A Bielefelder Thread !

[FeelsRightFarm]

Okay hopefully these work! Here is one of our roos with some of our hens





Day old chicks to show the difference in coloring at hatch


Here is a photo of a Swedish Black Hen next to a Bielefelder, these are both 3 days old and you can see just how much larger the Bielefelders are! They are such hearty little chicks. My son says he "likes them because they are fat" My mom says this is proof that some of us are just born big boned

and last but not least, this is my son holding one of our bielefelder roos. The roo looks like he is saying "alright, let's just get this over with already" but you can see just how large they are. My son is about 4 1/2 feet tall and around 55 lbs so you can try to gauge just how big this bird is. (Also, I realize he looks uncomfortable, I promise no chickens were harmed in the taking of this photo. When we were out I heard "Look what I caught!" and turned around to see this. In this photo he was saying through his teeth "he's too heavy to hold any longer!" So I tried to snap the photo as soon as possible!




Hope these all show up okay for everyone! I just can't say enough good things about this breed.

 

[TNBielefelder]

Awesome pictures. What kind of incubator do you hatch in and what setting do you use?

 

[FeelsRightFarm]

Awesome pictures. What kind of incubator do you hatch in and what setting do you use?

We are currently using a GQF 1500 professional incubator and a GQF 1550 hatcher. We had to add an automatic humidity pump to it to try and maintain humidity between 35 and 40 percent for incubation. Our bielefelders seemed to have no trouble hatching prior to the added humidity pump but our smaller Swedish Black Hen and Ayam Cemani eggs did very poorly. I think it had something to do with the moisture loss being too rapid with the lower humidity. Many of our eggs would develop fully and then be unable to hatch or even pip, the airsacs were always so large, it was very disappointing.

In terms of incubators, we have used several. Although we try to support things made in the USA whenever possible, I do feel that the smaller Brinsea and RCOM incubators work a bit better in terms of regulating humidity. We had an RCOM max 20 (I think that is the one, I can't recall as it's been a while ago) and it was incredible. Our hatch rates were amazing. It has been touch and go with the GQF, however, it is a much larger (cabinet) incubator as we are hoping to hatch and sell more as we build up our flock. If you are just looking to hatch for yourself I wouldn't recommend them as they don't seem to be the most reliable and don't have the built in humidity controls.

 

[otakalhasas]

If you're talking about Rarebreedauctions.com, we sell there from time to time. We started selling early this year but during the summer it was too hot and we chose to take time off and not ship any chicks until the weather cooled off.

It is a pretty user friendly site, easy to navigate. You do have to create an account to place bids, but it is not too difficult. I have only ever purchased through Greenfire on the site, so I cannot speak for any other sellers, but that isn't to say that they are bad, just that I have no experience with them.

My best advice for auction sites if you are new to them is to really research. The site does a pretty good job with keeping scammers away, but always check the feedback from the person listing the auctions you are interested in. Greenfire has great feedback because they've sold so many and they are very professional/good at handling things. However, there are some people who don't know how to use the site correctly and can post auctions that aren't accurate, which can be tricky. ( For example when posting I have seen people list "quantity" as 3 for an auction of 6 chicks, what this does is allows multiple people to bid thinking they have 3 separate 6 chick auctions and then they find out there is only one set of 6 and it becomes a big mess)

The option to bid doesn't become visible until you are logged in with your created account. It is really an easy site to use and it is amazing the deals you can get vs. buying directly from Greenfire farms. That is the site we used to bid on both our Ayam Cemani and Swedish Black Hen breeding pairs, we got them for around $700 when at the time Greenfire was selling them for much, much more. When we ordered our Bielefelders we ended up paying around $14 a chick through rarebreedauctions. I see a lot of people post orpingtons and some other breeds that have awesome reviews, it just depends on what you are looking for!

Definitely just make sure you read the feedback. If someone is listing an Ayam Cemani pair and they have no feed back, as they've just created the account, it would be right to be suspicious. They can be a great way to get chicks at a much more affordable price, it just requires a little research to make sure you can trust the buyer.


phew. That was long, I am going to try posting pictures of my bielefelders in a separate post after this one.

GREAT advise! Thank you SO MUCH!

 

[otakalhasas]

BEAUTIFUL photos - love the one with your son!

 

[Red Banks]

Could someone please tell me how to pronounce Bielefelder, in my mind I pronounce it like I am Swedish......

That can't be right! I am getting some this weekend and can't even pronounce the name of the breed!

Pretty sad, huh!

 

[jbkirk]

Could someone please tell me how to pronounce Bielefelder, in my mind I pronounce it like I am Swedish......

That can't be right! I am getting some this weekend and can't even pronounce the name of the breed!

Pretty sad, huh!

I think you say it B-la-fell-dir (dir as in dirt)

 

[Bine]

Yep....like Bielefeld only with er at the end, like the city in Eastern Westphalier, when the German breeders club had to decide what name the new breed should have, they first wanted to name it German Kennhuhn or Westphalian Kennhuhn, but we had already a German Reichshuhn and the Westphalian Totleger so to avoid confusion they choose Bielefelder Kennhuhn. And some people say that creation of this chicken breed is part of the Bielefeld Conspirancy.

 

[Red Banks]

I think you say it B-la-fell-dir (dir as in dirt)

Okay..... I can do that. I was saying Beal (as in meal) ah fell dir again mind you with an accent!

 

[Red Banks]

Yep....like Bielefeld only with er at the end, like the city in Eastern Westphalier, when the German breeders club had to decide what name the new breed should have, they first wanted to name it German Kennhuhn or Westphalian Kennhuhn, but we had already a German Reichshuhn and the Westphalian Totleger so to avoid confusion they choose Bielefelder Kennhuhn. And some people say that creation of this chicken breed is part of the Bielefeld Conspirancy.

Thank you..... I found this too! What do you think?

https://www.howtopronounce.com/german/bielefelder/