthusiasts to another exciting
(00:03):
episode of the poultry nerdspodcast,
Carey (00:06):
whether you're raising backyard chickens, diving deep
into the science of avianhealth, or just obsessed with
all things, feather and eggs,you're in the right place.
I'm Carey
Jennifer (00:16):
and I'm Jennifer.
And today we've got an episodepacked with everything you need
to know about Brahma's withBumbalaw Farms.
Carey (00:26):
From expert tips to fascinating facts.
We're here to help you becomethe ultimate poultry pro.
It's time to get nerdy aboutpoultry.
Mhm.
Jennifer (00:40):
Are you looking for a poultry supplement that goes
beyond the basics?
Meet Show Pro PoultrySupplement, the only supplement
with cysteine, a powerful aminoacid for stronger feathers,
healthier birds, and better eggproduction.
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Supplement, because healthypoultry starts now.
(01:01):
From the inside out.
Hey guys.
So we're back today and we arehere with Kristen and Jacob from
Bumbala hollow farms.
Welcome guys.
And they raise Brahma's inmiddle Tennessee which is where
I am, but middle since he's big.
(01:22):
So you guys are like, what, anhour and 10 minutes or so away
from me?
Yeah,
Jacob (01:27):
I'm going
Carey (01:29):
to say in middle Tennessee, a lot of people would
be like, oh, they're neighbors,but not in middle Tennessee.
That's no.
Yeah.
Could be an hour or so away.
Christen (01:40):
Yeah.
We got a good, I think about anhour drive to you.
Jennifer (01:43):
Yeah.
Carey (01:43):
Nice.
Jennifer (01:45):
And there is no straight shot between here and
there.
You got to make us big triangle.
But anyway, so welcome guys.
And you guys raise Brahma's andJersey giants and goats and
horses and all kinds of stuffover in those Hills.
Don't you?
Christen (02:03):
Oh, yes.
We also raise a Rex rabbits andthen blue slate Turkey.
Jennifer (02:07):
I forgot about the rabbits.
You guys are getting really biginto showing the rabbits, aren't
you?
Christen (02:12):
I am.
I have actually my next show'son the 25th.
Jacob (02:17):
That's a lot.
Christen (02:18):
Alright, cool.
I'll have to come check one out.
Jacob (02:22):
That's her deal.
I only really deal with the
Jennifer (02:24):
chickens.
Christen (02:25):
That's her deal?
Carey (02:26):
So do they do rabbit shows like they do chicken
shows?
Christen (02:30):
The poultry shows, your bird's just in the cage and
they come by and judge, but therabbit show they call the
different breeds, you gotta takethe rabbit and put it on the
table, and then you watch thejudge pose it, and if it doesn't
place, you pull it off, if itdoes place, it stays on for best
of breed.
It's, I enjoy it, but he doesn'tenjoy it too much.
Jennifer (02:50):
Oh, you think us chicken people are whacked out.
Those rabbit people are crazy.
Oh, it's a whole different
Christen (02:57):
world.
Yeah.
Jacob (03:00):
They're either really nice or very stubborn.
Christen (03:06):
They just sound similar to the chickens though.
A lot of your top breeders won'tlet you, won't sell to you
unless they know you're seriousabout bettering the breed and
stuff.
Yeah, that, that's, that is athing.
Yeah.
So people can find you guys onFacebook?
Yes, we have Facebook,Instagram.
And then our website isbumbleahalafarm.
com.
Carey (03:21):
Now for the people from Alabama, like me, how do you
spell bumbleahala?
Christ (03:27):
BUMBALOUGHhollowfarm.com
Carey (03:32):
dot com.
Christen (03:35):
Yes.
Carey (03:36):
Perfect.
Bumble and
Christen (03:36):
Holla farm.
com.
You got to put the farm onthere.
Carey (03:39):
Okay.
All right.
Jennifer (03:42):
Yeah.
They live down in the holler.
If you've ever gone over therewhere she is, she's like in the
hills of.
Yeah, it's not like my propertyis nice and flat.
And you can see faith told meone day you could see a dog run
for two miles or two days orsomething.
And you go over there where theylive and you, it's just deep
(04:02):
ravines and you can hide stuffdown in those ravines and all
kinds of stuff.
Christen (04:07):
We're
Jennifer (04:07):
like
Christen (04:07):
in the middle of nowhere with hills all the way
around.
Carey (04:11):
Sounds perfect.
Jennifer (04:11):
So today we're going to talk about your Brahmas.
And you do project colors,right?
Christen (04:19):
Yes, so we do buff lace, Isabelle.
We're working on partridge,which Scott Perry is actually
working on trying to get themrecognized.
So they're actually going tostart being moved to being
called gold and blue goldinstead of partridge.
So I'm going to startadvertising them as gold and
blue gold instead of partridge.
And then we also raised blackmodeled.
(04:39):
And I am starting to dabble intothe dark bramas so that I do
have a recognized color to show.
Jennifer (04:45):
Okay, so let's talk about the partridge for just a
minute because I saw ScottPerry's post about that.
Why did you guys decide tochange the name of that color?
Christen (04:57):
When the judges see partridge they start judging it
towards the other breeds andtheir partridge standards.
And the par partridge color onthe braa doesn't meet the
standards that it does on someof the other breeds.
So calling it gold and blue,gold kind of takes the partridge
out of their head for them to beable to judge them the way they
need to be judged.
Jacob (05:17):
It, it gives them
Jennifer (05:19):
Okay, gotcha.
Jacob (05:20):
It also gives them like their own category to be in.
Like Kristen said, they're, thepartridge name is also
associated with so manydifferent other breeds and
colors and.
Just easier for the judge to nothave that in his bed and so that
they can have their owncategory.
Christen (05:43):
And Scott has actually wrote up a proposed standard for
the gold and blue gold brahma sothat if anybody is wanting to
raise them and breed towards toshow, I'm happy to share the the
proposed standard that he wroteup.
I have pictures of it.
Carey (06:00):
That's a long process.
