Niederrheiner Thread! All Colors!

[hofhine68]

Great videos!

I prefer full-size birds as well, and tend to choose only heavy breeds.

Niederrheiners lay a cream or white egg, Bielefelders lay a brown egg. Somewhere I have written down the breeds used for the Biele and the ones believed to be used for the Niede, but it is probably searchable online.

 

[Bine]

Okay.... now why I should listen to the old guys at the breeders club, when they go over the different historic cross-experiments and why the "old" breeders were artists and ......you know?
The Niederrheiner was based on the Noord-Hollandse Blauwe; Coucou de Malines, Belgium Game (maybe Combattant de Liège), Plymoth Rocks, Favorelles and lokal hens.

,

the Bielefelder has the Coucou de Malines heritage, too but Amrocks, New Hampshire, Rode Island Red and Welsumer were mixed into the Bielefelder gen pool, so if the birds are true to the Standard they should look very different.

The Bielefelder stands deeper and is more cylindric than a NIederrheiner.
The drawings are not right regarding the size, but show the body shape quite good.

 

[UberchicRanch]

Thank you @Bine ,

That definitely clears things up and is very helpful! Would you know if there are any other Niederrheiner colors besides Lemon Cuckoo, Birchen, "Brown Red," Crele, and Blue? It's hard to search German websites for more information.

 

[Bine]

There is a blue cuckoo, too.

 

[elkinsacres]

OK, and here are pics of my chicks!

These are the older ones, hatched on or around 09/01/15. These came from Greenfire Farms.



Pretty clear to see I have one pullet and two cockerels here!

These are my newer ones, hatched on 10/16/15. These came from eggs I hatched from Sunbird Farms. Out of 12 eggs, 5 had viable embryos (some candled clear, most had detached air cells - but one with a detached air cell actually hatched!).



One of these had me fooled at first, as it was looking much less barred. At this point, I'd say I have another three cockerels.

I'll raise all five of the cockerels and pick the heaviest and healthiest to pair with my pullet. The remaining four will be in limbo.

 

[Sylvester017]

Hi there! I made it!

I love the Niederrheiners, they are the sweetest, friendliest birds! I am pretty sure I have a boy and a girl which means I will have to find them a new home. I cannot have roosters because of my neighbors.

The eggs came from Brinkhaven Acres and out of six Bielefelder and three Niederrheiner eggs, I had one Bielefelder and two Niederrheiners hatch. This was a second attempt at Bielefelders for me this past summer.

I tried some eggs from Red Hill Ranch (six Bielefelders and three freebie Bielefelder/Red Orpington cross). Only one of the crosses made it to a successful hatch (sad story with clumsy other hens). There was no growth in the Bielefelder eggs.

My first batch was under a broody Buff Orpington (Henrietta) and the second batch was under a Melanistic Mutant French Black Copper Marans (Vanille).

Out of the first batch, I have a Bielefelder cross hen (Panzer) and out of the second batch I have the two Niederrheiners and a Bielefelder hen (Petunia).

So here are some pics. When they hatched, one had a definite black dot on the top of her? head, and the other had a larger slightly pale patch on the top of his? head.











And here is a video of the little male? I took last weekend eating some spinach out of my hand.

http://www.screencast.com/t/gKZy2EDFIPQm

Black dots were interesting when I was breeding Persian Cats. I panicked the first time I saw a pure white kitten born with a black patch on it's head but she grew up perfectly white. The breeder of the male we used told us it was a common feature on light kittens to have the black dot but that it disappeared in a few weeks. On chickens I don't know what it could mean but let us know if the dot disappears.

 

[hofhine68]

I love your pictures, elknsacres!

Hi Sylvester017 - yes, her little dot disappeared and she is feathering out nicely. I can't believe how friendly they are.

Thank you, Bine, for the good info. My Bielefelders have a visibly different body than my Niederrheiners and they are only two months old.

 

[UberchicRanch]

@elkinsacres ,

Yes, definitely looks like 5 cockerels and 1 pullet. Due to autosexing, there's no margin of error since pullets / hens are more orange / buff and cockerels / roosters are lighter orange / buff with bigger white barring.

Yes, you do want to pick the largest roo because it will pass on good genes to future pullets. They will inherit good laying genes. (The bigger the hen, the easier to pass an egg, which means larger eggs).

Congrats!

 

[OpalBadger]

Hi. Happy to find other Niederrheiner folks. Please bear with me if I make a mistake - read a lot of posts but never posted anything myself.

I just acquired a pair of 4 month old Niederrheiner pullets and I'm trying to find out how big these birds get. All I've been able to find is "large fowl, some roosters approaching 10 pounds"; nothing on females. I have Bielefelders and figured that Niederrheiners were slighly smaller; however, my pullets are weighing 4 1/2 pounds at 4 months, which makes them the same size as my Bielefelder pullets. Does anybody out there have standards for this breed?

I'm also looking for a nice 3 to 4 month old roo to go with my pullets. I'm near Tampa, Florida; prefer local but am willing to pay for shipping a quality bird. Please email to [email protected].

 

[Bine]

The breeder club information says that the hen should have min. 2,5 kg so... 5.5 lbs but most are around 3 kg that would be 6.6 lbs. They were one of the first meat chickens breeds in a time when special feed mixes for meat birds were not availible. So they get fat very easy. Bielefelders can have the same "problem". They more or less eat non stop while growing and later, when grown up they fatten themselfs if you don't limit the food input and give them some exercise aka free range.