Reviews by DesertChic

If ever I had to restrict myself to a single breed to meat all of my meat, egg and "chicken therapy" needs, this would be the one. Not only are my NNs prolific layers of large to jumbo sized eggs all year round, but they also provide the most delicious meat and are far easier and faster to process than other breeds. They're wonderfully intelligent and feed efficient birds with an abundance of personality. And when it comes to health and hardiness, this breed cannot be beat. Our excessive Arizona summers barely faze them, and while our winters don't get exceptionally cold like other parts of the country do, my NNs have handled freezing temperatures with no signs of discomfort or distress.

The chicks are amazingly hardy and feather out much more quickly than most other fully feathered breeds. Many of my chicks begin roosting on the edge of the brooder by 1 1/2 weeks and are very smart and active. Like most other breeds, however, they still go through an awkward, flighty stage beginning around 3 weeks and lasting until roughly 6 weeks of age. After that they become surprisingly friendly and confident.




Most of my roosters are friendly without being particularly affectionate with the exception of one boy who anxiously waits for me to come outside and sit down so he can jump up on my lap to be pet, but the minute he thinks something may be threatening his girls he's off at a run to protect them. My roosters have also become very adept at distinguishing annoyances like crows from predatory hawks and sound the alarm loud and clear and herd the hens to safety. All of my roosters (I've hatched nearly 3 dozen of them now) have been amazingly attentive to their hens and I've only ever had one rooster that was aggressive. (He was delicious roasted in wine.)




All of my hens have been exceptionally sweet and friendly and it's not uncommon for them to perch on my lap, sometimes several at once, to be pet or just spend time with me. During a bad week I may only get 4 large eggs from one of my hens, but that's a rare occurrence with the majority of my girls giving me 6 huge eggs per week. In fact, my best laying NN only took a break from laying when she molted so heavily as to be completely bald and needed to grow the feathers back. She took 3 weeks off and went right back to giving me jumbo-sized green eggs six days per week, and she's 2 years old.




As you can see from the photo of one of my roosters, you can create amazing color and feather patterns by crossing various breeds with "pure" Naked Neck Turkens. I personally keep three separate lines of NNs. One is my pure line of NNs that I'm working at reaching APA standard with. These birds, so far, tend to run fairly small, but have proven to be exceptionally feed efficient and the little hens lay amazingly large eggs for their size, averaging 5-6 per week each. Although their bodies are smaller than my crosses, their builds have all be very compact and meaty, both hens and roosters alike.






My second line is comprised of my "meat bird" project and I'm working at increasing mass and musculature along with more rapid growth for earlier processing. So far my best hen has weighed in at nearly 8 lbs and my best rooster just over 10. In spite of their larger, meatier bodies, my "meat NN hens" are still giving me just as many large+ eggs per week as my pure line.




And finally my third line, which is a combination of my best egg layers and prettiest feathered birds. This is my "fun" group comprised of NN hybrids to give me both pretty plumage and an abundance of colored eggs, including blue, green, olive green, every shade of tan through brown, and pink. This group also tends to contain some of my broodier hens.





Turkens really are an exceptional breed and I highly recommend that every family farm and homestead have at least a few.

I want to give as realistic and thorough an assessment of these birds as possible because it's far too easy to fall in love with their beauty and wonderful personalities, and miss the few potential 'negatives' about the breed. I acquired all of my birds via hatching eggs purchased and shipped from two separate breeders. My hatch rates were good, especially considering the effects of shipping, but from the beginning I noticed that chicks failed to hatch after lockdown in spite of having developed well up until that point in incubation.

All chicks are adorable, but Bielefelder chicks are especially easy to keep. They were so quiet and content that I would check on them multiple times per day out of fear that they'd died or something. And whereas many breeds of chick scatter in panic when you reach into the brooder, the Bielefelder chicks wouldn't hesitate from the beginning to approach my hand, accept affection, and peep happily or rest quietly when handled. That said, they are also eating machines and most certainly ate more than other breeds I've raised. And that heavier feed consumption continued throughout their development and even into adulthood. Now that my birds are mature they don't eat significantly more than some of my other adult breeds, but it would be wrong to classify Bielefelders as feed efficient.

