Bielefelder
What would happen if you took the extraordinary sophistication of German engineering and applied it to the challenge of creating the über-chicken? You might create something like the Bielefelder. This breed was developed in Bielefeld, Germany in the early 1970s by a poultry breeder named Gerd Roth, and the breed is highly valued in its native country. Herr Roth used a number of breeds in developing the Bielefelder including the cuckoo Maline, Amrock, Wyandotte, and the New Hampshire. Greenfire Farms was the first to import Bielefelders into the United States.
This breed is very large –roosters can weigh over 10 lb.—and the beautiful hens lay piles of large brown eggs. The introduction of modern chicken breeds is often accompanied with much hype, but in the case of the Bielefelders the superlatives happen to be true. Bielefelders consistently lay some of the the largest eggs of any chicken breed that we have kept at Greenfire Farms, and they lay them in very impressive numbers.
Embedded in the Bielefelder DNA is the auto-sexing function; day-old chicks can be easily sexed based on their feather color patterns, and this trait is passed on with each generation. The complex color pattern in the adults is known as Kennfarbig and in English would be called cuckoo red partridge. Even in its native land Bielefelders command a very high price today, and they are virtually unknown outside Germany.
