Barnevelder breeders lets work together and improve the breed

[Dr Bjorn Netland]

I would use both of these blue males, but keep excellent records to note which offspring comes from each one. I like both of them for this laudable project. Good luck.

 

[Dr Bjorn Netland]

Sorry for repeating myself. Happy New Year everybody.

 

[AyaBlodgett]

No Rats In the hen house. At first I thot it was the Roo because I separated them and the hen laid another egg untouched. But tonight I went down and she was attempting to break her egg. I have collected two so far. I will incubate them. The rooster gets visiting rights after the egg is collected. Sure a lot of fuss, but they are the Johan pair, and are looking pretty spiffy so I'm hoping I can keep on top of her egg laying and get the eggs before she does. I put three dark fake eggs in but she just scoots those out of the way. I think I'll try cayenne pepper inside an egg next. If I could just get another good breeding pair, I would use these two for show only. Oh well, huh? Can't out guess Mother Nature. Aya

 

[tls_ranch]

Trishia,
The Barnevelder males in the British, Dutch, and OUR (APA) standard should NOT have lacing in the breast. This was a hotly debated topic in the Dutch club, but one of their top breeders (I cannot recall his name -- maybe it was Mr. Osram) proved that males with totally black breasts could be mated to nicely laced females to produce sound offspring, both male and female. Again, the double laced variety we have in the APA standard does not call for a male with breast lacing. (Some of the European standards, such as Germany, Denmark, France, and others may accept or require males with breast lacing, but I hope we don't go down that route.) Birds hatched out of eggs from the Netherlands we received around 20 years ago never produced a single male with breast lacing, whereas some of the (German origin) bantam Barnevelder males I imported from Canada showed breast lacing in the males. In my opinion, it is of pivotal importance that breeders here in the US agree on this issue NOW because the breed is still a relative novelty in the APA and confusion at this point would not help the breed (let alone the judges). Another thing to look out for is the body shape (I have seen some birds that leave a great deal to be desired in this respect -- pictures of US breeders' birds I have seen), which I think is just as important as the lacing issue. Accepting the breed as "partridge" in the APA was idiotic, but it may be due to Mr. Grezcmiehl's limited language skills (a German immigrant to Canada, he was very instrumental in having the breed accepted by the APA; passed away a few years ago) and could be easily remedied by petitioning for a change in the standard description.

Thank you Dr Netland for clarifying the breast lacing issue. Hopefully we can get a petition started to clarify the APA standard for Barnevelders. It is very confusing the way it is now listing the birds a partridge. I also will continue to breed as best I can towards the Dutch standard.

Happy New Year!!!

Trisha

 

[birdnbeast]

Trisha,
It is so wonderful to have these exchanges. I try to point out that as long as the standard is written the way it is we can pretty much never really qualify for Ch Row. That is where I want my birds to be. Yes, one can say that an experienced judge would re-interpret the standard with what it is 'supposed' to be and still have a good look coming. I don't want to rely on that but would like the science of the color to be reflected in the standard. I am a 'type' freak, tho.
I don't ask for much, heh.

may your new year be filled with happy days and good hatches

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Happy New Year everyone

We are having a nice clear weather spell and cold frosty nights. The mud has gotten solid, but now the water freezes. Birds are loving the sunshine just the same.

Nice looking bunch of boys Trisha.

My Johan Barnies are really laying poorly, pullets and hens alike even with lights on. But... my blue project girls are laying like troopers I will be setting some of their eggs in a week or two. I have some two week old sussex chicks in the brood house and another batch due to hatch next week (another long term project). Feels like spring again in Oregon, daffodils and snowdrops are up a couple inches.

Carolyn you asked if I have any BR hens and I have two that are 4 year old hatchery hens, great layers and one is a pullet from the Good Shepard line, she is very nice and a decent layer. I wasn't really sure where that thread was coming from...maybe you can remind me.

Andy

 

[mountainvieworchards]

I have enjoyed the exchange about the male breast laced vs solid black. I have some males with solid black and some with a little reddish brown center scattered here and there. None that I would call laced. I have mainly Johan line males and I raised about a dozen last season, now down to two for breeding. I think the double lacing on the pullets that come from these dark breasted male is excellent. When I select a rooster for my pens I want one that came from a nicely laced hen with great type. My experience is that he will give me more of the same.

Andy

 

[CarolynF]

For anyone interested, these are the cross I did a while back. I sold all the pullets (5) to one lady she sent me a pic back in October, finally figured out how to get it from Text to my PC LOL! Anyway, the Rooster was a Barnevelder, the hen a Barred Plymouth Rock, the result was sex linked babies. She said they are laying machines, at least 4 every day and most days 5.

Happy New Year everyone

We are having a nice clear weather spell and cold frosty nights. The mud has gotten solid, but now the water freezes. Birds are loving the sunshine just the same.

Nice looking bunch of boys Trisha.

My Johan Barnies are really laying poorly, pullets and hens alike even with lights on. But... my blue project girls are laying like troopers I will be setting some of their eggs in a week or two. I have some two week old sussex chicks in the brood house and another batch due to hatch next week (another long term project). Feels like spring again in Oregon, daffodils and snowdrops are up a couple inches.

Carolyn you asked if I have any BR hens and I have two that are 4 year old hatchery hens, great layers and one is a pullet from the Good Shepard line, she is very nice and a decent layer. I wasn't really sure where that thread was coming from...maybe you can remind me.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Happy New Year. I'd love to have Willamette Valley weather!

The earlier conversation, and my comment about barred rocks came from the picture RachaelS posted (above). She crossed her BR hen with Barnie roo and got sex-linked chicks. The 5 pullets in the picture are laying dark brown eggs, which I believe is unlike most of the Black Sex Links around. I thought it would be great to have a BSL laying dark eggs so I was heckling you and Royce since I don't have any roosters nor a BR hen!

 

[RachaelS]

Quote:
Just as a side note, the Barred Rock I used was from a hatchery, if I had a BR from REALLY good lines, like GS, not sure I would mess with that

My BR hen is almost 2 years old and has never gone broody. She is what she is, LOL! I think the Barnie line was stronger and that is what helped her make such pretty girls

However, they sure are purdy right!!!!

 

[mountainvieworchards]

hi Carolyn

I did the black sex link cross a couple years ago just for fun mating a black copper marans rooster to a hatchery barred rock and also got some excellent layers in the hybrids, but alas the eggs were the color of the barred rock, so it would be a nice surprise to have them laying darker eggs. I got some huge barred cockerels from that cross that were very fast growers and meaty, some that I made into capons.

I recently butchered a Good Shepard line Barred Rock cockerel that was about 10 months old and he was also very meaty with a very long breast and still tender. I could have butchered him much younger but was hanging on to him to see if I wanted to breed him. They are a pretty slow growing line, and if I was looking mainly for a production layer I would not use my GS lines. I am using them to develop my blue PR line. Its funny what happens when you make hybrds, not always what is expected. For example, I made some olive eggers using a nice Barnie Rooster and a very tame easter egger hen. The pullet from that cross that I kept lays six extra large olive eggs/week, but she is very wild and secretive, lean and mean.

Andy