A Bielefelder Thread !

[TNBEARCHICK]

I do wait until the temps at night are not super cold, kinda mild, don't want to take them out of 70-80 degrees and put them in 25-40 degrees.

 

[ChickCrazed]

I do wait until the temps at night are not super cold, kinda mild, don't want to take them out of 70-80 degrees and put them in 25-40 degrees.

I figured I could drop my indoor temp by a couple of degrees each day until I can't handle it any more, then move them out to the garage for a few days (unheated but stays warmer than outside) as a buffer, then move them out to the coop. So it would be as gradual as I can make it. I just don't want them crowded any longer than they need to be!

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Sounds good, you might even give them a light bulb in the garage for the first day or 2.

 

[DCchicken]

For those of you that have raised the Bielefelder from chicks, when did you move them outside? They are just so large they are quickly outgrowing their indoor brooder! They are 4-5 weeks old now. I think by next week we should be hitting 50's - 60's during the day and around 40 at night. Can I start to wean them down to the colder temps and move them outside at 6 weeks old? There are 10 chicks so they pile pretty well at night.

I move mine at 8 weeks to an unheated area of the basement (or even the garage). Then a week or so later they go outside. Although there have been a couple of times when I had 12 week olds still roosting on the side of the brooder. Chicks can regulate their temperature as soon as they are fully feathered. Bielefelders pack on the pounds quickly. So they will probably be all right any time after they feather up.

Every time I worry about my chickens, I look outside and see dozens of little birds running in the snow. I think we all worry too much about these birds. My grandparents raised Leghorns in the mountains of Wyoming where -20 below is normal. If chickens can survive there, then they will be fine anywhere else.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

I move mine at 8 weeks to an unheated area of the basement (or even the garage). Then a week or so later they go outside. Although there have been a couple of times when I had 12 week olds still roosting on the side of the brooder. Chicks can regulate their temperature as soon as they are fully feathered. Bielefelders pack on the pounds quickly. So they will probably be all right any time after they feather up.

Every time I worry about my chickens, I look outside and see dozens of little birds running in the snow. I think we all worry too much about these birds. My grandparents raised Leghorns in the mountains of Wyoming where -20 below is normal. If chickens can survive there, then they will be fine anywhere else.

I agree, seems like my worrying causes more problems than it fixes.

 

[Sylvester017]

I move mine at 8 weeks to an unheated area of the basement (or even the garage). Then a week or so later they go outside. Although there have been a couple of times when I had 12 week olds still roosting on the side of the brooder. Chicks can regulate their temperature as soon as they are fully feathered. Bielefelders pack on the pounds quickly. So they will probably be all right any time after they feather up.

Every time I worry about my chickens, I look outside and see dozens of little birds running in the snow. I think we all worry too much about these birds. My grandparents raised Leghorns in the mountains of Wyoming where -20 below is normal. If chickens can survive there, then they will be fine anywhere else.

Good way of explaining it. The temperature isn't the problem but the SUDDEN shift in temperature that's the problem. Even garden seedlings need a "hardening" process to moved to the outdoors gradually before they are permanently planted outdoors. Gradual temperature reduction - good way to do it with chickens and then as DCchicken says even snow won't bother a Leghorn who is best known to be a mild Mediterranean zoned breed.

 

[Dirt Farmer]

For those of you that have raised the Bielefelder from chicks, when did you move them outside? They are just so large they are quickly outgrowing their indoor brooder! They are 4-5 weeks old now. I think by next week we should be hitting 50's - 60's during the day and around 40 at night. Can I start to wean them down to the colder temps and move them outside at 6 weeks old? There are 10 chicks so they pile pretty well at night.

I had mine in an unheated garage in a wooden brooder box without a lid, with a 75w incandescent at one end and a 60w at the other end. They stayed there for two weeks then went out to a shed with a 1 1/8 inch thick wood floor lightly covered with shavings, and a 135w "sweeter heater" (that's the brand). Temps were running 40's at night up to 70's in the day. They occasionally used the heater but at night preferred to huddle up. At 5 weeks I removed the heater altogether as they just weren't using it. The smaller Hedemoras from the same hatch would crawl between the Bielefelder's wing and body sometimes and use them for a toasty nap with just the head sticking out. They liked that better than the artificial heat. Also at 5 weeks I started giving them yard access. They immediately spent most of the day outdoors.

 

[memphis]

I have a dumb question....do these birds fly much? My fat speckled sussex can't get off the ground but my Barnevelders can fly a bit. Just curious.

 

[DCchicken]

I have a dumb question....do these birds fly much? My fat speckled sussex can't get off the ground but my Barnevelders can fly a bit. Just curious.

They can fly when they are younger. But by the time they are older they get too big to fly, sort of like English Orpingtons. Mine can fly up to the outside lid of the nesting box but cannot fly over a 4 foot fence.

 

[Sylvester017]

I have a dumb question....do these birds fly much? My fat speckled sussex can't get off the ground but my Barnevelders can fly a bit. Just curious.

Sussex are not flyers - too heavy. Neither are Silkies because they don't have enough hard feathers to get lift-off but they are excellent jumpers and runners.

Leghorns, New Hamps, Marans and Ameraucanas are all capable flyers but because of not-so-wild temperaments prefer to stay in the yard where the food and treats are.

Jaerhons, Campines, Fayoumi, Sicilian Buttercups, many bantams, and most under 4-lb weight fowl seem to have wilder temperaments and love to roost in trees or fly over fences just because they can.

Don't know a darn thing about Bielefelders except that they are BEAUTIFUL!