A Bielefelder Thread !

[aliciaplus3]

I just realized that I didn't post an update on my broody girl.... she did really well up until they started to hatch and then the chick and shell all disappeared, I walked in to hear #2 screaming and the hen with a bloody beak, I managed to get the almost unshelled chick and the rest of the eggs into the incubator and finished the hatch but it took another month to break the broody..... sigh she made a great incubator but a poor hatcher.

 

[paintedChix]

kind of excited!!

While doing repairs and putting down more materials in the pens one of the Bielefelder boys started crowing. It is very soft/low - but it wasn't like he was just getting started. Wondering if he's been crowing for a while and we just weren't hearing them while we have the VERY LOUD RB's out and about. I couldn't tell which boy it was (couldn't see his leg ziptie colors) from the angle(s)/where I was before there were others in the way.

Then a bit later, saw one of the B boys single out a B girl (have 6 Bielefelder pullets/2 Bielefelder cockerels & 8 - 55 flowery hens pullets & 3 Flowery cockerels in the same 8x10 pen at the moment during Hurricane Florence). So - maybe the girls are just about to hit POL????

Maybe???

Repairs/maintenance after Hurricane Florence on-going. We aren't flooded - for the most part drained exceedingly well. BUT roads out all around us.... Need some supplies I don't have in order to build more coops, so birds are staying penned together at the moment.

 

[DesertChic]

I found this thread and a "few" others for Bielefelders.

I was offered some from a breeder about 1 hour away from me after I had done some reading on GFF's site regarding auto sexing breeds. I already had CLBs (production lines) and Rhodebars, so I went for these.

I hadn't found these threads earlier and haven't finished this one yet. I jumped ahead to the end of 2017 and read all of 2018's posts. Otherwise, I'm still on page 2 or 3...

Some ?s that I have are pretty simple (& if they are answered in these 541 pages of this thread, I'm sorry to be asking again):

1 - I've read where some have stated they do or don't have birds to SOP. Can someone point me to the breed standards for this breed? I tried to download the english translation of the German one from GFF's site and it's always been "unavailable" since April of this year. Now, with Hurricane Florence hitting us, internet is spotty, so downloading can be tricky, but I can sure copy and past URLs etc...

2 - someone mentions silver Bielefelders? How would you go about getting them (still very NEW to chicken color genetics; love my pony color genetics, tho)...

3 - someone else wrote about the "bad standards" or chix that didn't come up to standards - to include white or partially white earlobes. Again, please point me in the direction for the proper Breed Standards for these guys.

4 - what weights have different folks on this thread seen and when are they actually hitting those mature weights? Was really surprised to see some REALLY large birds. Mine are smaller than Ameraucanas, but heavier and fluffier (not as fluffy as the Orps that I got from same breeder as my B's).

5 - When do the pullets hit POL? Hurricane Florence may have thrown our oldest girls out of whack, but I have 6 girls that were hatched between 3/5 & 3/12, 2018 (6 months old) and still no interest in nesting, laying or ??? The 2 roosters don't seem to actually be crowing yet either or sexually active! I originally got 12 birds - 9 pullets & 3 cockerels. They do get to free range out of an 8x10 coop/pen... 1 group of 3 pullets/1 cockerel went to a girlfriend and later I got another set of 4 to have a 3rd breeding group (maybe?).

Here's some pics of my yellow hatch group when I brought them home, they were not day old chicks -

View attachment 1535203 View attachment 1535205 View attachment 1535206 View attachment 1535202

And some pics later (I don't have pics of all of them the first couple of days, thought I'd gotten them, but hadn't)...

View attachment 1535214 View attachment 1535215

I think I have some more pics from between May and now, but they aren't cropped/noted yet. Some from the other day, before Hurricane Florence arrived...

View attachment 1535249 View attachment 1535218 View attachment 1535219

View attachment 1535222 View attachment 1535247

View attachment 1535250 View attachment 1535251

These are my 3rd breed of Auto-Sexing chickens and I am IN LOVE. Now, I'm just getting impatient as to when they will start laying. (Got first CLB & RB eggs when they each hit about 7.5 months of age - both those breeds still laying pretty small eggs)

Once they do all start laying, how long do I wait before i start collecting eggs to incubate? That will be another learning curve - I don't have an incubator yet. I don't plan on selling the eggs or chicks right away. I would consider selling some started pullets - as I see/learn how they are developing. I do plan on processing birds next year & yes, these are one of the breeds I plan on doing that with.

