PROFITABLE POULTRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3821, 14 October 1936, Page 6

PROFITABLE POULTRY

THE BARNEVELDER FOWL The Barnvvoider is quite a modern creation. It came to the front with a rush soon after the world’s first Poultry Congress, which was held at the Hague in 1921. In the c<gg section display the Dutch poultry breeders staged a special exhibit of exceptionally large dark brown eggs. They attracted considerable attention among breed-

ers throughout Europe, and also in the U.S.A., Canada and Australia by reason of their size, uniformity of shade and colour. A great demand for breeding stock arose, and thousands of Barnevelders left Holland at prices which were really fabulous for specimens of a breed quite unknown outside the land of its birth. Like many another boom, the Barn - velder boom did not last long. Birds imported into Great Britain did not fulfil the claims made for them, either in size or colour of the nor did they breed true to type and marking. The truth was that they were put on the market before they were perfected. Another difficulty which had to be met was that therte wiere females with double-laced feather markings, and some with partridge, there were only cockerels of one character; hence the breeding disappointments. This has since been rectified, and to-day there are cockerels of both characters. One reason why the Barnevelder has not held its early position is because Dutch breeders, encouraged by the phenomenal success of the big brown egg breed, rushed another on the market a few years later—the Welsummer. The Bar;nevelder has had to fight another drawback; the eggs do not hatch easily, owing to the membrane inside the shell being above the average in thickness and toughness. The Barnevelder is a sitting breed, and a useful dual purpose breed, being a fairly good table bird, and although not coming up to the early claims made for it, it is a good average layer. English breeders, in addition to producing cockerels of both kinds, have succeeded in establishing a black Barnevelder which is indeed a far better bird than the original laced birds from Holland. Three- or four years ago white Barnevelders were produced in Holland, but they have not been a success so far. It ipust be said that the original Barnevelder has proved to be of great service in England when crossed with White Leghorns and White Wyandottes for egg production purposes.