A Bielefelder Thread !

[bluejean55girl]

Oh, wow! You're hatch almost exactly mimics my own Biel hatch. They're absolutely adorable, but that's a lot of cockerels. I wound up butchering all but the two best of mine.

did you have that much of a color variable in your boys?

I ran across something somewhere that said you get more males when incubator is not steady. I had wide swings with the humidity so assume that is why I'm so heavy tipped to males. I'm not a good brooder hen. And eggs made an overnight road trip with me last week so at least they survived that.

 

[hellbender]

I wish to get started on the right foot...as I only have the 3 girls, all three will be keepers, I'm assuming? that the better boys for color have the dark defined back bands and white spot on head. also the boys need the grey color on the wings?

since they are now hatched.. I'm not eggsactly "counting my chickens before they hatch"

Might be a good idea to wait 'til they're about 8 or 9 months old and then take a real hard look at 'em, unless something really bad jumps out at you before that.

 

[Red Banks]

7 peeps.. two more males in incubator with one pip

The first thing I thought when I saw all those boys was there should be one without a side sprig

Beautiful babies!

 

[bluejean55girl]

The first thing I thought when I saw all those boys was there should be one without a side sprig    Beautiful babies!

thanks! I'm hoping. How soon will I be able to tell? The waiting never ends! Lol

 

[DesertChic]

did you have that much of a color variable in your boys?

I ran across something somewhere that said you get more males when incubator is not steady. I had wide swings with the humidity so assume that is why I'm so heavy tipped to males. I'm not a good brooder hen. And eggs made an overnight road trip with me last week so at least they survived that.

Gender is determined at the point of fertilization, just as with humans. Nothing you do during incubation can change that.

Maybe it's the photo quality, but I don't see huge color variability in your cockerels. To my eye it's pretty obvious which are males and which are females. In my own hatch I did have one chick that was practically solid in color and for the longest time I wasn't precisely certain of gender. It turned out to be male, and was probably the least favorable of my cockerels...very nervous and flighty compared to the others, and rather skinny by comparison as well. He was an easy cull selection.

 

[DesertChic]

Might be a good idea to wait 'til they're about 8 or 9 months old and then take a real hard look at 'em, unless something really bad jumps out at you before that.

Agreed. Of my three girls, one of them has sprigs on both sides of her comb, which if I were breeding pure Biels would exclude her from breeding practices.

 

[bluejean55girl]

Gender is determined at the point of fertilization, just as with humans. Nothing you do during incubation can change that.

Maybe it's the photo quality, but I don't see huge color variability in your cockerels. To my eye it's pretty obvious which are males and which are females. In my own hatch I did have one chick that was practically solid in color and for the longest time I wasn't precisely certain of gender. It turned out to be male, and was probably the least favorable of my cockerels...very nervous and flighty compared to the others, and rather skinny by comparison as well. He was an easy cull selection. 

yes, easy to tell boys from girls. But some of the males have a more defined brown stripe on their backs. And more Grey on wings. Some better head spots. Overall the general color of the males do match. The defined brown edges could/might make for better overall pattern later?

 

[otakalhasas]

D'awwwww

I could not agree more! Those chicks put the capital "c" in CUTE!!!!! I can hardly wait until mine are old enough, but at 3 months my cockerel crowed yesterday! My husband lost it as he said Jeremy (our cockerel) sounded just like a teenage boy whose voice is cracking. Now if we can get the girls old enough (also 3 months, so we've got quite a wait) we can have our own 'bator full of Biels!

 

[DesertChic]

yes, easy to tell boys from girls. But some of the males have a more defined brown stripe on their backs. And more Grey on wings. Some better head spots. Overall the general color of the males do match. The defined brown edges could/might make for better overall pattern later?

Possibly. If you band them somehow, maybe you should track how they feather out to see if there's a correlation. Plus, if you're planning to breed these guys, it might be beneficial to stick to those with the best sex-link characteristics.


EDIT: I just looked through the photos of my Biels. That one cockerel, Brom, that had the less clearly defined coloring did in fact feather out darker as he approached adulthood. Unfortunately I butchered him at 20 weeks so there's no telling how he would have eventually feathered out.

 

[Bine]

poor schnute, that fight sure got him. will he stay separate from the flock temporarily? or will he be able to go back at all?

He still is part of the flock. I just wanted him a little more stable after the shock of getting robbed of his kingdom and the cauterisation of his beak. Like with people a shock can lead to multiple complications, sometimes birds and men just pass out or worse they, have a cardiac arrest. And I wanted to see if he can eat and drink with his beak. He was warmly welcomed by some of the girls and Milo is not a very agressive rooster, so as long as his beak heals up without infection, he has a good chance of getting a respected position in the flock.