The personalities of these birds are some of the best I've encountered, especially among the males. At one point I had six Bielefelder cockerels and there wasn't an aggressive or flighty one in the bunch. True, a couple were less friendly and more nervous than others during adolescence, but not one of them could ever have been considered aggressive to humans or other chickens. Two of my favorite roosters are Bielefelders and don't hesitate to hop up onto my lap to be cuddled and pet, and will even fall asleep on my lap while I stroke their backs. They are very tolerant of other roosters, including other breeds of roosters, and while very friendly still know how to assert themselves and hold their status as regal leaders of the flock. And when it comes to taking care of the girls, these boys are real gentlemen. I call one of my Bielefelder roosters "the great uniter of my flocks" because he calls forth even the shy and nervous hens to receive treats, protecting them from more aggressive hens, and manages to bring multiple flocks together to live in harmony. My boys also work in tandem to protect the hens and pullets from any potential threats, with one of them standing guard while the other herds the girls to safety. My mature roosters weigh between 9 and 11 lbs each.

The hens, in my experience, have more diverse personalities than the roosters. Most seem to be exceptionally affectionate to the point of almost being overly trusting and constantly underfoot. They love to be lap chickens and are rarely nervous, and while some of my girls are very quiet, others are downright chatty. And although some more assertive breeds may pick on these gentle giants, I have seen my Bielefelder girls stand up to some of those bullies in order to defend themselves and even to defend my little Silkies. They form strong friendship bonds both within their own breed and with other breeds. In fact, the only negative thing about the hens specifically is that they take a long time, in my experience, to reach point of lay. My own birds didn't begin laying until 44 weeks of age, and while their eggs from the beginning were large to X-large in size, they also tend to be torpedo shaped with low hatching rates in spite of high fertility. Just as with those shipped eggs I received, many of the eggs begin to develop and then fizzle out by day 18 of incubation. I now plan to try hatching some under a broody hen to see if I get better results. My mature hens weight between 6.5 and 8.5 lbs each.

My number one warning about this breed is that they simply do not handle high temperatures, and especially high temperatures with high humidity, well at all. This breed seems to retain more far more body fat than other breeds I've owned and suffer horribly as the temperature increases. I live in the desert southwest and had to resort to extraordinary measures to care for my Bielefelders last summer, including providing them with air conditioning. I'm now working towards improving their heat tolerance, but it will be a long-term project and will undoubtedly require a great deal of time and patience. If you live in a cooler, more temperate environment though, Bielefelders truly are a wonderful dual-purpose breed that does very well free-ranging on fresh greens to counteract some of the cost of feed. Their meat tastes fantastic and is very juicy, with plenty of fat to render for roasting or for cooking other foods. I've no regrets about acquiring them, even if they do require a bit more attention and care than my other breeds during the summer. Their outstanding personalities make it worth it to me to keep them in my flock.

I want to preface this review by admitting that my BRs are hatchery stock, not breeder quality. That said, I am really impressed with this breed. One of my hens, Luna, was very assertive from day one, but never mean to the others, establishing her place at the head of the pecking order even over older and larger birds. She began laying medium brown eggs at 18 weeks and has laid 5-6 eggs per week ever since. My second hen, Sky, was always much quieter and incredibly sweet. My little Silkie hen would run to her when the larger birds were pick on her and Sky would act as a physical barrier between the Silkie and the others and protect her in a wonderfully calm, quiet way. Sky began laying at 19 weeks and also has provided 5-6 medium-sized brown eggs every week since. At roughly 22 weeks of age both of my girls weigh over six pounds, are egg-laying machines, and are so sweet and friendly that they don't hesitate to hop up onto my lap and settle in to be pet or take a nap, cooing softly and affectionately the entire time.

My only complaint is with my BR rooster. I raised him from a day old chick and he had been so sweet...and then puberty set in and he began to charge at me on a regular basis, pecking at my knee caps, flapping, chasing me, and crowing irritatedly. He treats his girls incredibly well, protecting the entire flock of large breeds and bantams alike and calling them over to give them treats when he finds them, but is not as people friendly as I would like. I spent weeks working with him, trying various techniques to establish the idea that not only am I not a threat, but I'm also the "dominant", but ultimately it just didn't work out. Perhaps pure-bred BR roosters are less aggressive, but my boy, while absolutely gorgeous, very hardy and large, was just too mean to the family to keep around.