Bielefelder thread!!!!

[MGG]

I've given all my chicks chick starter (can't recall the brand... Dumor, maybe?) until about 6-7 weeks old. Then I transition them to the Kalmbach 20% Flock Maker.

I usually do too, but I switched my ducks to high protein feed and they are so much bigger and healthier, and their plumage is great too. Just thought I might try it with the chickens this year and see how it goes. Not that starter doesn't work fine, but meatbird was on sale and I was intrigued by the idea. They're growing so fast now. I might switch to regular starter in 5 or 6 weeks leading up to lay.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

My last Bielefelder hen, Nugget, died just over a week ago. She was a month shy of 3 yrs old. All but one died from egg yoke peritonitis over the last year. What is everyone’s experience with longevity?
My roo, Spatch, is the only Biel left.

 

[BlueBaby]

My last Bielefelder hen, Nugget, died just over a week ago. She was a month shy of 3 yrs old. All but one died from egg yoke peritonitis over the last year. What is everyone’s experience with longevity?
My roo, Spatch, is the only Biel left.

Where did you get yours from?

 

[Sally PB]

My last Bielefelder hen, Nugget, died just over a week ago. She was a month shy of 3 yrs old. All but one died from egg yoke peritonitis over the last year. What is everyone’s experience with longevity?
My roo, Spatch, is the only Biel left.

My Bielefelders will be two years old in May.

I lost Sunny, who was my favorite of my Biels three weeks ago tomorrow. I went to open the coop, and she was on the floor. Stiff but not totally cold. I wailed! Oh, my goodness, I just lost it.

I could not do a necropsy. Just could not cut up my beautiful Sunny Girl. She's buried in the garden. I wailed again when I buried her.

Pip, who has always been the smallest (even as a chick), had coccidiosis as a 5 week old chick. Cleared up fine with Corrid. She also has had salpingitis, a little over a year ago. I read that the average life expectancy with salpingitis is about 6 months, and she's twice that. She lays only every now and then (fine, baby, you don't have to lay), and they are the largest eggs of any of them: 71-74 grams.

Squeak lives up to her name. She sneezes, often. She has since she was about 6 months old. I don't know what to think, as nobody else does this. A sneeze every now and then, but not like Squeak. She lives up to her name, I guess?

So, yeah, I haven't had illness issues like this with any of my other birds. Not sure if it's just coincidence... or something else.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Where did you get yours from?

McMurrays.

 

[Sally PB]

died from egg yoke peritonitis

What were the signs/symptoms of this?

 

[BlueBaby]

McMurrays.

I wouldn't buy anymore of the Bielefelder's from them then. Maybe they are breeding even the hen's that are having problem's just so that they will have more chick's to sell?

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

My Bielefelders will be two years old in May.

I lost Sunny, who was my favorite of my Biels three weeks ago tomorrow. I went to open the coop, and she was on the floor. Stiff but not totally cold. I wailed! Oh, my goodness, I just lost it.

I could not do a necropsy. Just could not cut up my beautiful Sunny Girl. She's buried in the garden. I wailed again when I buried her.

Pip, who has always been the smallest (even as a chick), had coccidiosis as a 5 week old chick. Cleared up fine with Corrid. She also has had salpingitis, a little over a year ago. I read that the average life expectancy with salpingitis is about 6 months, and she's twice that. She lays only every now and then (fine, baby, you don't have to lay), and they are the largest eggs of any of them: 71-74 grams.

Squeak lives up to her name. She sneezes, often. She has since she was about 6 months old. I don't know what to think, as nobody else does this. A sneeze every now and then, but not like Squeak. She lives up to her name, I guess?

So, yeah, I haven't had illness issues like this with any of my other birds. Not sure if it's just coincidence... or something else.

My girls looked healthy until they weren’t.. very sudden, but I think these girls hid illness much better than my other breeds.
I do a necropsy on my birds but it’s not a hack job. I, too, place them in the flower garden- Nugs is in the freezer until Spring thaw then will go to the garden where I’ll plant a climbing rose.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

What were the signs/symptoms of this?

She was less the day before hanging out in the coop near the nests. She did not roost - I know bc she was pooped on.
Tail down, puffed up, and she let me pick her up without a hint of objection.
Crop was a little full but not squishy and comb was bit dusky. She ate a bite or two. Vent was fine- until that night, she passed yellow runny stool. Belly was normal.
I had already given her a soak, an antibiotic injection and popped a calcium w/ D.
The next morning she looked tired, eyes partly closed, duskier..she passed that morning.

 

[Tervuren]

Mine is from McMurray too, she turns 4 at the beginning of April. She does lay a lot more than I was expecting, she started up laying again at the beginning of the year and lays almost every day still. Generally she stops laying frequently once we hit triple digits. I don’t think laying that much is great for their health, it’s why commercial layer hens don’t live very long on average.