Can they find that on yourFacebook
Christen (06:02):
page maybe?
They can message me and I cansend it to them.
Jennifer (06:06):
So for people who.
Jacob (06:08):
Oh, trying to get these dramas.
They don't grow very fast, so itdoes take a long time to get
them to the point where whatthey need to be look where they
need to be look like thestandard, but that's one thing.
A lot of people don't understandabout bramas.
They're such a big chicken.
(06:30):
It takes them a lot longer timeto beef out and to grow into
themselves
Christen (06:36):
like your coaches.
Jennifer (06:39):
Oh, my gosh, they're like molasses.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, so for people who don'tmaybe understand when we're
talking about project colorsversus approved varieties, like
my Orpingtons, they're buffcolors.
That's an approved, through theAPA, we can show it underneath
(07:02):
of that variety color.
And then in the Brahmas, what'sthe accepted varieties on the
Brahmas?
Christen (07:09):
Dark, buff, and light are the ones that are accepted.
Yeah.
Jennifer (07:15):
Now, I've had a lot of people So you can show those,
you get your points.
Christen (07:20):
Yes, you can.
You can show the non recognizedvarieties.
You just won't get APA pointsfor it.
I like to show them when we doshows just to help get the word
out about them and get interestand let people know we raised
them.
But on the other side of it,I've also had some people tell
me that they're not Brahma'sbecause they're not recognized
Carey (07:38):
color.
That would be the ones at theshows that have their pinkies
out.
Christen (07:42):
Yeah, yes, I've had quite a few people message me to
tell me that it's because it'snot a recognized color than
their head.
It's not a pure breed.
Jacob (07:55):
They think it's like a run of the mill just like yard
chicken, but Reality, they'rereally not.
They all start
Jennifer (08:06):
somewhere.
Yeah.
Jacob (08:07):
Yeah.
Oh reality.
They're really not.
I mean It's taken a long timefor us to get to where we're at
with all of our birds and howthey look and, trying to better
our breed program and
Christen (08:20):
We've had help from a lot of other breeders as well to
help us get to where we are.
Jennifer (08:27):
Okay, so let's go back to your project colors.
So the buff lace.
I've seen pictures of those.
Those are, it's buff lace,right?
Yes.
Okay.
They are called Buff Lace.
Okay.
Good.
Okay, good.
So the Buff Lace how long haveyou been working on those?
Christen (08:48):
Let's see.
Jennifer (08:49):
I've had
Christen (08:50):
the cartridge since 2020.
And then, the buff laced, Ithink we got in 21.
And then we added the Isabel, Ithink in 22.
And then we added the modelwithin 23.
Jennifer (09:07):
Oh, the model's so pretty.
I think that's my favorite.
Christen (09:10):
Oh, they are.
And they're very popular.
They're just, I only had a few,so I was slowly trying to grow
our flock to be able
Jennifer (09:20):
to produce more.
So when you start a project, doyou.
Do you just start it fromscratch or do you like buy birds
from somebody and continue theproject?
How did you get started?
Christen (09:33):
So all of our project birds, I had bought from
another, other breeders who hadalready started.
Trying to think, our buff lacedoriginally came from a lady who
got hers from the guy whostarted the buff laced, but I
have gotten some from a coupleother breeders to make our flock
where they are now.
and working towards the best Ican breeding them towards the
(09:56):
standard because the buff blazerthey're still a big bird they're
still big bramas but they're asmaller brama than some of your
other project colors so I'mtrying to work on my size on
them.
Jennifer (10:07):
You can't ever get them big enough it didn't seem
like.
Christen (10:10):
Oh yeah and no matter the color they're all the same
standard so the way of the bodytype of a light brama would look
is the way we're trying to getthe body type of all of ours to
look.
It's just.
A very long process.
Jennifer (10:26):
Why did you choose to do projects instead of just
already recognized varieties?
Christen (10:31):
I was trying to figure out what breed, when we first
started raising, I was trying tofigure out what breed I wanted,
and I dabbled in a little bit ofeverything, and I fell in love
with the Brahmas, and then I waslike, when I first started, I
was like, oh, I'm going to dodarks, we'll just try it out,
but when I first started, I hadhatchery quality birds, and
those didn't last very long andI went to somebody's house and
(10:52):
they had project colors.
They were just they're liketheir backyard flock But they
told me the breeders they gottheirs from and I just fell in
love with all those colors Ididn't want to have the basic
standard recognized colors.
I wanted all the fun colorsaround Because there's quite a
few people around here thatraise the standards and I like
raising the different colors andhelping them get towards being
(11:13):
recognized
Jacob (11:16):
and also the brahmanas, especially the roosters are a
lot of people think they're Youknow, they see a big rooster or
a big chicken period, andthey're automatically just
scared of it.
Our Brahma's, we haven't reallyhad a single mean one.
They're such a gentle giant.
(11:37):
Hey, you haven't.
General, they really are.
I did it.
I don't do this all the time,but I did it one time to see if
I could.
I brought one of our Brahmaroosters inside one day.
And he sat down, I sat him downon my leg and he sat there and
watched TV with me for about anhour.
Christen (11:55):
I'll have to have a customer who she keeps me
updated and sends me photos allthe time.
Her daughter actually takesBrahma's that they got from us
and she puts them on the swingset and pushes them around,
Careys them in the house.
They've just got really sweetpersonalities.
Jennifer (12:11):
Yeah.
So the Cochins are, somehow theCochins helped create a Brahma
way back when, but you'retalking about how sweet they
are.
And if I'm moving the Cochinsaround, I can put them on the
seat of the gator and they'lljust sit there while I drive
around to wherever I'm takingthem.
They just sit there.
So I think the big birds arebetter than any little birds.
Christen (12:35):
I do too.
The only downfall I think I'vefound is they require so much
more space, but that's okay.
That just means bigger pens.
Jennifer (12:43):
Yeah, just more of them,
Christen (12:44):
right?
Yeah.
