The Barnevelder chicken breed which is said to have emerged from the Holland (Netherland). However, this chicken has got his name from a small-town Barneveld located in the Netherlands in the east of Utrecht. The town of Barneveld was of prime importance because it was responsible for the supply of eggs throughout Europe. Listed below are some of the interesting facts about the Barneveld chicken breed.
Breed Origin
As mentioned earlier, the Barnevelder was originated from Holland (western Europe) which in the past was famous for their Landrace and other native chicken breeds who produced white eggs. But in the early ’90s, England and many other western countries started showing interest in Brown eggs.
Thus, to keep the pace with the requirements of western poultry industry the European agriculturist started the cross-breeding of many native and imported fowls such as the landrace, Malays, Wyandotte, Langshan and many other chicken breeds were mixed to form a new chicken breed the Barnevelder chicken.
Appearance
The Barnevelder chicken is not only the most recent but beautiful addition to the breeds of chicken. The body of Barnevelder chicken is regularly covered with brown patterns. The hen’s neck doesn’t contain such brown regular patterns and is simply black. However, such regular patterning is absent in case of Barnevelder’s rooster. Like other chicken breeds, they have an erect posture.
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The Barnevelder chicken is available in several colours such as white, silver, blue, black, chamois, double laced blue and double laced silver but mostly black. Their comb has 5 distinguish points and is red and their eyes are red bay in colour. The entire body of the Barnevelder chicken is covered with soft feathers except for the lower limbs that are feather-free and yellow. Each foot has four toes.
Weight
The Barnevelder chicken is quite a heavy and large fowl. The female Barnevelder weighs around 5-6 pounds which is about 2.70kgs and the male Barnevelder weighs about 7.5-8 pounds which is around 3.5-4 kgs.
Egg-laying Capacity
The Barnevelder chicken starts to lay eggs at the age of about 18 to 24 weeks. The Barnevelder chicken is a dual-purpose breed and produces a good amount of meat and eggs. They are considered to be good layer as hen of this breed gives you about 4-5 eggs per week, which means around 180-190 eggs per year. They actively lay eggs for about 5 seasons.
Egg Size & Colour
Just like their body size the Barnevelder chicken produces large-sized eggs which are mostly dark brown. But with time the dark brown colour of their eggs has been changed into light brown.
Behaviour
The Barnevelder chicken is a very low maintenance breed and yet very friendly and calm. They love to roam freely in the yards. They are winter hardy and will lay eggs throughout the winter season. The Barnevelder Hen loves to sit on her eggs and thus appears to be a good mother for her chicks.
This chicken breed can tolerate harsh winter weather quite easily. The poultry breeders show great interest in this chicken breed not only because it produces a good amount of meat and eggs every year but also is easy to breed. The average life span of the purest breed of this chicken is between 4 and 7 years.
