A Bielefelder Thread !

[jbkirk]

At 7 months they are laying!

Good I'm glad that they are laying!!!!

 

[Ron Skekel]

Baby Bielefelder bedtime. These birds are 6 weeks old. There's also a Legbar cockerel tucked in.

They look great Cody. Pam

 

[Ron Skekel]

Mine are quite and sweet my husban likes them so much he wishes they were our only breed. Their beauty is a plus alone with their docil nature. I ordered other breeds from GGF's and was seny another biefelder as a packing peaunt. I was happy about that.

 

[kittydoc]

I am on my way to becoming a proud Bielefelder owner! Thanks to @ChickCrazed , I have 15 eggs in the incubator. It will be my first autosexing breed, so I am excited! DH and I have had chickens for 5 years, and mostly have something with "orp" in the name, so Bielefelders are a little different for us. Still, they are so pretty, and I hope that they are as good natured as all of you report. Most of our birds are sweet, too. I've been following the thread for a month or so, and of course will continue.

 

[nissa_loves_cats]

I just discovered the existence of the Bielefelder breed this Saturday when looking at eBay egg auctions. I got very excited since my family came from towns near Bielefeld in Germany. In fact, my cousin is on the Bielefeld police force!

And then everything I've read about the breed sounds so good. I've put in a bid on an eBay auction but don't have much confidence the price will stay within my price range. I'm hoping to perhaps make some kind of a trade with a breeder for some hatching eggs.

 

[Odelia]

I am on my way to becoming a proud Bielefelder owner! Thanks to @ChickCrazed , I have 15 eggs in the incubator. It will be my first autosexing breed, so I am excited! DH and I have had chickens for 5 years, and mostly have something with "orp" in the name, so Bielefelders are a little different for us. Still, they are so pretty, and I hope that they are as good natured as all of you report. Most of our birds are sweet, too. I've been following the thread for a month or so, and of course will continue.

I don't know about others but my Bielefelders are very calm birds. Now sweet...depends what you mean by that. Not aggressive towards other birds or people yes. They follow you around the yard and seek human interaction...not mine. The rooster will often let me go up to him and pet him a bit as he lowers his body and keeps trying to move forward out of reach. So petting is tolerated but not enjoyed. Occasionally he will just sit down on the ground and stay while you pet him. When I pick him up he will usually just stay and let you hold him until he has had enough and then he squirms to be released. The girls don't enjoy being touched as much. They will all come if you have food. If you want them to act more like pets feed them treats often. Otherwise they are just very well behaved good mannered chickens.

 

[texasmomma]

I would love to increase my flock of bielefelders and only have them, but it is not how it's happening. I have 7 eggs in my tiny incubator right now. I'm looking forward to seeing how they hatch out. The bielefelder X cream legbar cross hatched much better this last time. So we will have some of those around, to keep everyone else company.

Our bielefelder hens will be bullied by the cream legbars. They just don't seem terribly aggressive. The rooster doesn't go after my younger children, which I like. He will get in my husband's face now and again, but he is put in his place quite quickly. He is doing a good job fertilizing all 7 of my hens. I haven't opened an egg that wasn't fertilized in a long time, and all of the eggs we have been incubating seem to have chicks in them.

 

[Cody A]

Anyone have Bieles with a very long and curved upper bill? I've got two pullets with this trait. The bills are long enough to get hooked on something like wire. It's happened a couple times now and they kinda freak out when they try to pull their head back and can't. I don't think this is good trait to have. I watched one try to pick up seeds. It would give up and go to the next nearest one and so on.

 

[shoresofOK]

What is a good humidity for gqf cabinet incubator for bielefelders?

 

[kittydoc]

Anyone have Bieles with a very long and curved upper bill? I've got two pullets with this trait. The bills are long enough to get hooked on something like wire. It's happened a couple times now and they kinda freak out when they try to pull their head back and can't. I don't think this is good trait to have. I watched one try to pick up seeds. It would give up and go to the next nearest one and so on.

Is it curved to the side, or downward? If curved to the side, that's scissorbeak and can be managed with regular trimming/filing. Really, the same is true if their beaks are overly long--file or clip the tips back some is that's the case. The "white" tips are like the whites on our fingernails and don't have a blood supply. (Pink is a different story--they DO have a blood supply).

Could you post a photo? And how old are the pullets? The sooner you take corrective action, the better.