Jennifer (12:47):
So What else you want to tell us about your brahmas?
What do you do?
Do you sell chicks and birds andeggs?
Christen (12:57):
So we sell hatching eggs and then we do sell chicks
also.
And then like every frequentlythroughout the year, we'll have
some grow outs available becausewe'll like in the beginning when
we start hatching, we'll keep acertain amount from each pin and
grow them out and pick ourkeepers.
Or if we have a lot, we'll justsell off the extras or whatever.
Then every year of course, werotate breeders to help improve
(13:19):
our stock.
We've shipped all over theUnited States.
We ship eggs and chicks.
We do not ship juveniles oradults yet.
I've not gotten, I've not gottenenough nerve up yet to ship
those nerve wracking enough.
Come out and see me.
I'll show you Alright,
Jacob (13:37):
I think the far
Christen (13:38):
we've shipped to California, Washington.
Now I do have people ask me alot of the time if they breed
true or colors and A lot of thetimes projects can be different
but like our buff lace Every nowand then from back in the line
where they created them We'llget a gold out of them, but it's
only one in every like 20 chicksWe end up with a gold lace so
(14:01):
they pretty much breed true andthen our partridges It works
like a blue black splash pen, soyou can get blue, gold, or
splash partridge.
And then our mottleds, theybreed true.
Their chicks are always mottled.
And same with the Isabels,they're, they always breed true
as well.
Jennifer (14:23):
So the Isabels, they're like a lavender color.
Christen (14:26):
Yes, and they have the same lacing patterns as the
partridge do.
You can actually put an Isabellewith a gold partridge rooster to
help improve your Isabelle line.
Jennifer (14:39):
Do you have an issue with the shredding gene like
they do in the Orpingtons?
I have not.
Oh, interesting.
Christen (14:47):
And if that ever does become an issue, I can always
breed back to the partridge andhelp fix that issue.
But as of right now, we're what,three years old?
Jacob (14:57):
Yeah.
Christen (14:58):
Something like that, and we've not had any threading
gene issues.
Jennifer (15:01):
Oh,
Christen (15:01):
that's good.
Jennifer (15:02):
So you guys have to study your genetics pretty good
to work on these projects.
Christen (15:06):
We grow out a lot every year and I'll sit there
with my APA book and sit thereand look at them and try to
figure out which ones are thebest.
And of course the color variesbecause they're projects.
So you got to eyeball, pick whatyour goal is for your project,
but body type wise, always lookat the,
Jacob (15:31):
and it does help a lot.
When you talk to breeders thatare willing to talk to you, like
Scott Perry he has helped us alot.
He has studied and been dealingwith the Brahmans for a lot
longer time than we have.
He has helped us a lot with ourbreeding program just by talking
to him.
Christen (15:52):
And then Beach Bum Bitties has helped us a lot with
our buff lice program.
Jennifer (15:57):
Yeah, the chicken community is pretty tight and
there's a lot of good people whowill help.
Oh, yeah.
Carey (16:03):
Yeah.
Once, once they figure outyou're serious, they'll, oh
yeah.
They'll generally talk to you.
Christen (16:09):
Like I, we met I finally officially met Scott at
the Dixie Classic in Knoxville,and I brought home three, or was
it three, three birds from him.
And they're, and I already hadone rooster from him.
And they're gonna be like thereal stamp to help us get our
partridge to the next level toshow.
Jennifer (16:30):
Okay, you're gonna have to quit calling them
partridge.
Christen (16:32):
I got to remind myself to quit calling them partridge.
The gold, get them to where theyneed
Jennifer (16:37):
to be shown.
Okay, so I have to ask you a funquestion.
So we're coming up on springspring season.
So how many times a day do youget asked if you sell the giant
brahmas?
Oh, my
Christen (16:51):
goodness.
I probably at least once a dayand I tell people all the time
they are, they're the large palbrahmas and or they're the giant
ones and they'll send mepictures, like the edited or the
way, the way they hold them fromthe other countries where they
look huge.
And I try to explain to them,that's photo angle and
everything.
And.
Sometimes people just get mad atme about it.
Jennifer (17:09):
Have you tried to take those pictures where they make
them look huge?
Christen (17:13):
I haven't.
You should do it.
It's so much fun.
Carey (17:16):
Okay.
Christen (17:18):
I'm going to have to do it.
You're going to have to be mycamera person now.
We're going to have to angle it.
Jennifer (17:23):
So Amy, a friend of mine, Amy, and I did it with
yank.
I think it was Yankee, one of mybig coaches.
And if you hold them.
You don't want to move your armstoo much, but you hold them
close to you, and you take apicture, and then you just ever
so slightly move them out awayfrom you, and the photographer
goes down and shoots it at an upangle, and it will make him look
(17:47):
six times bigger than he did inthe previous picture.
Christen (17:50):
I might have to do that just to send when they ask
me that.
Be like, yes, here's my giantBrahma.
Jennifer (17:58):
And then when they call you back a year later and
go he didn't grow that big.
You'll say you didn't feed himquite like I do
Christen (18:06):
Yeah.
We did finally get us a biggerincubator too, so we plan to
hatch a lot more this year.
Yeah.
We got a, I think the CT three50 maybe from hatching time,
something like that.
One of the big boys,
Carey (18:21):
H the hb.
Christen (18:22):
Yeah, that's what it is.
Yeah, you'll
Jennifer (18:25):
love it.
Your hatch rates will go way up.
Christen (18:28):
Oh yeah, we've got that and then we have a friend
one of our poultry friends ismoving across the country and
she's got another hatching timecabinet.
The smaller one, the one youhave a bunch of, he's and she's
gonna let us buy that one fromher.
So we'll have
Carey (18:44):
two and we'll really be hatching out and be able to fill
more orders quicker.
So if I were you once you havetwo, I would have one that I
incubate in And one that I hatchin.
Christen (18:50):
Oh, yes, that's the plan because the one not
Carey (18:53):
doing the same.
