Great Chicken Breed: Barnevelder
The Barnevelder is a breed of medium heavy dual-purpose chicken from the Netherlands. It resulted from cross-breeding between local Dutch chickens and various chickens imported from Asia to Europe in the later part of the nineteenth century; these may have been of Brahma, Cochin or Croad Langshan type. It is named for the town and municipality of Barneveld, in Gelderland in the central Netherlands.
This chicken breed has a nice lace-like brown and black feather pattern that is unmistakable. This feather patterning (there is an iridescent green tinge in the feathers) is the most distinguishing characteristic of the breed. Each feather has rings of alternating brown and black, ending with a final black edge. This lacing forms a pretty “lace-like” pattern.
Dutch breeders developed the double-laced Barnevelder chicken in the early 20th century in the Netherlands, crossing with the Langshan chicken. Breeders started first with single-laced feathers, and then developed the double lacing resulting in the breed that is known for today.
The hens are good layers of large brown eggs and, unlike some other breeds, continue to lay well during winter. Barnevelders are docile, very good natured and beautiful but are fairly low maintenance. Just like other chickens, barnevelders will take care of their personal hygiene by regularly giving themselves dust baths, as well as preening themselves.
Sources: http://www.wideopenpets.com/barnevelder-chicken-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-breed/
http://www.aniland.info/favinbsuggest-barnevelders.asp
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We raised heritage-line Delawares for years. Also very excellent birds. We had a breeding program and everything for around five years.
Similar to the Barnevelder, these are great dual-purpose birds with the girls laying steadily all year and the boys topping out at around 6-7 lbs by 16 weeks.
All-around good backyard birds. Also, since Delawares are a rare-breed now, heritage-line birds command good prices for laying eggs, $15-20 per dozen easy.
Lastly, you can cross the girls with a Barred Rock or Rhode Island Red to make sex-linked crosses, which allow you to sex by color on birth. Sex-links are also excellent dual-purpose birds as long as you start both lines from heritage stock.
Thanks for the post.
That is very interesting. Thanks for the comment!
I think it was the mix of heritage rare breed AND making sex-linked chicks that were the main reasons my wife chose Delawares over prettier chickens like the Barnevelder. :)
We had chickens twice in my life. Once as a kid and once as an adult. We were quite poor and the house we rented came with a chicken coup and chickens. One laid blue eggs. One we were told was a Polish breed, but I think someone made that up.
One day we found out that the hatchery closes to us killed the roosters and kept the hens. So we got 100 chicks for free. It was quite an experience. The first week in the pen, one of the chicks got poked by the wire and was bleeding. I learned that chickens are animals at that moment... The rest of the chicks pecked the red blood until they nearly pecked the chick to death. I'm sure I could write a post about how similar humans are:)
When they were were a few months old I went into the the chicken pen to feed them and they would fly at me, try to land on my nose and peck my eyes. I learned they could be vile animals. I was trying to feed them, but they weren't even grateful... All you could do was bat them down as they few at you.
My parents told me to lock the chickens inside the pen because there was a big storm coming. For some reason I never did and all but 3 were killed by the storm.
As an adult, my brother and nephews raised 30 wild turkeys, 15 chickens and some partridge. My Dad would go to the day out bread place and get a garbage bag full of old bread that we would feed them. They gave the chickens to our neighbor who had around 50 already and they let the other birds out to make a population in the wild. I still see about 20-30 turkeys in the summertime and I'm sure they continue on from those that my brother let loose into the wild.
Interesting story! Thanks for sharing.
This is very new to me,i had no idea about this chicken breed.They produce good quantity of eggs which helps to mitigate the need of animal protein.This Barnevelder chicken is nice to look also very profitable.Thanks to you for this post because i have got a goat farm and i am thinking to expand my farm towards poultry sector .Thank's for the post.@resteemed
Good luck on your chicken expansion project!
Thank's to u for reply.
Nice chicken breed, i watch the video and these chickens also looks so healthy to me and i hope their eggs are also so tasty, i really like the color and patterns on their feather's and i think these chickens are perfect if we use them for egg laying purposes, thanks for introducing us to this breed friend, Stay blessed
Sayang diay ni tinola.hon sir @darthnava kay kusog man ni mosanay.
Walay sayang kung gutom ang atong tiyan!
Nice dual purpose varity bread.we too have such breeds in india such as kadaknath,assel,giriraja and vavaraja.thanks for sharing.
interesting breed Barnevelder is for sure and the details you shared about them is even more interesting thanks for sharing it :D
Seems like a visayan chicken breed!
It has a beautiful pattern on the wings.
Hello my dear friend! As far as I can see you are no chicken :) I would love to interview you for my new project. Are you interested?
Yeah, sure. Just contact me over at steemit.chat. I cannot answer questions right away because I am busy but I will surely answer them if given time to respond each one.