A Bielefelder Thread !

[UGLYFOOT]

I plan on adding butcher pigs to my homegrown food. I would have a small dairy cow if it were not expensive, and am trying to talk the DH into beef. I just don't know if i can handle all that right now though. The chickens and garden added in the summer takes quite a bit of time. We commute an hour each way to work, and work 12 hr shifts. Thank goodness it is only three or four days/nights a week! We rotate each week. But i am trying all i can to do my part.

 

[Red Banks]

I plan on adding butcher pigs to my homegrown food. I would have a small dairy cow if it were not expensive, and am trying to talk the DH into beef. I just don't know if i can handle all that right now though. The chickens and garden added in the summer takes quite a bit of time. We commute an hour each way to work, and work 12 hr shifts. Thank goodness it is only three or four days/nights a week! We rotate each week. But i am trying all i can to do my part.

I want Black Guinea Hogs. They are pasture hogs, stay small and have great lard and bacon.

 

[karib574]

oops, I don't know how to delete this.

 

[karib574]

Sadly due to another disaster that is shipping chicks thru the USPS I have only 4 out of 11 survivors from VA. That brings my grand total up to 4 pullets and 3 cockerels. I think I will just stick with those as my starter flock. I might just have to contact Papa Brooder or the breeder in western WA (I'm sorry I have forgotten your screen name) and will have to take a road trip and either pick up eggs or chicks later this spring if they have anything available. I can maybe go on a few rock hounding adventures and make it interesting for my hubby too.

Is Papa Brooder the same as Papa's Poultry? Just ordered some Bielefelder hatching eggs from them, sooo excited! Hello from Spokane!

 

[DesertChic]

How disconnected our society is with our food is what really freaks me out! We tell our friends (ALL of them are meat eaters) that we got meat rabbits and they just flipped! "You're going to EAT" them they say? Well, yes we are! Even the eggs from our chickens...they want sterile white ones from the store...mine come out of my chickens bottom into a box...ewww. Seriously people!? Watch a food video or two! My animals have a life that doesn't compare to store bought food and will die quickly and humanly when the time comes!

Precisely! When you grow your own food, whether animal or plant, you develop a much healthier respect for nature and life as a whole, and a appreciation for what is truly required to be healthy, self-sufficient, and sustainable. Do I enjoy butchering chickens? Heck no! But I've yet to encounter one that will simply die naturally on cue so I can clean it and cook it up for my family. This is how life works. Chicken's natural state isn't wrapped in plastic after being rinsed with bleach and found half thawed in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. And though some of my breeds may be considered "exotic", none of them are being processed in China and shipped here alongside plastic novelties.

And now...here's my funny story for the day...I encountered an adolescent girl desperately trying to re-home her Silkie cockerel because he's begun mating with the pullets, thereby fertilizing the eggs and making them "inedible". That's right! This girl refuses to eat fertilized eggs, claiming that it's the same as eating a baby chick and it's "totally gross". I wished her luck, and left it at that.

 

[DesertChic]

Okay...just a couple more picks of my Bielefelder/Australorp crosses. I finally managed to photograph the third of my three cockerels, Billy. His feathering is the most unique of the trio, which is why I wanted to show him too you. Look at all that white around his head and neck! And if you examine his back and side feathers, you can see buff starting to show through.





And this last shot, as strange as it is, shows how some of the tail feathers are barred at the tips, and then solid black with a green sheen towards the base. I found this interesting simply because of our discussing about the whitening of the tail feathers in Biel cockerels, and my own pure Biels only show the white at the base of their sickle feathers, with the remainder showing barrings.

 

[Bridebeliever]

That is so great! Thanks for showing your mixing of Biels! I am getting 7 in April, 6 pullet chicks, 1 cock chick. The rest of my flock I got in September of this year and they are now 20 weeks old. So the Biel will be the only Rooster in the bunch.

I have: 3 Andalusians (1 splash, two blue), 2 RIR, 1 GLW, 2 SLW, 1 Blue Aracauna, 1 Chocolate Orpington, 1 Australorp. I plan to let my rooster in with all the girls and see what the off spring will look like! It would be nice to get larger bodied Andalusians! Oh, and I plan to EAT fertilized eggs! Gasp!!

 

[otakalhasas]

Precisely! When you grow your own food, whether animal or plant, you develop a much healthier respect for nature and life as a whole, and a appreciation for what is truly required to be healthy, self-sufficient, and sustainable. Do I enjoy butchering chickens? Heck no! But I've yet to encounter one that will simply die naturally on cue so I can clean it and cook it up for my family. This is how life works. Chicken's natural state isn't wrapped in plastic after being rinsed with bleach and found half thawed in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. And though some of my breeds may be considered "exotic", none of them are being processed in China and shipped here alongside plastic novelties.

And now...here's my funny story for the day...I encountered an adolescent girl desperately trying to re-home her Silkie cockerel because he's begun mating with the pullets, thereby fertilizing the eggs and making them "inedible". That's right! This girl refuses to eat fertilized eggs, claiming that it's the same as eating a baby chick and it's "totally gross". I wished her luck, and left it at that.

Off topic, but I surely hope she found a good home for her Silkie cockerel!!!!!!

 

[UGLYFOOT]

Is Papa Brooder the same as Papa's Poultry? Just ordered some Bielefelder hatching eggs from them, sooo excited! Hello from Spokane!

Yes, Papa Brooder is his screen name.

Hello from Idaho. You should pop over to the North Idaho/Eastern Washington thread and join in. We are a chatty bunch there and planning a get together.

 

[Saris]

Is Papa Brooder the same as Papa's Poultry?  Just ordered some Bielefelder hatching eggs from them, sooo excited!  Hello from Spokane!  

Also hello from Spokane! Haha join us on the thread UGLYFOOT mentioned!