Christen (18:54):
Yeah, the one that she's got has all the different
baskets and then our big onejust has the basket in the
bottom.
Jennifer (19:02):
Welcome to the big time with all the extra
incubators.
Christen (19:05):
Oh, yeah I've been watching you and your hatch
rates and your videos and I toldhim I said we got to upgrade
this year
Jennifer (19:13):
Yeah, if you the turkeys you'll really notice the
difference with the turkeys fromthe GQF and the, if you ever get
into ducks the Hatching Timemakes the ducks way easier.
Christen (19:26):
I don't know if we'll ever do ducks, but he wants a
couple geese in the future.
Jennifer (19:31):
Couple geese?
Yeah.
We need you to get swans so Ican get some baby swans.
Swans
Carey (19:38):
on the lake would be nice.
Jennifer (19:42):
Oh, that would be.
Carey (19:44):
It's expensive.
Jennifer (19:46):
We'll, I'll put you together.
There
Christen (19:49):
you go.
I do want an emu later down theroad.
So
Jennifer (19:53):
we know emu people to hook you up with.
Christen (19:56):
I'm good.
Carey (19:57):
So to me, having an emu walking around would be the
ultimate.
If you can't have a LGD havingan email would be like the next
best thing.
Christen (20:08):
Oh, yeah.
Carey (20:09):
I got a solid no from my wife.
Christen (20:13):
I had never asked him before.
And we went to a pet and zoo andthey had some there and we both
fell in love with the ones theyhad.
And I was like, okay, so whenwe.
Buy a new property.
I was like, we got to have anemu or two.
Jennifer (20:25):
Oh
Christen (20:28):
yeah.
Jennifer (20:30):
So what shows, what poultry shows are you going to
this spring that people couldfind you?
Christen (20:37):
We will be at the Dixon County poultry show.
It's a Double show.
Jennifer (20:43):
Yep
Christen (20:44):
on I think April the 26th.
We'll be at that one for sureAnd then I know we'll for sure
be at the dixie classic again indecember And then the other
shows just depend on how thesummer goes because we do also
we do the fair shows.
Like we'll do the cab countyfair the wilson county fair,
which is the state fair and thenwe also do the bedford county
(21:08):
fair which those They're not thebig time shows, but we do Like
to do those to get the word outabout the breeds and be able to
talk to more people about themAnd then other shows the big apa
shows just depend like we'd liketo go to the ohio national this
year so that's one we'replanning for and then The others
(21:30):
we just plan around because wehave, I have my rabbit shows as
well and then we do our monthlypoultry swaps that we run
Jennifer (21:38):
locally.
Yeah, I forgot about those.
You need to come to Fort Payne.
That's a big show.
We like it.
We like to go down there.
Is that Alabama?
It is.
It's north Alabama so it's notthat far.
Christen (21:51):
You
Jennifer (21:51):
have to send me the information and we'll look into
it.
It's February 2nd.
It's coming up quick.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we don't have just for ourlisteners.
Poultry shows are I don't know.
It seems like they're like 3hours away from each other.
So you do have to do sometraveling to, to find one.
The Dixon County show that she'stalking about is a new show.
(22:14):
I think this is only theirsecond time doing it.
I think so.
And it's their first time withlargefowl because I'm going to
go, actually they just texted mewhile you were talking.
It was funny coincidence.
So, there's only what four showsI think within three or four
hours of us here.
Yeah,
Christen (22:30):
there's not many.
It's so hard for us to make alot of the bigger shows because
we have so many animals to takecare of when we leave.
Sometimes it's hard to get away.
Jennifer (22:38):
Yeah,
Christen (22:39):
for multiple days
Jennifer (22:40):
at a
Christen (22:40):
time.
Jennifer (22:41):
It is, but you have to go to so many in order to get
your project colors admittedinto the APA, don't you?
Christen (22:51):
Yeah, you have to, I think it's three or four
breeders for about five yearsworking on getting them out to
the public to get themrecognized.
I could be off on those numbers,but like a certain amount of
breeders for a certain amount ofyears showing them and getting
the word out.
Carey (23:08):
I think that if you go to the APA's website, they have a
document on there that talksabout it's a certain number of
breeders Five years, I know, andyou have to have a certain
number of birds shown in acertain amount of shows per year
(23:29):
as well.
Christen (23:30):
Yeah, any show we go to, we make sure we take our
golds too.
And then, of course, our JerseyGiants.
Those are the main ones we show.
And then we'll show some of eachcolor of our Brahmas as well.
Jennifer (23:43):
Yeah, and now everybody knows why we travel
with so many birds when we go toshows.
We have to have all thosenumbers there.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah so All right.
Do you want to tell anybody ortell everybody anything else
about your Brahmas?
Jacob (23:59):
I can't think of anything else.
I
Christen (24:01):
know if anybody ever has any questions about them,
like I'm happy to message peopleand help them the best I can.
And it's always nice to haveother breeders around working on
the same project as well to helpget them recognized.
Oh yeah.
You can't really do this stuff
Jennifer (24:17):
without mentors.
Jacob (24:19):
So many people helped us with our birds.
We try to help as many people aswe can.
And like I said earlier, I thinkBrahma's are just so
misunderstood.
So many people just scared of abig chicken.
Christen (24:36):
There for a while, the Brahma's really weren't that
popular, but they're starting topick back up and get popular
again.
Jennifer (24:43):
I had them for about two years.
And I just had light Brahma's,but I liked them.
They used to sit on top of mygoats.
I have pictures of them on topof my goats.
I'll put a link to your websiteand Facebook page in the show
notes on the website.
So people can find you.
Alrighty, and I appreciate youguys coming today and talking
(25:05):
about Brahmas.
Christen (25:06):
Of course.
Jacob (25:07):
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Carey (25:08):
Thank you for joining us this week.
Before you go, be sure tosubscribe to our podcast so you
can receive new episodes rightwhen they are released.
And they're released every week.
Feel free to email us atpoultrynerds at gmail.
com to share your thoughts aboutthe show.
