Barnevelder

I have had Barnies for 3 years now and breed them. They are one of my favorites because they are the sweetest hens and they are not skittish at all! Mine are not up to standard but I am going to try working them into it. Their color is beautiful and the lacing so crisp and lovely.

I've heard they don't lay well in the heat or the cold. They like it temperate. Has it been too hot or too cold where you are? Have you tried to give her some crushed red pepper flakes?

Haha me too. They're such gorgouse birds.

My Barnvelder is quite flighty and not friendly. However, she is gorgous and lays dependably. Recently she went broody and hatched a small clutch of chicks. She was a good mother.

I recommend this breed!

These are on my 'wish list', can hardly wait to try them! Nice review.

I would only get them from a private breeder with good quality stock, as you did. I got mine from a hatchery, and am quite disappointed with them. Yes, they're beautiful, but they're quite needy and disruptive to the rest of the flock. I had to separate them from the others at night because they constantly were trying to get underneath other birds, to the point that no one was sleeping. Now they just push each other around on the perches. They are dominant and aggressive, despite being quite undersized. I slaughtered all the cockerels at 6 months old, they were so problematic, despite initially wanting to breed them. I've kept 6 hens in my layer flock, and after 2 years I'm going to slaughter 4 of the 6. I rarely slaughter my hens, as I have plenty of room to let them live out their lives as long as they're not disruptive. But these girls are quite problematic. This is a good example of the difference between hatchery quality and breeder quality birds. This is not a negative comment on the breed, as almost all hatchery birds will be a sad reflection of the breed's potential. Would probably try this breed again from a real breeder if I still wanted the breed, but have found that my interests lie elsewhere.

She also may still be feeling stress after-effects, chickens are REALLY weird sometimes ;p

I'm bummed the eggs really aren't that dark! I am dying to get some deep chocolate colored eggs.

Of course there are individuals within a breed that can be an oddball and actually be extremely good pets but I researched some dark egg breeds - different varieties of Marans, Welsummers, Barnevelders, and some who claim Langshan eggs can be dark. So we tried a Cuckoo Marans through a breeder since they were the "in" breed for "chocolate" eggs. But we found our girl nippy, combative, calm around humans, but a snot to her flockmates and always challenging the alpha hen or bullying the Silkies. We re-homed her into an egg-layer flock where she is a lower pecking order status but still takes unpleasant "nips" at passers-by. Her eggs were so-so on the egg color chart but we were more concerned to have a bird that played "nice" with the other breeds. Our friend's BCMs from a breeder were a bit bossy too. The breeder ended her BCMs to breed the nicer rare Coronation Sussex. When I researched the Wellies they were not reportedly touchy-feely pets and a bit flighty or standoffish and most of the eggs I saw were not uniform - spotty, dark, light, etc, just like our Marans was. I get all sorts of different feedback re Barnevelders but my main concern with them is their large size next to our Silkies.

Apparently it's a matter of finding a breeder that breeds more for egg color rather than SOP appearance if dark eggs is your goal. If you want a show bird the egg color kind of seems to take a back seat in breeding. I know, I know, there will be 50 people disagreeing but it's the most common feedback I got and I found the dark egg breeds not the best flockmates with other breeds. After having Cuckoo and BC Marans my friend and I felt they'd be best kept in a flock of their own breed. They didn't do well in her confined pens with other egg breeds and mine didn't do well in a free-range small backyard with our gentle breeds. Just sharing and throwing out there what happened to me. As fun as it might seem to have a colorful egg basket, not all the breeds necessarily make good flockmates. Our blue egg layer is so sweet, gentle, and shy, and our dark egg layer was a holy terror on her mates. Be prepared to face that a dark egg layer is rarely a lap pet (ours only approached us for food) but if eggs is all you want then be prepared to watch the dual purpose birds duke it out in the flock a bit more vigorously then other gentler docile breeds. LOL.

Well said!

She's a beauty!

Beautiful birds, nice pics.

Well the Barnevelder (B) experience was different. As chicks they are flighty and I ended up with four roosters and five hens. As you see I'm just out of the brooder so I'm making mistakes. Anyhow I had four B roosters. One white, one splash and two brown ones. I had no idea how rare the white was so I ate it because it was very brutal to our hens. Had I known how rare he was I would have found a way to calm him. Anyhow, I also got a white hen from the seller and she is doing great. Her first egg had no shell. It was just membrane, yolk, and egg white - weird, but they are all laying now finally. B birds are definitely distinct. I have one white, one splash, and four brown ones. Beautiful birds.

Well, we have Silver, Brown and Blue double laced barnevelders and we love them.
While the hens can be a bit suspicious and stand offish, the males of this breed are especially friendly and affectionate, and make great daddies too.
The feed per-egg-laid ratio is great with these birds as they are great foragers !
They tolerate heat and cold equally well, and are absolutely beautiful.
This is one of the few chicken breeds where the females are as beautiful as the males !
I highly recommend them.

Double laced Barnevelders are hard to find here in Qld Australia.

LOVE my barnie!! She is a splash blue double laced barnevelder.

I have 2 4 week old barnevelders. Can't wait till they are a little bigger. The chicks are so sweet.

I have this beauty that I got as a young chick. She was supposed to be a pure breed Barnavelder... Does anyone know if this is truely a Barnavelder. She has the same beautiful double lacing that my others have. She is just this beautiful red instead. I did find one person who wrote about partridge Barnavelders and said they were rare.... Is this a rare Partridge Barnavelder?