A Bielefelder Thread !

[otakalhasas]

Thanks - so EE's can and do lay brown eggs?

 

[DesertChic]

Thanks - so EE's can and do lay brown eggs?

Yep! Because they're essentially a mixed breed, their egg colors vary as much as their feather colors/patterns can.

 

[otakalhasas]

Makes sense - thanks! I guess I'll have to look at the Cream Legbars or the Ameraucanas to get blue in my basket.

 

[Candy442]

Makes sense - thanks! I guess I'll have to look at the Cream Legbars or the Ameraucanas to get blue in my basket.

I would go with the cream legbars for the blue color. We had one black Ameraucana girl that was terrible for egg laying. She was from a friend who purchased stock from a breeder who was breeding for APA shows. Hers and mine did not even start laying until they were 10 months old. They would stop completely during the winter.

Our legbars started about 26 weeks and lay about 3 to five a week so far.

Now for the Bieles? PLEASE...we would love to see some eggs any day now

 

[otakalhasas]

Thanks for the tips! And keeping finger crossed for your debut Biel eggs!

 

[TNBielefelder]

It would be a great step for the Bielefelders if hobbyists breeders like most of us had the time, space, and commitment to do a 4 year breeding plan like the French did with the black cooper Marans. I plan to start one in 2016 with 1 rooster and 2 excellent hens and 2 super nice pullets. I am assuming I will be able to tell the difference between the hen eggs and the pullets based on size and perhaps even a slight color difference. Hopefully this way I can keep records and concentrate on egg production, breeding for early layers, consistent layers, as well as German Standards of perfection which by the way includes egg laying aspects. I understand the desire to have beautiful Bielefelders that produce eggs in descent quantities at an early age but because these are dual purpose chickens a lot of their protein intake from hatch till 6 months to 1 year is used in the early stages of growth instead of egg production much like that of larger breeds like the Jersey Giants. I know most information I have read say the rooster is around 10 pounds but I have seen them at 13. I wonder if egg production is what the Germans had in mind when they developed the bantam Bielefelders??? I don't know anything about them just a thought.

 

[Bine]

The bantam club has a nice Homepage, I think. The bantams lay only 160 eggs that should be around 1,58 oz,- still big eggs for a bantam- rooster should weight around 2,86 lbs, hens 2,42 lbs.
So I think that beauty and character was the reason for creating the bantam version.
Maybe you can experiment with high protein feed. In my limited experience protein is the key to a good development of roosters and hens.

 

[TNBielefelder]

The bantam club has a nice Homepage, I think. The bantams lay only 160 eggs that should be around 1,58 oz,- still big eggs for a bantam- rooster should weight around 2,86 lbs, hens 2,42 lbs.
So I think that beauty and character was the reason for creating the bantam version.
Maybe you can experiment with high protein feed. In my limited experience protein is the key to a good development of roosters and hens.

Bine how does the seasons effect the Bielefelders egg production where you live? Also what is the earliest and latest age of pullets that you have seen start laying?

 

[Bine]

Bielefelder normally lay all winter without light programm as long as they have a coop with a window / roofed run and don't sit all day in the dark. On winter solstice we have 7 1/2 hours day light but winter skys here are often heavy clouded and that can slow down the egg production or/and color of eggs. Like with most birds sudden temperatur drops are a reason to stop laying.
Most hens begin between 28 and 32 week, but you can have extrem late starters. Earliest was a hen that lay a small test-egg with 6 month, then stopped and restared three weeks later. Latest was a hen that hatched in late June and started laying in April, but I think that was a case of an extrem bully victim. She began to lay after she was rehomed.
If you want to monitor the hens for production abilities I would begin with the check of the egg-gap of the pubic bone and note when the gap begins to widen, b/c I often thought I knew who layed an egg but some of my hens really tricked me by sitting on a nest with an egg from an other hen and singing as if she had layed. After checking the egg-gap I realized that some of my young hens like to practice sitting and singing. I know my Barbus are a strange breed, but I think most poullets are interessed in nest boxes, nest building, sitting in the boxes and singing way before they start to lay the first egg.

 

[otakalhasas]

Bine, you are simply a fount of information! I am so glad I joined this group!!!!!