Until next time, poultry pals,keep clucking, keep learning,
(25:30):
and keep it egg citing.
This is Carey signing off fromPoultry Nerds.
Feathers up, everyone.
Welcome poultry enthusiasts to another exciting
(00:03):
episode of the poultry nerdspodcast,
Carey (00:06):
whether you're raising backyard chickens, diving deep
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all things, feather and eggs,you're in the right place.
I'm Carey
Jennifer (00:16):
and I'm Jennifer.
And today we've got an episodepacked with everything you need
to know about Brahma's withBumbalaw Farms.
Carey (00:26):
From expert tips to fascinating facts.
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It's time to get nerdy aboutpoultry.
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Jennifer (00:40):
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(01:01):
From the inside out.
Hey guys.
So we're back today and we arehere with Kristen and Jacob from
Bumbala hollow farms.
Welcome guys.
And they raise Brahma's inmiddle Tennessee which is where
I am, but middle since he's big.
(01:22):
So you guys are like, what, anhour and 10 minutes or so away
from me?
Yeah,
Jacob (01:27):
I'm going
Carey (01:29):
to say in middle Tennessee, a lot of people would
be like, oh, they're neighbors,but not in middle Tennessee.
That's no.
Yeah.
Could be an hour or so away.
Christen (01:40):
Yeah.
We got a good, I think about anhour drive to you.
Jennifer (01:43):
Yeah.
Carey (01:43):
Nice.
Jennifer (01:45):
And there is no straight shot between here and
there.
You got to make us big triangle.
But anyway, so welcome guys.
And you guys raise Brahma's andJersey giants and goats and
horses and all kinds of stuffover in those Hills.
Don't you?
Christen (02:03):
Oh, yes.
We also raise a Rex rabbits andthen blue slate Turkey.
Jennifer (02:07):
I forgot about the rabbits.
You guys are getting really biginto showing the rabbits, aren't
you?
Christen (02:12):
I am.
I have actually my next show'son the 25th.
Jacob (02:17):
That's a lot.
Christen (02:18):
Alright, cool.
I'll have to come check one out.
Jacob (02:22):
That's her deal.
I only really deal with the
Jennifer (02:24):
chickens.
Christen (02:25):
That's her deal?
Carey (02:26):
So do they do rabbit shows like they do chicken
shows?
Christen (02:30):
The poultry shows, your bird's just in the cage and
they come by and judge, but therabbit show they call the
different breeds, you gotta takethe rabbit and put it on the
table, and then you watch thejudge pose it, and if it doesn't
place, you pull it off, if itdoes place, it stays on for best
of breed.
It's, I enjoy it, but he doesn'tenjoy it too much.
Jennifer (02:50):
Oh, you think us chicken people are whacked out.
Those rabbit people are crazy.
Oh, it's a whole different
Christen (02:57):
world.
Yeah.
Jacob (03:00):
They're either really nice or very stubborn.
Christen (03:06):
They just sound similar to the chickens though.
A lot of your top breeders won'tlet you, won't sell to you
unless they know you're seriousabout bettering the breed and
stuff.
Yeah, that, that's, that is athing.
Yeah.
So people can find you guys onFacebook?
Yes, we have Facebook,Instagram.
And then our website isbumbleahalafarm.
com.
Carey (03:21):
Now for the people from Alabama, like me, how do you
spell bumbleahala?
Christ (03:27):
BUMBALOUGHhollowfarm.com
Carey (03:32):
dot com.
Christen (03:35):
Yes.
Carey (03:36):
Perfect.
Bumble and
Christen (03:36):
Holla farm.
com.
You got to put the farm onthere.
Carey (03:39):
Okay.
All right.
Jennifer (03:42):
Yeah.
They live down in the holler.
If you've ever gone over therewhere she is, she's like in the
hills of.
Yeah, it's not like my propertyis nice and flat.
And you can see faith told meone day you could see a dog run
for two miles or two days orsomething.
And you go over there where theylive and you, it's just deep
(04:02):
ravines and you can hide stuffdown in those ravines and all
kinds of stuff.
Christen (04:07):
We're
Jennifer (04:07):
like
Christen (04:07):
in the middle of nowhere with hills all the way
around.
Carey (04:11):
Sounds perfect.
Jennifer (04:11):
So today we're going to talk about your Brahmas.
And you do project colors,right?
Christen (04:19):
Yes, so we do buff lace, Isabelle.
We're working on partridge,which Scott Perry is actually
working on trying to get themrecognized.
So they're actually going tostart being moved to being
called gold and blue goldinstead of partridge.
So I'm going to startadvertising them as gold and
blue gold instead of partridge.
And then we also raised blackmodeled.
(04:39):
And I am starting to dabble intothe dark bramas so that I do
have a recognized color to show.
Jennifer (04:45):
Okay, so let's talk about the partridge for just a
minute because I saw ScottPerry's post about that.
Why did you guys decide tochange the name of that color?
Christen (04:57):
When the judges see partridge they start judging it
towards the other breeds andtheir partridge standards.
And the par partridge color onthe braa doesn't meet the
standards that it does on someof the other breeds.
So calling it gold and blue,gold kind of takes the partridge
out of their head for them to beable to judge them the way they
need to be judged.
Jacob (05:17):
It, it gives them
Jennifer (05:19):
Okay, gotcha.
Jacob (05:20):
It also gives them like their own category to be in.
Like Kristen said, they're, thepartridge name is also
associated with so manydifferent other breeds and
colors and.
Just easier for the judge to nothave that in his bed and so that
they can have their owncategory.
Christen (05:43):
And Scott has actually wrote up a proposed standard for
the gold and blue gold brahma sothat if anybody is wanting to
raise them and breed towards toshow, I'm happy to share the the
proposed standard that he wroteup.
I have pictures of it.
Carey (06:00):
That's a long process.
Can they find that on yourFacebook
Christen (06:02):
page maybe?
They can message me and I cansend it to them.
Jennifer (06:06):
So for people who.
