A Bielefelder Thread !

[cutipatooti]

Hey all, I have also only had positive experiences with Greenfire and have met with them and toured the place and they are really nice people. If you explained your situation you may have some luck? They have always been good with replacing birds that aren't up to standard.

We got a breeding pair of Swedish Black Hens from them and after 4 months noticed our roo had a white earlobe. Contacted Josette and she checked and they happened to have an extra roo that was breeding age and told me to come pick him up, free of charge, he is beautiful and when I offered to return our roo they said don't bother. Legally they can't take anything back once it leaves the farm as it would be risky to their flocks.

Give them a shot. It definitely isn't the norm to have a bad experience with them.


That being said, my biel hens are laying more these days BUT the eggs are different than I remember. Is it possible for eggs to be lighter and smaller after a molt? I just can't piece it together. Our new girls are laying but the eggs are smaller, l lighter brown, and the shape is different than our previous hens. Not sure if there is an egg standard to meet with biels but I've put off hatching these due to that.

I will have to post pics to explain and get your opions

I had a bielefelder pullet I got from GFF and she was awesome. Although she was big I wasn't that impressed with her size. I never did weigh her though. I was impressed with the size and color of her egg. It was 70g to 72g and 4 to 5 a week. It was a darkish coppery color. I have seen eggs from other bielefelders that were a light tan or beige color and were 57g to 63g. I went back to GFF in hopes that this round will have the large characteristics in eggs as the last one from GFF did. I too have had mostly good experiences with GFF and when there were losses they always made up for it. Also just had a fantastic experience with TheOldFarmHouse.

 

[Bine]

Variations in egg size can be connected to weather and food intake. Remember that a hen in spring and summer has much more to eat green things, earth worms and what often has more than - in my place- five hours more to pick and choose. You can see it in color of the yolk every year, layer feed is fine but the bright yellow color when the first new gras and clover is growing is something I never finde in a winter eggs - the few I get form my fizzles- all other hens just refuse to lay pale eggs.

 

[Bine]

Oh, by the way, has someone hear experience with no-till farming with deverse cover crops?

 

[DesertChic]

Oh, by the way, has someone hear experience with no-till farming with deverse cover crops?

I'm curious about this too as my project this your is soil improvement via introduction of diversity in cover crops. Our soil is downright sterile, and I've spent the past few months covering it with as much organic material as I can get my hands on...much to my chickens' extreme pleasure. They're working hard at tilling all that compostable material for me.

 

[Bine]

I may have the complet opposite in terms of earth and weather, DesertChic, and still it sounds great to me. I have a heavy clay soil that turns from a swamp in spring, to concret in summer, to a swamp again in fall. The last two weeks we had between 5 and 17 l/m²( 1,3 to 3,9 gallons on ca. 10sqft) every day and I am quite happy that frost set in yesterday. I am a big fan of green manure, b/c it brings bees and eathworm and sucks up all the water. I did a mix of phaciella, buckwheat, marigolds, tagetes and clover, but maybe I will try redish now an rye , too and just roll it down instead of mowing it. I don't like redish and I can't feed rye to the birds, so I never thought about planting it. Maybe I can find someone who sells wood chips at a good price, I would love to try that out, b/c straw or hay covers easily turn into a slug farm with more sulgs and snails than my birds ever could eat. But the energy companies here buy almost all wood chips on the market. But maybe I have some luck with a lokal christmas tree farmer who is not the biggest fan of burning wood chips.
I would love to hear how it works in your climate.

 

[gotro17]

I may have the complet opposite in terms of earth and weather, DesertChic, and still it sounds great to me. I have a heavy clay soil that turns from a swamp in spring, to concret in summer, to a swamp again in fall. The last two weeks we had between 5 and 17 l/m²( 1,3 to 3,9 gallons on ca. 10sqft) every day and I am quite happy that frost set in yesterday. I am a big fan of green manure, b/c it brings bees and eathworm and sucks up all the water. I did a mix of phaciella, buckwheat, marigolds, tagetes and clover, but maybe I will try redish now an rye , too and just roll it down instead of mowing it. I don't like redish and I can't feed rye to the birds, so I never thought about planting it. Maybe I can find someone who sells wood chips at a good price, I would love to try that out, b/c straw or hay covers easily turn into a slug farm with more sulgs and snails than my birds ever could eat. But the energy companies here buy almost all wood chips on the market. But maybe I have some luck with a lokal christmas tree farmer who is not the biggest fan of burning wood chips. 
I would love to hear how it works in your climate. 

Try gypsum and horse manure with coffee grounds. It does WONDERS on our clay

 

[gotro17]

Can I see some progressive pictures of your Biels??? I"m needing a fix! I think my 'babies' were hatched today- I get them on the 6th!

 

[Red Banks]

Can I see some progressive pictures of your Biels??? I"m needing a fix! I think my 'babies' were hatched today- I get them on the 6th!

You have to start from the bottom. They are still babies but at least you can see them grow thru the first two months. They are from Feels Right Farm.

 

[Eggscoozme]

Oh no! Really??? I'm due to get 2 cockerels and 4 pullets from them in February, along with 3 Black Copper Marans. Did you call them on the CLs? Any response? Have you talked to them about your disappointment with the Biels? They have been such a pleasure to work with, It'd be a shame the quality wasn't there anymore...

I did call them on the CLB, but they did not do anything. The still sell them as blue egg layers which obviously, not all are. Just so happened NONE of mine were. They do not state the FACTS of the Euro standards which their birds are from - they can lay blue, green, or olive eggs. Look on their website. They only claim blue eggs. Yeah right. As far as the Biels go, I paid $150 + shipping, and out of the 5 Biels, only 2 are standard, the other 3 or way off - Roo's wattle is extremely short on one side, and the other 2 hens have white earlobes, and huge combs. So, I paid $150 for 2 Biels, basically. I will not buy from them anymore. I hope you have a better experience. Oh, my CLR, whose coloring I did like a lot - he was very light hardly any brown on him at all, mostly black/white, but had a big floppy comb which is not standard.
If you want the Biels for homesteading purposes, non standard is not a big issue, then, really. As long as you can tell the boys from girls.......I do want a standard flock, though, in which to sell their eggs. Will not sell non-standard- looking- bird's eggs.

 

[Eggscoozme]

You have to start from the bottom. They are still babies but at least you can see them grow thru the first two months. They are from Feels Right Farm.

Are those Goji Berries in the 2nd picture down from the top? Nice looking Biels