Last November, I began communication with the Bielefelder Kennhuhn chicken's creator, Gerd Roth. Mr. Roth was 80 years old at the time, and is still an active poultry judge in Germany. With the support of several other dedicated Bielefelder Breeders, we sent two copies of the APA Standard of Perfection book to Germany. Mr Roth, in collaboration with the German breed association secretary, Monika Keller-Dichii, wrote the detailed SOP in the APA format that will be required as we make our way through the breed acceptance process.
We are organizing as the North American Bielefelder Association. Membership dues are $10 and will first go towards website creation and raising the necessary funds to submit our SOP to the APA. You may submit your application here.
We have a members-only Facebook group at North American Bielefelder Association - Members Only. If you submit a request to join without first submitting your application, please check your Message Requests folder for a private message from me.
The proposed SOP (PSOP) that follows will undoubtedly have edits made to it for clarity before our APA acceptance process is complete. Generally speaking though, little should change, and I feel the original version should be recorded for posterity and reference. After all, this original version is the vision of the breed's own creator!
There will be refinements to this originally proposed SOP. Namely, the weights will have to be rounded up or down to the nearest 1/4 pound. They are presently indicated as a direct conversion from kilograms to pounds. We do not intend to make any significant deviations from the proposed weights.
There will be refinements to the disqualifications section. This section is currently a little unclear and also includes some unnecessary call-outs.
Everything else about the shape and color of this breed has been clearly described by our breed's creator, in even greater detail than the current German standard. This new standard should be extremely helpful for breeders in North America, where the breed has been reproduced with little guidance on what they should actually be.
Please feel free to save a copy of this standard for yourselves. The road to APA acceptance will likely take at least 2 years. We have several exhibitors already excited about this step forward, and we welcome more. Even if your interest does not lie in showing, I encourage you to purchase and breed your Bielefelder with the German (soon to be American) standards in mind.
The Bielefelder chicken originated in the Bielefeld region of Germany in the 1970s. This makes it one of the youngest German chicken breeds. The breeder (inventor) of the Bielefelder, Gerd Roth, wanted a weather hardy, fast-growing, auto-sexing chicken with remarkable laying performance, yet with a good feed conversion ratio. To accomplish those traits, Gerd Roth used Amrocks, Welsumers, New Hampshires, Rhode Island Red and Mechelner.
In order to get a chicken suitable for fattening and for producing tasty short-fiber meat, Roth introduced at the end of the breeding process Mechelners as gene carriers.
Gerd Roth showed his “Deutsches Kennhuhn” for the first time in Hannover, Germany in 1976.
The name that Mr. Roth decided upon, “Deutsches Kennhuhn”, hit opposition by the BZA (Bundeszuchtausschuss = Federal Breeding Committee) as well as from individual poultry clubs. The BZA suggested that the breed’s name should be a connection to a region or a place. Roth agreed and called his breed after the region he had his breeding program, in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bielefeld, Germany. With the new name, the Bielefelder Kennhuhn was recognized by the BZA in BDRG (Bund Deutscher Rassegefluegelzuechter = Association of German Pedigree Poultry Breeders) in 1980.
ECONOMIC QUALITIES
A dual-purpose fowl bred for the production of meat and eggs. Hens are excellent producers of large, brown eggs and good meat production. Roosters are suitable for fattening to produce fine-grained and tasty meat. Fast growing, weather hardy chicken. Auto-sexing down color: cockerel yellowish bay with light brown dorsal stripes and clearly visible white head spot. Pullets light brown with dark brown dorsal stripes and dark brown eyeliner stripe.
DISQUALIFICATIONS
Shape Disqualifications: triangular or high shot up, lighter and narrower hull, short or concaved back, ascending backline. Flat, highly carried breast area, steep tail, over-posture, white in earlobes, less then 10 primary wing feathers. Breast not sufficiently pronounced in hens. Duck foot
Coloring Disqualifications:Rooster: grey barred breast and abdomen sections; missing yellow in back and upper saddle; sooty hackle feathers; solid white feather in primaries; one or more solid white sickle feathers.Hen: solid black or grey feathers in back and breast; other than rich salmon breast color.