Jacob (06:08):
Oh, trying to get these dramas.
They don't grow very fast, so itdoes take a long time to get
them to the point where whatthey need to be look where they
need to be look like thestandard, but that's one thing.
A lot of people don't understandabout bramas.
They're such a big chicken.
(06:30):
It takes them a lot longer timeto beef out and to grow into
themselves
Christen (06:36):
like your coaches.
Jennifer (06:39):
Oh, my gosh, they're like molasses.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, so for people who don'tmaybe understand when we're
talking about project colorsversus approved varieties, like
my Orpingtons, they're buffcolors.
That's an approved, through theAPA, we can show it underneath
(07:02):
of that variety color.
And then in the Brahmas, what'sthe accepted varieties on the
Brahmas?
Christen (07:09):
Dark, buff, and light are the ones that are accepted.
Yeah.
Jennifer (07:15):
Now, I've had a lot of people So you can show those,
you get your points.
Christen (07:20):
Yes, you can.
You can show the non recognizedvarieties.
You just won't get APA pointsfor it.
I like to show them when we doshows just to help get the word
out about them and get interestand let people know we raised
them.
But on the other side of it,I've also had some people tell
me that they're not Brahma'sbecause they're not recognized
Carey (07:38):
color.
That would be the ones at theshows that have their pinkies
out.
Christen (07:42):
Yeah, yes, I've had quite a few people message me to
tell me that it's because it'snot a recognized color than
their head.
It's not a pure breed.
Jacob (07:55):
They think it's like a run of the mill just like yard
chicken, but Reality, they'rereally not.
They all start
Jennifer (08:06):
somewhere.
Yeah.
Jacob (08:07):
Yeah.
Oh reality.
They're really not.
I mean It's taken a long timefor us to get to where we're at
with all of our birds and howthey look and, trying to better
our breed program and
Christen (08:20):
We've had help from a lot of other breeders as well to
help us get to where we are.
Jennifer (08:27):
Okay, so let's go back to your project colors.
So the buff lace.
I've seen pictures of those.
Those are, it's buff lace,right?
Yes.
Okay.
They are called Buff Lace.
Okay.
Good.
Okay, good.
So the Buff Lace how long haveyou been working on those?
Christen (08:48):
Let's see.
Jennifer (08:49):
I've had
Christen (08:50):
the cartridge since 2020.
And then, the buff laced, Ithink we got in 21.
And then we added the Isabel, Ithink in 22.
And then we added the modelwithin 23.
Jennifer (09:07):
Oh, the model's so pretty.
I think that's my favorite.
Christen (09:10):
Oh, they are.
And they're very popular.
They're just, I only had a few,so I was slowly trying to grow
our flock to be able
Jennifer (09:20):
to produce more.
So when you start a project, doyou.
Do you just start it fromscratch or do you like buy birds
from somebody and continue theproject?
How did you get started?
Christen (09:33):
So all of our project birds, I had bought from
another, other breeders who hadalready started.
Trying to think, our buff lacedoriginally came from a lady who
got hers from the guy whostarted the buff laced, but I
have gotten some from a coupleother breeders to make our flock
where they are now.
and working towards the best Ican breeding them towards the
(09:56):
standard because the buff blazerthey're still a big bird they're
still big bramas but they're asmaller brama than some of your
other project colors so I'mtrying to work on my size on
them.
Jennifer (10:07):
You can't ever get them big enough it didn't seem
like.
Christen (10:10):
Oh yeah and no matter the color they're all the same
standard so the way of the bodytype of a light brama would look
is the way we're trying to getthe body type of all of ours to
look.
It's just.
A very long process.
Jennifer (10:26):
Why did you choose to do projects instead of just
already recognized varieties?
Christen (10:31):
I was trying to figure out what breed, when we first
started raising, I was trying tofigure out what breed I wanted,
and I dabbled in a little bit ofeverything, and I fell in love
with the Brahmas, and then I waslike, when I first started, I
was like, oh, I'm going to dodarks, we'll just try it out,
but when I first started, I hadhatchery quality birds, and
those didn't last very long andI went to somebody's house and
(10:52):
they had project colors.
They were just they're liketheir backyard flock But they
told me the breeders they gottheirs from and I just fell in
love with all those colors Ididn't want to have the basic
standard recognized colors.
I wanted all the fun colorsaround Because there's quite a
few people around here thatraise the standards and I like
raising the different colors andhelping them get towards being
(11:13):
recognized
Jacob (11:16):
and also the brahmanas, especially the roosters are a
lot of people think they're Youknow, they see a big rooster or
a big chicken period, andthey're automatically just
scared of it.
Our Brahma's, we haven't reallyhad a single mean one.
They're such a gentle giant.
(11:37):
Hey, you haven't.
General, they really are.
I did it.
I don't do this all the time,but I did it one time to see if
I could.
I brought one of our Brahmaroosters inside one day.
And he sat down, I sat him downon my leg and he sat there and
watched TV with me for about anhour.
Christen (11:55):
I'll have to have a customer who she keeps me
updated and sends me photos allthe time.
Her daughter actually takesBrahma's that they got from us
and she puts them on the swingset and pushes them around,
Careys them in the house.
They've just got really sweetpersonalities.
Jennifer (12:11):
Yeah.
So the Cochins are, somehow theCochins helped create a Brahma
way back when, but you'retalking about how sweet they
are.
And if I'm moving the Cochinsaround, I can put them on the
seat of the gator and they'lljust sit there while I drive
around to wherever I'm takingthem.
They just sit there.
So I think the big birds arebetter than any little birds.
Christen (12:35):
I do too.
The only downfall I think I'vefound is they require so much
more space, but that's okay.
That just means bigger pens.
Jennifer (12:43):
Yeah, just more of them,
Christen (12:44):
right?
Yeah.
Jennifer (12:47):
So What else you want to tell us about your brahmas?
What do you do?
Do you sell chicks and birds andeggs?
Christen (12:57):
So we sell hatching eggs and then we do sell chicks
also.