I have more pics - just in extra large/un-cropped versions...

I can only address items 4 & 5 on your list, but I'll do my best to be as thorough as possible.

4 - Bird Weights: The flock I hatched out consisted of nine cockerels and only three hens. The cockerel weights varied somewhat with the lightest boy weighing in at 4.4 lbs and the heaviest weighing in at 5.8 lbs at 18 weeks. My largest boy grew to 13 lbs at just over a year old, and the only other boy I allowed to mature grew to 11 lbs in the same time frame. The hens weighed 3.8 - 4.0 lbs at 18 weeks, with the heaviest weighing out at just over 8 lbs over a year of age. The meat on all of the birds I processes was quite fatty, and even greasy, but very succulent.

5 - POL: My Biels were terrible layers. Perhaps it was because of the hot desert environment, but I even provided them with an air conditioned coop, and they were simply terrible layers, though two of my three hens did lay jumbo-sized eggs when they laid at all. The earliest POL of 24 weeks, but then she stopped laying after less than a month and didn't pick up again until she reached 44 weeks. The second hen began laying at 29 weeks, and the third didn't start laying until 47 weeks, but she was the most consistent layer of the three. The best I ever got out of any of these hens was 105 eggs in a single laying year. Hence the reason I ultimately butchered them in spite of their very friendly personalities.

 

[paintedChix]

Desert Chick - THANK YOU. Wow, that is quite different than what I was told originally. It could also be why another breeder stated that he keeps his Bielefelders as "pets" rather than for breeding or eggs (which really made me wonder then - I didn't get mine from him, though).

Even with going with the largest birds, this may be more of a project for me than I'm able to invest in.

The quad that went to my girlfriend - 2 of the hens started laying the other day. Small eggs, but since then they've both been consistent every day. I have hope. We'll see how it goes.

I need to find a scale that I can weigh my birds with. Haven't done that yet and don't think my BR scale will work (not digital, doesn't read the smaller weights at all). Any hints on those?

 

[DesertChic]

Desert Chick - THANK YOU. Wow, that is quite different than what I was told originally. It could also be why another breeder stated that he keeps his Bielefelders as "pets" rather than for breeding or eggs (which really made me wonder then - I didn't get mine from him, though).

Even with going with the largest birds, this may be more of a project for me than I'm able to invest in.

The quad that went to my girlfriend - 2 of the hens started laying the other day. Small eggs, but since then they've both been consistent every day. I have hope. We'll see how it goes.

I need to find a scale that I can weigh my birds with. Haven't done that yet and don't think my BR scale will work (not digital, doesn't read the smaller weights at all). Any hints on those?

I use a standard digital kitchen scale when they're young, and then ordered a large digital shipping scale for when they're older. I bought both scales on Amazon. I place either paper towels or even rubber matting on the slippery table to make the birds feel more secure, which calms them down some. Since I weigh chicks every single week as they grow, they get used to it and usually aren't too terribly fussy as they age.

 

[PeepersMama]

The other day I was going through old documents from the computer I had during 8th grade, and I found the document for the translated german standard that Greenfire had on their site a couple years back. If anyone wants it, let me know and I can PM it to you.

 

[paintedChix]

I'd like to have it, please! Your name/avatar is blocked/limited, so can't send a PM directly to you.

My email is [email protected]

 

[PeepersMama]

I'd like to have it, please! Your name/avatar is blocked/limited, so can't send a PM directly to you.

My email is [email protected]

It's been forever since I've been on BYC, sorry about the wait. :
I'll send it to ya

 

[paintedChix]

It's been forever since I've been on BYC, sorry about the wait. :
I'll send it to ya

Just wanted to let you know I received your email and downloaded the file, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Can I ask though - how long do your birds take to mature and start laying? I really thought that the pullets hatched between 3/5 and 3/12 would have at least started laying? Even if inconsistently?

I did lose one younger pullet during Hurricane Florence. They were hatched on June 16th and she was about 3months old then.

 

[PeepersMama]

Just wanted to let you know I received your email and downloaded the file, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Can I ask though - how long do your birds take to mature and start laying? I really thought that the pullets hatched between 3/5 and 3/12 would have at least started laying? Even if inconsistently?

I did lose one younger pullet during Hurricane Florence. They were hatched on June 16th and she was about 3months old then.

My girls didn't start laying til late September/mid october. Gotta say I was disappointed with how long it took them to mature, but now they're all laying pretty well, considering how weird the weather's been.