STANDARD WEIGHTS
Cock | 9.3 lbs | Hen | 7.7 lbs |
Cockerel | 6.9 lbs | Pullet | 5.8 lbs |
SHAPE – MALE
COMB - Single; medium size, firm and upright, free from any twists or folds around nostrils, four to six well-defined points; not more than halfway cut down to comb base, blade following closely but not touching the line of neck
BEAK - Strong, medium-long, yellowish horn
FACE - Clean-cut, skin fine and soft texture
EYES - Large, round, full, prominent
WATTLES - Medium size, regularly curved
EAR-LOBES - Medium-size, almond-shaped, red
HEAD - Medium size, of fine quality, without coarseness
NECK - Strong, fairly long, somewhat arched
HACKLE - Abundant, flowing well over shoulders BACK - Long, broad in its entire length, carried horizontally
SADDLE - Abundant; concealing wing points
TAIL - fairly large, broad and overlapping, carried at an angle of forty five degrees (45°) above horizontal (see “Figures 1 and 2” on page 30)
MAIN TAIL - Broad and overlapping
MAIN SICKLES - Medium length, extending slightly beyond main tail feathers, moderately curved
LESSER SICKLES AND COVERTS - Abundant, moderately curved
WINGS - Medium-size, carried close to sides without drooping, moderately curved
PRIMARIES AND SECONDARIES - Broad and overlapping in a natural order when wing is folded, 10 primaries
BREAST - Full, well-rounded, broad
BODY – Oblong, broad, deep, straight, feathers carried close to body
FLUFF - short, slight shank fluff permitted
LEGS AND TOES - Set well apart, straight when viewed from front
LOWER THIGHS - Well developed, medium length, well defined
SHANKS – Medium length, yellow-legged
TOES - Four on each foot, long, straight, well spread
SHAPE - FEMALE
COMB - Single; medium in size, straight and upright, four to six well-defined points; not more than halfway cut down to comb base, blade following closely but not touching the line of neck
BEAK - Strong, medium-long, yellowish horn
FACE - Clean-cut, skin fine and soft texture
EYES - Large, round, full, prominent
WATTLES - Medium size, regularly curved
EAR-LOBES - Medium-size, almond-shaped, red
HEAD - Medium size, of fine quality, without coarseness
NECK - Strong, fairly long, somewhat arched
BACK - Long, broad in its entire length, carried horizontally
TAIL - fairly large, broad and overlapping, carried at an angle of thirty degrees (30°) above horizontal (see “Figures 1 and 2” on page 30), main tail feathers standing vertically together
WINGS - Medium-size, carried close to sides without drooping, moderately curved
PRIMARIES AND SECONDARIES - Broad and overlapping in a natural order when wing is folded, 10 primaries
BREAST - Full, deep, broad, well-rounded
BODY - Oblong, broad, deep, straight, feathers carried close to body
FLUFF - Abundant, slight shank fluff permitted
LEGS AND TOES - Set well apart, straight when viewed from front
LOWER THIGHS - Well developed, medium length, well defined
SHANKS - Short, mostly hidden in side-feathers, yellow-legged
TOES - Four on each foot, long, straight, well spread
COLOR - MALE
COMB, FACE, WATTLES AND EAR-LOBES - Bright red
BEAK - Yellowish horn
EYES - Orange reddish
HEAD - Rich reddish gold
NECK:
HACKLE - Rich reddish gold with light grey barring, grey fluff on quill
FRONT OF NECK – Rich reddish gold with light grey barring, grey fluff on quill
BACK - Rich reddish gold with light grey barring, grey fluff on quill
SADDLE - Rich reddish gold with light grey barring, grey fluff on quill
TAIL:
MAIN TAIL - Dull black and grey barred
SICKLES – Dark grey and light grey barred
UPPER COVERTS - Dark grey and light grey barred
LOWER COVERTS - Dark grey and light grey barred
WINGS:
SHOULDERS, FRONTS AND BOWS - Rich reddish gold
COVERTS - Rich reddish gold
PRIMARIES – greyish brown feathers with very fine brown striping on edge of surface
SECONDARIES – Grey and yellowish brown
BREAST – Reddish yellow and red, grey fluff
BODY AND FLUFF:
BODY - Reddish yellow and red, grey fluff
FLUFF – Light and dull grey barring
LEGS AND TOES:
LOWER THIGHTS – Reddish yellow and red, grey fluff
SHANKS AND TOES: yellow
UNDERCOLOR OF ALL SECTIONS - Grey
COLOR - FEMALE
COMB, FACE, WATTLES AND EAR-LOBES - Bright red
BEAK - Yellowish horn
EYES - Orange reddish
HEAD – Rich chestnut
NECK:
HACKLE - Golden chestnut with interrupted dark grey barring
FRONT OF NECK – Golden chestnut with interrupted dark grey barring
BACK – Dark brown with dull grey barring
TAIL:
MAIN TAIL – Dark brown with lesser dull grey barring
WINGS – Dark brown with dull grey barring
FRONT AND BOWS – Same as back
COVERTS - Dark brown with dull grey barring
PRIMARIES - Dark brown with dull grey barring
SECONDARIES - Dark brown with dull grey barring
BREAST - Reddish yellow
BODY AND FLUFF:
BODY – Reddish yellow
FLUFF – Dark brown with dull grey barring
LEGS AND TOES:
LOWER THIGHTS - Dark brown with dull grey barring
SHANKS AND TOES – Yellow, in laying hens faded yellow is permitted
UNDERCOLOR OF ALL SECTIONS – Grey
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