Best breeds for hot weather?

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nettamere3

nettamere3

Hatching
11 Years
Jul 22, 2008
6
0
7
South Texas
Howdy everyone!

I'm new at raising chickens, so we started off with three beautiful RIR's that are doing great. Our first eggs should be coming in the next couple of weeks- and now I have "chickens on the brain."

My husband got me a free chicken catalog from a pretty big company- and as I flip through the beautiful pics of amazing birds- I keep coming back to the question: "Yeah- but will they do alright in the South Texas heat?"

It's routinely 97-100 here for weeks on end in the spring/summer/fall and I don't want to get birds that won't do well here. So I went online and tried to find a map or list of what chickens do best in the heat- but no luck.

Does anyone know where I can look up which birds will do well in the heat vs. ones that will not? I would love to get a nice variety- but I don't want to torture the poor little things if they really aren't meant for hot weather.

Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
Thank you so much gritsar! I went to the site and worked my way to the chart- what a valuable find! I found 19 types that look like they will do well in the heat.

Again- thanks so much for sharing!
 
I live in central Florida and we too have very hot summers, about 5 months, June to 1st of November: daytime averages, upper 80's - lower 90's, nighttime averages, upper to lower 70's, every day. I have Rhode Island Reds. They are very good layers. I usually get an egg a day from each chicken. They do slack off during extreme heat/cold weather, and I get only around half the amount of eggs.

This is from: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html "robust; hardy in heat & cold"
 
Quote:
Hi cmom! My Dad lives in central Florida and I lived there part-time during childhood/young adulthood. I tell anyone who will listen around here that Arkansas has Florida beat for long, miserable summers and those who have experienced both agree with me. :|
 
nettamere3

I think, 1st decide if you want just eggs or meat too. Leghorns are not good meat birds. They are great egg layers.
Rhode Island Reds and most of the Mediterranean breeds, and Brahma’s are dual purpose birds that do well in hot climates. The Rhode Island Reds are probably the most prolific layers of these birds.
 
Everyone seems to forget about the Naked Neck. Dual purpose, decent layers, can be broody, and delicious dark lean meat. Make good moms, Roosters not usually overly agressive. The number 1 dual purpose poultry for hotter areas. They are not flighty like your Med fowls. Pretty calm and friendly. They also have about 1/2 the feathers as other chickens and therefore make them easier and quicker to pluck.
 
Also look at Barnevelders. They were developed in Australia and can handle the icky damp weather fairly well. I have 6 of them and am very pleased with them. I live in Central TX where it quickly gets over 100. They seem to fair better than my Specks, and EE's(these do the worst) and my Naked Necks have faired well too. 2 of them decided to go broody, so they will go broody, make pretty good mothers, easy to handle although they really don't like it. Don't know about the table, haven't tried one yet. They lay nice dark brown, sometimes speckled large eggs about every other day, and more in the winter months here. NN's and Barnies. Two great birds.
 
I also live in South Texas. I am constructing a coop which I will be asking a bunch of questions about...but...I have planted some fruit trees on the West side of coop and am planning to also plant bushes on the south side, as well, to try to shade the structure.
My vet had me put up a mister for one of my horses last summer and it made a HUGE difference. I am considering putting a mist head inside the coop itself for the hot hot days and a stronger mister in the run. The chickens hang around a mister I have outside for humans so I figured I would buy them their own.
 

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