Barnevelder

There is only one word to sum up Barnevelders, LAZY. 

If you have a small yard and you want chickens that take confinement well, then read on, Barnevelders may be the chicken for you.

We got our Barney (yes yes, we are not imaginative with names at all >.<) at the Gawler poultry sale with our Leghorn. We paid $35 for this chicken, to this day, I'm not sure if she was worth the early morning start to get to the sales on time. We were told that she was 2 years old at the time we bought her.

LAYING

Well, according to all the literature that I have read, Barnevelders are supposed to lay dark brown eggs. We got swindled on this one, her eggs are speckledly at best. Nowadays, breeders go more for looks and do not select for egg colour. What a pity, we really wanted a chicken that laid dark brown eggs. Barney doesn't lay very often, at best, once every second day and for her size (she is only slightly smaller than the Australorp) her eggs are smaller, around the 50-60gm mark, whereas the Australorp would lay eggs around 70gm.

If you are considering a Barnevelder, check with the breeder to see if they select for egg laying rather than looks. For a backyard chicken keeper, eggs usually come before looks.

From left to right: Leghorn, speckled Barnevelder egg, Australorp and ISA brown eggs

TEMPERAMENT

As I said, they are lazy birds, so they are prone to being obese. The upside is that these are birds that are least likely to dig up your garden. They will however, eat the leaves off your vegetable plants. Barney never did stray far from food and WOW, can she eat. One of her favourites were ground up soy beans and I had to take it away from her from fear that she would explode with the amount she ate. For a chicken that was allowed to free range all the time, she did get quite bulky.

Her big size meant that she is not a good jumper or flyer, so again good for small yards. She wasn't very friendly with us, but that could be because she was not raised by us. She will come up for food though.

Teasing the dog (actually, our dog didn't care)

Very quiet for a big bird, she did do a cute "buk buk buk" when looking around her nesting box. Apart from that, pretty much silent. Got along well with the other chickens and not fussed to be lower in the pecking order.  She was probably the smartest of all the birds as she would just sit and observe what is going on around her. She did work out that the best way to keep cool in summer was to stand in a pool of water. On our heatwave days, you can always find her standing near or in water!

keeping cool

Unfortunately, their lazy, gluttonous lifestyle means that they are prone to being obese and all sorts of problems that accompany fat chickens. Barney was already an intermittent layer and we never noticed that she was egg bound. As she was never an active bird, we didn't notice how unwell she was until it was too late. Two things brought her downfall, the egg bound egg broke in her and she did not pass the contents and the second was flystrike that fed on the rotten egg debris around her vent area. We took her to the vet, but it was all too late for her :(

It all goes to show how vigilant you have to be with your chickens. RIP Barney.

If you are interested in Barnevelders, it is worth checking with the breeder if the hens were bred for eggs or for looks. Try to get a younger hen so they can bond better with you and accept handling more. Suitable for small yards, a quiet bird, but bear in mind that they like their tucker and allow them to free range to keep them active.