A Bielefelder Thread !

[bluejean55girl]

I understand that feeling. I'm only on day 8. I candled day 6, & the biele shells are a little too thick/dark to see veins at this point. I'll have to wait 'til next week to be sure of development. Meanwhile I was offer more Biele eggs- for free. I just couldn't pass them one up. I'm sure I can find a way to squeeze 6 more eggs into the incubator. I have a 2nd incubator to use as a hatcher, so the 2nd hatch day won't be too bad.

nice! I'd really be in trouble with two incubators... chicken math would strike for sure!!!

 

[TNBielefelder]

It's been awhile since I've taken pics of my Bielefelders. Figured since I got new bantam Cochins today and I was taking pics of them, I may as well share the boy's pics.

This one is my favorite boy. I love his comb. Shame about the frost bit wattles...



This is the first guy's brother... This one is the one with the attitude.



The females in with these two are sisters, and are the sister of the rooster in the other pen (who is in with these two boy's sister). The third roo would not hold still for a pic... I swear, he'd going to give himself a heart attack as flighty as he is. He has a partial white sickle feather I am not thrilled with. I culled all the other boys for the white sickles and comb sprigs.

Honestly, the pullets live up the calm hype of the Bieles, but the roos are so far from that. I am disappointed with the roos temperment.

How old is your Rooster on the top? He does have a nice comb. One of the better combs I have seen.

 

[Reyvaughn]

They are all late June 2015 hatches - they were 1wk apart.

 

[TNBielefelder]

They are all late June 2015 hatches - they were 1wk apart.

I could tell by the spurs he is young. Please post pictures of him as he grows out. I would like to see what he looks like this summer/fall. I think he will be nice!

 

[Sylvester017]

In my limited experience with chickens, it's the male who seeks out the affections of the females. Even though the females may show preference to one male over another, she will often acquiesce to a sufficiently assertive, persistent and enamored rooster if for no other reason than to just get him to finally leave her alone. I've spent a lot of time observing courtship practices within my flock and nearly all of my pullets and hens have their favorite boys...the ones who are most attentive to and protective of them....but they will still allow another male to mate with them more often than not, so I'm not sure a trap nest technique will work well.

Still, never say never! If you can figure out a way to make it work then I say go for it!

I read that if a hen really doesn't like the roo who mated her or she's not ready/willing to have chicks that she will expel the unwanted sperm. I come across weird info on chicken sites. Apparently it's not just bird species that do this in the animal world.

 

[Bine]

@bluejean55girl : As far as I remember someone has done a study on natural selection in chicken flocks, (don't ask me who did it, I suspect a swiss uni, they did a lot on livestock in the 80's): If I remember correctly hens were attracted to roosters with deep red combs and wattles. Avoiding roosters who were artificial made paler or who's combs were made to looked like picked on or looked like they had a mite infection. Same thing with feathers. Roosters with full plumage and shining feathers were choosen over roosters that were dusted with dark powder or had raged or partly pluck plumage. They draw the conclusion that hens go first for healthy looking roosters and than choose from them the rooster who performed high in "rooster duties" like finding food, dancing, looking for save nesting places. And they said that the rooster duties, too, were a pretty good indicator for health. The argument was that a rooster with parasites or other illnesses just could not afort to give as much food away to the hens, could not dance or look for nesting places as perseveringly as a all healthy rooster.
I think this is very true for hens and roosters who do not know each other, but my girls seem to take a secound look and choose an older, more experienced roosters over the best looking youngster. My youngest rooster looks perfect form me, while my olderst rooster has an x-beak, a crooked comb and well, his feahters are fine but he is def. not breeding stock. My youngest can dance and call the hens for food, dropping big worms in front of them and still they run from him and crying bloody murder when he comes near while squating for my old boy everytime stands behind them. My older rooster get showered with all the little signs of affection by the girls while my youngest can be happy if some of the lower ranking girls is okay to sit beside him at night.
Sometimes I pity the youngest, but I know some day he will convice some hens to follow him around. Til than he will spend many lonley hours food dropping and talking to himself and getting beaten up by one of the other boys for being too "nice" to one of the girls. Being a young rooster is not easy.

 

[DesertChic]

I understand that feeling. I'm only on day 8. I candled day 6, & the biele shells are a little too thick/dark to see veins at this point. I'll have to wait 'til next week to be sure of development. Meanwhile I was offer more Biele eggs- for free. I just couldn't pass them one up. I'm sure I can find a way to squeeze 6 more eggs into the incubator. I have a 2nd incubator to use as a hatcher, so the 2nd hatch day won't be too bad.