And then like every frequentlythroughout the year, we'll have
some grow outs available becausewe'll like in the beginning when
we start hatching, we'll keep acertain amount from each pin and
grow them out and pick ourkeepers.
Or if we have a lot, we'll justsell off the extras or whatever.
Then every year of course, werotate breeders to help improve
(13:19):
our stock.
We've shipped all over theUnited States.
We ship eggs and chicks.
We do not ship juveniles oradults yet.
I've not gotten, I've not gottenenough nerve up yet to ship
those nerve wracking enough.
Come out and see me.
I'll show you Alright,
Jacob (13:37):
I think the far
Christen (13:38):
we've shipped to California, Washington.
Now I do have people ask me alot of the time if they breed
true or colors and A lot of thetimes projects can be different
but like our buff lace Every nowand then from back in the line
where they created them We'llget a gold out of them, but it's
only one in every like 20 chicksWe end up with a gold lace so
(14:01):
they pretty much breed true andthen our partridges It works
like a blue black splash pen, soyou can get blue, gold, or
splash partridge.
And then our mottleds, theybreed true.
Their chicks are always mottled.
And same with the Isabels,they're, they always breed true
as well.
Jennifer (14:23):
So the Isabels, they're like a lavender color.
Christen (14:26):
Yes, and they have the same lacing patterns as the
partridge do.
You can actually put an Isabellewith a gold partridge rooster to
help improve your Isabelle line.
Jennifer (14:39):
Do you have an issue with the shredding gene like
they do in the Orpingtons?
I have not.
Oh, interesting.
Christen (14:47):
And if that ever does become an issue, I can always
breed back to the partridge andhelp fix that issue.
But as of right now, we're what,three years old?
Jacob (14:57):
Yeah.
Christen (14:58):
Something like that, and we've not had any threading
gene issues.
Jennifer (15:01):
Oh,
Christen (15:01):
that's good.
Jennifer (15:02):
So you guys have to study your genetics pretty good
to work on these projects.
Christen (15:06):
We grow out a lot every year and I'll sit there
with my APA book and sit thereand look at them and try to
figure out which ones are thebest.
And of course the color variesbecause they're projects.
So you got to eyeball, pick whatyour goal is for your project,
but body type wise, always lookat the,
Jacob (15:31):
and it does help a lot.
When you talk to breeders thatare willing to talk to you, like
Scott Perry he has helped us alot.
He has studied and been dealingwith the Brahmans for a lot
longer time than we have.
He has helped us a lot with ourbreeding program just by talking
to him.
Christen (15:52):
And then Beach Bum Bitties has helped us a lot with
our buff lice program.
Jennifer (15:57):
Yeah, the chicken community is pretty tight and
there's a lot of good people whowill help.
Oh, yeah.
Carey (16:03):
Yeah.
Once, once they figure outyou're serious, they'll, oh
yeah.
They'll generally talk to you.
Christen (16:09):
Like I, we met I finally officially met Scott at
the Dixie Classic in Knoxville,and I brought home three, or was
it three, three birds from him.
And they're, and I already hadone rooster from him.
And they're gonna be like thereal stamp to help us get our
partridge to the next level toshow.
Jennifer (16:30):
Okay, you're gonna have to quit calling them
partridge.
Christen (16:32):
I got to remind myself to quit calling them partridge.
The gold, get them to where theyneed
Jennifer (16:37):
to be shown.
Okay, so I have to ask you a funquestion.
So we're coming up on springspring season.
So how many times a day do youget asked if you sell the giant
brahmas?
Oh, my
Christen (16:51):
goodness.
I probably at least once a dayand I tell people all the time
they are, they're the large palbrahmas and or they're the giant
ones and they'll send mepictures, like the edited or the
way, the way they hold them fromthe other countries where they
look huge.
And I try to explain to them,that's photo angle and
everything.
And.
Sometimes people just get mad atme about it.
Jennifer (17:09):
Have you tried to take those pictures where they make
them look huge?
Christen (17:13):
I haven't.
You should do it.
It's so much fun.
Carey (17:16):
Okay.
Christen (17:18):
I'm going to have to do it.
You're going to have to be mycamera person now.
We're going to have to angle it.
Jennifer (17:23):
So Amy, a friend of mine, Amy, and I did it with
yank.
I think it was Yankee, one of mybig coaches.
And if you hold them.
You don't want to move your armstoo much, but you hold them
close to you, and you take apicture, and then you just ever
so slightly move them out awayfrom you, and the photographer
goes down and shoots it at an upangle, and it will make him look
(17:47):
six times bigger than he did inthe previous picture.
Christen (17:50):
I might have to do that just to send when they ask
me that.
Be like, yes, here's my giantBrahma.
Jennifer (17:58):
And then when they call you back a year later and
go he didn't grow that big.
You'll say you didn't feed himquite like I do
Christen (18:06):
Yeah.
We did finally get us a biggerincubator too, so we plan to
hatch a lot more this year.
Yeah.
We got a, I think the CT three50 maybe from hatching time,
something like that.
One of the big boys,
Carey (18:21):
H the hb.
Christen (18:22):
Yeah, that's what it is.
Yeah, you'll
Jennifer (18:25):
love it.
Your hatch rates will go way up.
Christen (18:28):
Oh yeah, we've got that and then we have a friend
one of our poultry friends ismoving across the country and
she's got another hatching timecabinet.
The smaller one, the one youhave a bunch of, he's and she's
gonna let us buy that one fromher.
So we'll have
Carey (18:44):
two and we'll really be hatching out and be able to fill
more orders quicker.
So if I were you once you havetwo, I would have one that I
incubate in And one that I hatchin.
Christen (18:50):
Oh, yes, that's the plan because the one not
Carey (18:53):
doing the same.
Christen (18:54):
Yeah, the one that she's got has all the different
baskets and then our big onejust has the basket in the
bottom.
Jennifer (19:02):
Welcome to the big time with all the extra
incubators.
