A Bielefelder Thread !

[bluejean55girl]

Welcome to the forum! You and I are about in the same boat - I'm coming from almost 40 years in dogs but I do have a bit of experience in breeding pet birds as well. And I have to tell you that I love your name - my favorite Lhasa Apso of all times was named "Otaka's Blue Jeannes" after my wonderful mother-in-law (Jeanne) who always wore jeans. While she never finished her championship, she was certainly the champion of my heart!

thanks.. glad to meet you!

yep, pretty much the same boat.. at least we are in the same current/stream... we love the puzzle of breeding. I never did get off into showing with anything. but did try my hand at schipperkies. they were houdinis.. and in town at that time, wasn't good..

yep, I wear blue jeans 98% of the time... and my ex mother-in-law is named Jean, that's pretty cool... I could have never asked for a better in law than her. too bad my daughter-in-law is a whole 'nuther story..

special critters really are "champions of the heart"

 

[DesertChic]

in order for the molt to occur, would it be okay to assume? that the blood supply is somehow cut back and the white is a possible result of no blood to those feather/s?

do the new feathers grow in colored? or do they re-grow again as white?

I tried looking up sickle feathers, and only come up with the fact that it's the rooster's outer tail feathers.

longhorn cattle have a color that when they are born as calves, they are red but this red can change over to a dark "parker brown" or even a black coloration as they get weaning age. so longhorns have 3 colors to work with, black, wild color, and red. black is dominate to parker brown/wild color, and parker brown/wild color is dominate to red. red is recessive. horses have just 2 colors, black and red. white is the absence of color which creates all the neat patterns.

but birds are a different world... so sometimes things don't translate exactly from the cattle/horse world to the bird world.

the sex linked chicken world is a whole new critter to me.. actually the chicken world is new to me, raising critters is not.... lol

the bielefelders will open up a whole new breeding puzzle for me...

Their tail feathers have always grown in barred and stay that way until they elongate before molting them. I honestly don't know enough about molting or roosters' tail feathers to comment beyond that. It's just my observation of what happens with my boys.

 

[DesertChic]

thanks.. glad to meet you!

yep, pretty much the same boat.. at least we are in the same current/stream... we love the puzzle of breeding. I never did get off into showing with anything. but did try my hand at schipperkies. they were houdinis.. and in town at that time, wasn't good..

yep, I wear blue jeans 98% of the time... and my ex mother-in-law is named Jean, that's pretty cool... I could have never asked for a better in law than her. too bad my daughter-in-law is a whole 'nuther story..

special critters really are "champions of the heart"

You bred Schipperkies? That's my favorite breed! I used to have one Schip girl we named "Bondo" and now have a boy named "Morgan". They are a highly under-appreciated breed in my opinion.

 

[bluejean55girl]

You bred Schipperkies? That's my favorite breed! I used to have one Schip girl we named "Bondo" and now have a boy named "Morgan". They are a highly under-appreciated breed in my opinion.

way back in the '80's. when I used to live in fort worth. I loved that breed. pups looked like little bears. they were neat.

 

[bluejean55girl]

Their tail feathers have always grown in barred and stay that way until they elongate before molting them. I honestly don't know enough about molting or roosters' tail feathers to comment beyond that. It's just my observation of what happens with my boys.

well then, those pesky white tail feathers are a non issue in my mind. makes for a neat tell tale sign of impending molt. lol

 

[Bine]

Hmm... some chicken colors are not stable, They bleech or darken when the birds grow older. It is found in my breed in self-blue birds very often, they turn into a dirty-brownish color. mottled blue and black birds turn a little more white or have single darker feathers. I think it's like gray hair, some people turn gray in their 30's some have still wounderful dark hair on their 80. birthday.
I looked up the disqualification notes in the Standard and they note that white sickle and wing feather in esp. in roosters and for hens esp. black feathers on the head, back and belly.... so this may be a problem that comes with the special color.

 

[bluejean55girl]

Hmm... some chicken colors are not stable, They bleech or darken when the birds grow older. It is found in my breed in self-blue birds very often, they turn into a dirty-brownish color. mottled blue and black birds turn a little more white or have single darker feathers. I think it's like gray hair, some people turn gray in their 30's some have still wounderful dark hair on their 80. birthday.
I looked up the disqualification notes in the Standard and they note that white sickle and wing feather in esp. in roosters and for hens esp. black feathers on the head, back and belly.... so this may be a problem that comes with the special color.

hi Bine,

the standard that you looked up... for white/rooster.... and black/hens are you talking about the biele? or a different breed which has the self-blue in the 1st paragraph? sorry I'm being dense.

it's very interesting that some chicken colors are not stable... just like in the longhorn cattle. the wild color/parker brown/mulberry/brindle is not stable. but they tend to darken with age... not lighten.

I'm not aware of LH cattle going lighter with age. the give a way on the new born calf is the black/dark nose leather, dark hooves, and usually a dark tip on the end of the tail. plus one of the parents needs to be a "wild" color too.

 

[TNBielefelder]

in order for the molt to occur, would it be okay to assume? that the blood supply is somehow cut back and the white is a possible result of no blood to those feather/s?

do the new feathers grow in colored? or do they re-grow again as white?

I tried looking up sickle feathers, and only come up with the fact that it's the rooster's outer tail feathers.

longhorn cattle have a color that when they are born as calves, they are red but this red can change over to a dark "parker brown" or even a black coloration as they get weaning age. so longhorns have 3 colors to work with, black, wild color, and red. black is dominate to parker brown/wild color, and parker brown/wild color is dominate to red. red is recessive. horses have just 2 colors, black and red. white is the absence of color which creates all the neat patterns.

but birds are a different world... so sometimes things don't translate exactly from the cattle/horse world to the bird world.

the sex linked chicken world is a whole new critter to me.. actually the chicken world is new to me, raising critters is not.... lol

the bielefelders will open up a whole new breeding puzzle for me...

I have seen and owned older Roosters that never had a white tail feather for the first few years of there life and after a molt grow a single white tail feather at the very top coming out of the back. I have no answers as to why. Right now none of my roosters have any but because I have seen it happen I always watch after the second and third molt very closely. I have also seen it in the cream lebar breed as well which has a very similar color pattern.

 

[Bridebeliever]

I have seen and owned older Roosters that never had a white tail feather for the first few years of there life and after a molt grow a single white tail feather at the very top coming out of the back. I have no answers as to why. Right now none of my roosters have any but because I have seen it happen I always watch after the second and third molt very closely. I have also seen it in the cream lebar breed as well which has a very similar color pattern.

This is exactly the reason why I'm wondering why it just isn't part of the breed standard? People that show only show birds that are a year or two old at the most?

 

[Bine]

Yes, it was the Standard in German. So to dark hens and to light/white rooster seem to show up regular. And yes, most breeders show the birds from the same year. This is why show breeders do not like hens with very early POL. Most show here are in late fall/early winter, hatching for show is normally now in full swing, so the birds have the rings from this year and can be shown next fall. A hen that hatches now, and begins to lay in August looses to much skin color when shown in October or November. Esp. the Bielefelder Standard wants birds with vivid yellow feet and deep red combs. A hen that puts out a big egg every day for months will have paler feet and comb than a hen that is not that far into laying.