I have a question for those of you more experienced with barnevelders.
I have a trio, a male and two pullets. They are 7, almost 8 months old. They appear to be fully mature but have displayed no signs at all of laying eggs... no egg song, no checking out the nesting boxes, no mating with their rooster, nuttin'. We do have a mixed flock, but the barnies seem to inherently know they "belong" together & they kind of just keep to themselves.
So I guess my question is, is this breed prone to laying later rather than sooner? Or do I have duds?
The rooster and one of the hens were sold to me as bantam barnevelders, as the lady I got them from had the eggs they hatched from sold to HER as bantam barnie eggs! But neither of these "bantams" is any smaller than our large fowl barnevelders. In fact, the bantam barnie hen and my large fowl barnie hen are exactly the same size & the LF is 2 weeks older! The bantam has better double lacing, more sheen to her feathers, and better demarcation of neck/hackle feathers, and the LF one supposedly came from a breeder and is supposedly pure Carol Ledford lines, but I've seen hatchery barnevelders with better confirmations and markings. If I had not hatched this bird myself, I'd think it was a hatchery chicken. Maybe the supposed "breeder" just gets hatchery eggs, jacks up the price, and resells them?? I dunno, she's a fellow BYCer and seems like a highly honest person. Or maybe these chickens' family tree doesn't fork (i.e., no new blood lines introduced). But they don't cackle, don't sing, don't make noise, don't lay eggs, don't do anything but eat and poop. The rooster just started crowing about a week ago, and I've NEVER had a rooster crow that late! They usually start around 3-4 months.
Anybody that wants them, come get them.
I have a trio, a male and two pullets. They are 7, almost 8 months old. They appear to be fully mature but have displayed no signs at all of laying eggs... no egg song, no checking out the nesting boxes, no mating with their rooster, nuttin'. We do have a mixed flock, but the barnies seem to inherently know they "belong" together & they kind of just keep to themselves.
So I guess my question is, is this breed prone to laying later rather than sooner? Or do I have duds?
The rooster and one of the hens were sold to me as bantam barnevelders, as the lady I got them from had the eggs they hatched from sold to HER as bantam barnie eggs! But neither of these "bantams" is any smaller than our large fowl barnevelders. In fact, the bantam barnie hen and my large fowl barnie hen are exactly the same size & the LF is 2 weeks older! The bantam has better double lacing, more sheen to her feathers, and better demarcation of neck/hackle feathers, and the LF one supposedly came from a breeder and is supposedly pure Carol Ledford lines, but I've seen hatchery barnevelders with better confirmations and markings. If I had not hatched this bird myself, I'd think it was a hatchery chicken. Maybe the supposed "breeder" just gets hatchery eggs, jacks up the price, and resells them?? I dunno, she's a fellow BYCer and seems like a highly honest person. Or maybe these chickens' family tree doesn't fork (i.e., no new blood lines introduced). But they don't cackle, don't sing, don't make noise, don't lay eggs, don't do anything but eat and poop. The rooster just started crowing about a week ago, and I've NEVER had a rooster crow that late! They usually start around 3-4 months.
Anybody that wants them, come get them.
Last edited:
