Can someone tell me about Silver Lakenvelder Hens?

[Bren1222]

I am thinking about getting a few and I was wondering what their temperment, laying ability, etc was.

I have looked on the internet and can't find much about them except they lay medium size white eggs.

If anyone has a few of this breed can you tell me what your experience is or was with these hens.

Thanks!

 

[2dream]

I did an internet search and did not come up with much useful info other than they are non sitters.
So I am bumping this up hoping someone else will see it and give you some answers.

 

[Bren1222]

That is about what I found .

Thanks for the bump, maybe someone will know something

 

[keljonma]

We have one Silver Lakenvelder hen, Martha Washington. We got her as a day old chick from McMurray Hatchery. She is now 2 years old.

Very appropriately for her name, Martha was the very first in our flock to lay an egg.

She was 4 months and 18 days old when she laid her first white/pink tinted matte finish egg. Her first pullet egg was 4 1/4" diameter, 1 3/4" high, 1 1/2" wide. She laid 100 eggs her first year.

Lakenvelders are heat tolerant and not known for being broody. Martha has never gone broody for us.

She's only been in the infirmary once for a few days in April of 2007, so I consider her a very healthy hen.

This breed is said to be flighty. None of our birds are the same breed, so I cannot say whether this generalization is true or not. Martha has had her flighty moments. When she was near to starting to lay eggs, she would run from one nest box to the next, checking all 8 out. It was how I knew she would lay soon. Occasionally she will still go through this nest box jumping, before settling on one to finally lay in. Martha usually picks the one of 2 boxes to lay in, but always checks to see if another box may be better. She loudly voices her opinion when her favorite nest box or roosting spot is filled by another hen.

She isn't a lap-sitter but will sit next to one of us and chat, if she has something to say. She comes when called and will eat treats out of our hands. She is a great forager and loves to garden.

Martha is a slow molter. By that I mean she doesn't loose all her feathers at once and walk around naked for a month, like some of our ladies do. I don't know if this is a personal trait or a breed trait.

Here are some pics of Martha and the rest of our flock.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keljonma/

 

[Frozen Feathers]

IMO the hens are flighty and a bit insane. She laid okay...but I definitely have girls that would outlay her and the egg wasn't that big.

They did winter okay. I sold them the following Spring.

My roo wasn't bad, though. Very well behaved with everyone and quite the ladies man. Not too fond of people, but never aggressive. Definitely pretty birds, but I like calm big fat birds and these are smaller birds, just really didn't appeal to me.


Here's my old pair...

 

[Bren1222]

Thanks everyone. I am still thinking about it! They sure are pretty birds!

 

[Jubaby]

I have two 7 week old Silver Lakenvelder pullets from Ideal, and this is my first experience with them.

So far they run away when I enter the pen, while many of the others come right up to us. They are on the low end of the pecking order in our group. When we feed treats, they run up and grab a bite, then run off to the corner. Some times the other chickens chase them away.

Right now they are in the ugly juvenile stage and are really slow in getting their feathers. So I can't say they are a favorite right now. I'm anxious to see how they look as they get a little older. The photos posted above are beautiful and I hope mine look as good.

 

[confused]

I notice these entries are really old so do eople still subscribe to this website. I got a few lakenvelders from a lady in May but the coloring is not turning out the way I had hoped. Too much white in areas that I thought would be black. They are definitely the flightiest chicks I've had for quite awhile. I'm not sure at this point whether I'll keep them or not but they are different.

 

[white finch]

I have one lakenvelder hen and three other hens (Sicilian butter cup, Welsummer and Silver spangled hamburg.) my lakenvelder was flighty at first but now that she's a year old is my favorite hen. She is so friendly and a good mommy too!!!