I'm only on day 3.

I'm really not a patient person.

 

[DesertChic]

I read that if a hen really doesn't like the roo who mated her or she's not ready/willing to have chicks that she will expel the unwanted sperm. I come across weird info on chicken sites. Apparently it's not just bird species that do this in the animal world.

Now THAT'S interesting!

 

[DesertChic]

@bluejean55girl : As far as I remember someone has done a study on natural selection in chicken flocks, (don't ask me who did it, I suspect a swiss uni, they did a lot on livestock in the 80's): If I remember correctly hens were attracted to roosters with deep red combs and wattles. Avoiding roosters who were artificial made paler or who's combs were made to looked like picked on or looked like they had a mite infection. Same thing with feathers. Roosters with full plumage and shining feathers were choosen over roosters that were dusted with dark powder or had raged or partly pluck plumage. They draw the conclusion that hens go first for healthy looking roosters and than choose from them the rooster who performed high in "rooster duties" like finding food, dancing, looking for save nesting places. And they said that the rooster duties, too, were a pretty good indicator for health. The argument was that a rooster with parasites or other illnesses just could not afort to give as much food away to the hens, could not dance or look for nesting places as perseveringly as a all healthy rooster.
I think this is very true for hens and roosters who do not know each other, but my girls seem to take a secound look and choose an older, more experienced roosters over the best looking youngster. My youngest rooster looks perfect form me, while my olderst rooster has an x-beak, a crooked comb and well, his feahters are fine but he is def. not breeding stock. My youngest can dance and call the hens for food, dropping big worms in front of them and still they run from him and crying bloody murder when he comes near while squating for my old boy everytime stands behind them. My older rooster get showered with all the little signs of affection by the girls while my youngest can be happy if some of the lower ranking girls is okay to sit beside him at night.
Sometimes I pity the youngest, but I know some day he will convice some hens to follow him around. Til than he will spend many lonley hours food dropping and talking to himself and getting beaten up by one of the other boys for being too "nice" to one of the girls. Being a young rooster is not easy.

Isn't that the truth! When my two Biel boys finally reached maturity, Hansel got all of the action and my poor, beloved Bosch spent most of his time on my lap receiving sympathy from me. It took at least an additional four months before some of the girls showed favoritism for him, but once they did he treated his girls like gold...and still does. Hansel still gets the majority, but at least Bosch has more than just me to keep him company. (Bosch is still the best lap rooster of all time though. He's such a lover!)

 

[bluejean55girl]

@bluejean55girl
: As far as I remember someone has done a study on natural selection in chicken flocks, (don't ask me who did it, I suspect a swiss uni, they did a lot on livestock in the 80's): If I remember correctly hens were attracted to roosters with deep red combs and wattles. Avoiding roosters who were artificial made paler or who's combs were made to looked like picked on or looked like they had a mite infection. Same thing with feathers. Roosters with full plumage and shining feathers were choosen over roosters that were dusted with dark powder or had raged or partly pluck plumage. They draw the conclusion that hens go first for healthy looking roosters and than choose from them the rooster who performed high in "rooster duties" like finding food, dancing, looking for save nesting places. And they said that the rooster duties, too,  were a pretty good indicator for health. The argument was that a rooster with parasites or other illnesses just could not afort to give as much food away to the hens, could not dance or look for nesting places as perseveringly as a all healthy rooster. 

I think this is very true for hens and roosters who do not know each other, but my girls seem to take a secound look and choose an older, more experienced roosters over the best looking youngster.  My youngest rooster looks perfect form me, while my olderst rooster has an x-beak, a crooked comb and well, his feahters are fine but he is def. not breeding stock. My youngest can dance and call the hens for food, dropping big worms in front of them and still they  run from him and crying bloody murder when he comes near while squating for my old boy everytime stands behind them. My older rooster get showered with all the little signs of affection by the girls while my youngest can be happy if some of the lower ranking girls is okay to sit beside him at night. 
Sometimes I pity the youngest, but I know some day he will convice some hens to follow him around. Til than he will spend many lonley hours food dropping and talking to himself and getting beaten up by one of the other boys for being too "nice" to one of the girls. Being a young rooster is not easy.