Christen (19:05):
Oh, yeah I've been watching you and your hatch
rates and your videos and I toldhim I said we got to upgrade
this year
Jennifer (19:13):
Yeah, if you the turkeys you'll really notice the
difference with the turkeys fromthe GQF and the, if you ever get
into ducks the Hatching Timemakes the ducks way easier.
Christen (19:26):
I don't know if we'll ever do ducks, but he wants a
couple geese in the future.
Jennifer (19:31):
Couple geese?
Yeah.
We need you to get swans so Ican get some baby swans.
Swans
Carey (19:38):
on the lake would be nice.
Jennifer (19:42):
Oh, that would be.
Carey (19:44):
It's expensive.
Jennifer (19:46):
We'll, I'll put you together.
There
Christen (19:49):
you go.
I do want an emu later down theroad.
So
Jennifer (19:53):
we know emu people to hook you up with.
Christen (19:56):
I'm good.
Carey (19:57):
So to me, having an emu walking around would be the
ultimate.
If you can't have a LGD havingan email would be like the next
best thing.
Christen (20:08):
Oh, yeah.
Carey (20:09):
I got a solid no from my wife.
Christen (20:13):
I had never asked him before.
And we went to a pet and zoo andthey had some there and we both
fell in love with the ones theyhad.
And I was like, okay, so whenwe.
Buy a new property.
I was like, we got to have anemu or two.
Jennifer (20:25):
Oh
Christen (20:28):
yeah.
Jennifer (20:30):
So what shows, what poultry shows are you going to
this spring that people couldfind you?
Christen (20:37):
We will be at the Dixon County poultry show.
It's a Double show.
Jennifer (20:43):
Yep
Christen (20:44):
on I think April the 26th.
We'll be at that one for sureAnd then I know we'll for sure
be at the dixie classic again indecember And then the other
shows just depend on how thesummer goes because we do also
we do the fair shows.
Like we'll do the cab countyfair the wilson county fair,
which is the state fair and thenwe also do the bedford county
(21:08):
fair which those They're not thebig time shows, but we do Like
to do those to get the word outabout the breeds and be able to
talk to more people about themAnd then other shows the big apa
shows just depend like we'd liketo go to the ohio national this
year so that's one we'replanning for and then The others
(21:30):
we just plan around because wehave, I have my rabbit shows as
well and then we do our monthlypoultry swaps that we run
Jennifer (21:38):
locally.
Yeah, I forgot about those.
You need to come to Fort Payne.
That's a big show.
We like it.
We like to go down there.
Is that Alabama?
It is.
It's north Alabama so it's notthat far.
Christen (21:51):
You
Jennifer (21:51):
have to send me the information and we'll look into
it.
It's February 2nd.
It's coming up quick.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we don't have just for ourlisteners.
Poultry shows are I don't know.
It seems like they're like 3hours away from each other.
So you do have to do sometraveling to, to find one.
The Dixon County show that she'stalking about is a new show.
(22:14):
I think this is only theirsecond time doing it.
I think so.
And it's their first time withlargefowl because I'm going to
go, actually they just texted mewhile you were talking.
It was funny coincidence.
So, there's only what four showsI think within three or four
hours of us here.
Yeah,
Christen (22:30):
there's not many.
It's so hard for us to make alot of the bigger shows because
we have so many animals to takecare of when we leave.
Sometimes it's hard to get away.
Jennifer (22:38):
Yeah,
Christen (22:39):
for multiple days
Jennifer (22:40):
at a
Christen (22:40):
time.
Jennifer (22:41):
It is, but you have to go to so many in order to get
your project colors admittedinto the APA, don't you?
Christen (22:51):
Yeah, you have to, I think it's three or four
breeders for about five yearsworking on getting them out to
the public to get themrecognized.
I could be off on those numbers,but like a certain amount of
breeders for a certain amount ofyears showing them and getting
the word out.
Carey (23:08):
I think that if you go to the APA's website, they have a
document on there that talksabout it's a certain number of
breeders Five years, I know, andyou have to have a certain
number of birds shown in acertain amount of shows per year
(23:29):
as well.
Christen (23:30):
Yeah, any show we go to, we make sure we take our
golds too.
And then, of course, our JerseyGiants.
Those are the main ones we show.
And then we'll show some of eachcolor of our Brahmas as well.
Jennifer (23:43):
Yeah, and now everybody knows why we travel
with so many birds when we go toshows.
We have to have all thosenumbers there.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah so All right.
Do you want to tell anybody ortell everybody anything else
about your Brahmas?
Jacob (23:59):
I can't think of anything else.
I
Christen (24:01):
know if anybody ever has any questions about them,
like I'm happy to message peopleand help them the best I can.
And it's always nice to haveother breeders around working on
the same project as well to helpget them recognized.
Oh yeah.
You can't really do this stuff
Jennifer (24:17):
without mentors.
Jacob (24:19):
So many people helped us with our birds.
We try to help as many people aswe can.
And like I said earlier, I thinkBrahma's are just so
misunderstood.
So many people just scared of abig chicken.
Christen (24:36):
There for a while, the Brahma's really weren't that
popular, but they're starting topick back up and get popular
again.
Jennifer (24:43):
I had them for about two years.
And I just had light Brahma's,but I liked them.
They used to sit on top of mygoats.
I have pictures of them on topof my goats.
I'll put a link to your websiteand Facebook page in the show
notes on the website.
So people can find you.
Alrighty, and I appreciate youguys coming today and talking
(25:05):
about Brahmas.
Christen (25:06):
Of course.
Jacob (25:07):
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Carey (25:08):
Thank you for joining us this week.
Before you go, be sure tosubscribe to our podcast so you
can receive new episodes rightwhen they are released.
And they're released every week.
Feel free to email us atpoultrynerds at gmail.
com to share your thoughts aboutthe show.
Until next time, poultry pals,keep clucking, keep learning,
(25:30):
and keep it egg citing.
This is Carey signing off fromPoultry Nerds.
Feathers up, everyone.
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