A Bielefelder Thread !

[Aziara]

So my Biels are 26 1/2 weeks old. No eggs yet, though the Rooster started crowing on new year's day (about 2 weeks ago). They appear to be in perfect health otherwise. Do I need to put a light up in their coop? Do Biels not lay in winter?

 

[luvmyroos]

Its been my experience they take a little longer to lay. I think the earliest one I had was 28 weeks. Mine have been laying quite well this winter, but we live in Georgia so the temps aren't as extreme.
One thing to remember is the daylight hours, that's the biggest factor. They require 14 hours I think to stimulate the hormones to get those eggs going.

 

[Saris]

Both my biele girls decided to have a fairly serious molt this winter. I mean c'mon, silly girls can't they tell it's freaking cold outside!

 

[UberchicRanch]

Some pullets may take 8 months until they lay for the first time.

 

[Sylvester017]

So my Biels are 26 1/2 weeks old. No eggs yet, though the Rooster started crowing on new year's day (about 2 weeks ago). They appear to be in perfect health otherwise. Do I need to put a light up in their coop? Do Biels not lay in winter?

Every owner does something different re: light. I don't use artificial light and many owners say it's not been that helpful with their flocks. I let Nature take its course for when the hens are ready to lay.

 

[otakalhasas]

Every owner does something different re: light. I don't use artificial light and many owners say it's not been that helpful with their flocks. I let Nature take its course for when the hens are ready to lay.

I agree. I've never used artificial light. While production darn near stops for about 6 weeks, it picks back up around the first of the year and goes back to pretty much every other day for each hen. My girls start to lay at 6 months (I'm lucky there!) and my two older girls really didn't have any big problem with molting (they are a bit over a year now). Hope I continue to be lucky there as well!

 

[Red Banks]

So my Biels are 26 1/2 weeks old. No eggs yet, though the Rooster started crowing on new year's day (about 2 weeks ago). They appear to be in perfect health otherwise. Do I need to put a light up in their coop? Do Biels not lay in winter?

It is my understanding that you should not use artificial light with pullets. Have to find the article or source. Sometimes coming of age in the winter will delay them from laying. My Biels eventually became good layers and even went broody.

 

[DesertChic]

Unfortunately for me my Biels have turned out to be my worst layers, and also the best roosters. My two remaining hens (the third died of heat stroke last summer) didn't begin laying until 8-9 months of age, stopped laying during their very mild molt, and haven't provided me with any eggs since October of last year. True, when they were laying their eggs were nice and large and the better layer of the two averaged 4 eggs per week, but at this point I've decided it's time to cull them from my flock. They're pretty birds, but not worth the amount of feed they consume vs production.

Of the two roosters I have, I'm DEFINITELY keeping my beloved Bosch, my absolute favorite chicken of all time. If the summer heat becomes too much for him it's not too hard to bring him into the house during the hottest part of the day, but out of my entire Biel flock he's the one that adapted the best to our severe heat by consistently hanging out in the stream of water I keep flowing for them. My other rooster, Hansel, is bigger and also quite sweet, but did some significant damage to his beak while trying to fight with a young cockerel through hardware cloth and keeps damaging it by pecking too hard at everything. He essentially looks de-beaked and I even had to file down the lower part of his beak to make it easier for him to eat. He can't mate with the hens at all because he can't grip their feathers to stabilize himself. I've kept him around for months because I like him so much, but he's getting meaner with some of the other birds...presumably out of sexual frustration.

So Bosch will die of old age, and the others will feed my family. Even though I'm disappointed over not being able to retain this breed, I have no regrets over giving them a try. I got some lovely hybrids out of breeding them with some of my other flock members, and I've enjoyed their companionship while they've lived.


My beloved Bosch when he was still young.

 

[CatalanState]

I have the opportunity to buy some Bielefelder chicks of a german breeder installed in spain.

I also have araucana, penedesenca and wyandotte, and i'm planning to use bielefelder as meat birds. Are the roos a decent meat birds? anyone has a brow ratio of them?

Sorry for my bad bad english

 

[DesertChic]

I have the opportunity to buy some Bielefelder chicks of a german breeder installed in spain.

I also have araucana, penedesenca and wyandotte, and i'm planning to use bielefelder as meat birds. Are the roos a decent meat birds? anyone has a brow ratio of them?

Sorry for my bad bad english

In my experience, the Bielefelders are a good dual-purpose bird that are decent but not exceptional for meat, as it should be. They're somewhat slow-growing, but processed out around 70% of live weight. I processed my extra cockerels around 20-22 weeks of age and most of them processed out around 4 lbs (1.8 kg). My birds carried a lot of abdominal fat, sometimes enough to render down for later use in cooking, and had nicely moist meat. The flavor was wonderful.