Best chicken for the apocalypse?

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SanCarlos6127

SanCarlos6127

In the Brooder
6 Years
Oct 12, 2013
62
8
33
Brooks, Maine
Any thoughts on what the best chicken would be for the apocalypse or SHTF? I live in Maine, so cold hardy and winter laying is a must. Also feed conversion is a serious factor as they will have to be fed more through the winter months.

My assumption is that I will kill all but 10-12 hens and 2-3 roosters when late fall sets in and rebuild the flock during the spring and summer for meat birds and replacement layers...

My brain is telling me Dominiques which are a lighter DP breed that lay well in the winter and can go broody, or Welsummers, also lighter and can go broody. Although I'd like to hear how the Welsummers lay during winter...

Large, heavy breeds are just gonna eat too much.
 
When the SHTF you will be happy to eat crow. I would recommend some GLW's or even some Rhode Island reds. medium sized, and good eggs as well as meat. However I found the meat on the GLW's was not as good as the RIR's. Delawares also are a good one to have and wonderful white breast meat.
 
hildar said:
When the SHTF you will be happy to eat crow. I would recommend some GLW's or even some Rhode Island reds. medium sized, and good eggs as well as meat. However I found the meat on the GLW's was not as good as the RIR's. Delawares also are a good one to have and wonderful white breast meat.
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Dorkings are winter layers and very broody. A few of these and can keep some of the non layers you want.Buy a New Hampshire rooster over a white rock, delaware or white dorking and get red sex links. Super hardy. Good luck..
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Hmm, doubt there'd be many stores selling chicken feed in an apocalypse. I would look more for a breed that could hustle for themselves. For the winter hardiness a major concern is combs freezing then the frostbite leading to a life threatening infection. Learn to dub and that pretty well is taken out of the equation. My self sustaining flock that just run free and pretty well take care of themselves are American gamefowl. Assuming old English game standards would be very similar. It's the breed standard to dub them anyhow, but no winter loss from them. They generally prefer to sleep in trees. So very little protection from the cold and they do fine.
 
bugflipper said:
Hmm, doubt there'd be many stores selling chicken feed in an apocalypse. I would look more for a breed that could hustle for themselves. For the winter hardiness a major concern is combs freezing then the frostbite leading to a life threatening infection. Learn to dub and that pretty well is taken out of the equation. My self sustaining flock that just run free and pretty well take care of themselves are American gamefowl. Assuming old English game standards would be very similar. It's the breed standard to dub them anyhow, but no winter loss from them. They generally prefer to sleep in trees. So very little protection from the cold and they do fine.
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American game fowl are a good breed to have and they are great for foraging. However the OP is in Maine which means 40 below temperatures and some storms up there get 4 feet of snow to a time. When we lived in Maine my dad would only have Legacy and RIR or barred rock. The reason being they were very cold hardy. RIR not as much as the barred and legacy breed. One of our Rhode island reds lost part of his comb to frost bite in the coop one year it was so bitter cold. After that year he only kept the Legacy and barred rocks. The legacy were so big that they would plow areas in the snow for the barred rocks to forage for food. The legacy also kept the predators away. They are a really big bird and not much will mess with a rooster. I still have our rooster. Here in NC where we don't have predators coming around the yard we keep his spurs trimmed. At his age the normal roosters spur would be close to 8 to 12 inches long. They are like knives when they get older. Many roosters live to be 12 to 15 years old. Mine is 8 years old and still can out run a young rooster and show them who is boss.

 
hildar said:
American game fowl are a good breed to have and they are great for foraging. However the OP is in Maine which means 40 below temperatures and some storms up there get 4 feet of snow to a time. When we lived in Maine my dad would only have Legacy and RIR or barred rock. The reason being they were very cold hardy. RIR not as much as the barred and legacy breed. One of our Rhode island reds lost part of his comb to frost bite in the coop one year it was so bitter cold. After that year he only kept the Legacy and barred rocks. The legacy were so big that they would plow areas in the snow for the barred rocks to forage for food. The legacy also kept the predators away. They are a really big bird and not much will mess with a rooster. I still have our rooster. Here in NC where we don't have predators coming around the yard we keep his spurs trimmed. At his age the normal roosters spur would be close to 8 to 12 inches long. They are like knives when they get older. Many roosters live to be 12 to 15 years old. Mine is 8 years old and still can out run a young rooster and show them who is boss.

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Ok, you got me curious, what's a "Legacy"? I'm leaning towards my own "supermutts" but will also be breeding Ameraucanas and Ameraucana/Egger crosses.
 
SanCarlos6127 said:
Ok, you got me curious, what's a "Legacy"? I'm leaning towards my own "supermutts" but will also be breeding Ameraucanas and Ameraucana/Egger crosses.
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I haven't got the slightest Idea as to what they originally made them with. They are an older breed from Maine they came there originally from Canada and before that this ones blood lines came from Wales early 1800's. My grandparents brought them to the US with them back in 1912 from Canada. My dad kept them going. And I have continued to keep them going over the past 20+ years. But may give up. I don't need a huge bird here. No coyotes for them to go after
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Haven't ever heard of Legacy birds before. Interesting! I'm doing research now on what kind of chickens I want...I live in VT and need cold hardy chickens. I'm also new to chickens so I want a good temperament. I'm reading Storeys Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow and it has a very handy chart in it that summarizes all the breeds and their characteristics. Welsummers certainly do look like the breed to have if planning for maintaining your own flock. Personally I am also really fascinated by Russian Orloff's as well. They're very kind, intelligent, more predator proof that some other breeds, and very cold hardy. They are good but slow growing meat birds. Decent foragers from what I hear but maybe not as good as the Welsummers are. They only really lay eggs for their first year though. You'd need a steady supply of new hens fairly often, as opposed to the Welsummers that are better layers.

Neat to hear what other people think is a good apocalypse bird, but when winter hasn't quit for us yet even though it's April, cold hardiness becomes quite the main concern.
 
Last edited:
penella22 said:
Haven't ever heard of Legacy birds before. Interesting! I'm doing research now on what kind of chickens I want...I live in VT and need cold hardy chickens. I'm also new to chickens so I want a good temperament. I'm reading Storeys Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow and it has a very handy chart in it that summarizes all the breeds and their characteristics. Welsummers certainly do look like the breed to have if planning for maintaining your own flock. Personally I am also really fascinated by Russian Orloff's as well. They're very kind, intelligent, more predator proof that some other breeds, and very cold hardy. They are good but slow growing meat birds. Decent foragers from what I hear but maybe not as good as the Welsummers are. They only really lay eggs for their first year though. You'd need a steady supply of new hens fairly often, as opposed to the Welsummers that are better layers.

Neat to hear what other people think is a good apocalypse bird, but when winter hasn't quit for us yet even though it's April, cold hardiness becomes quite the main concern.
Click to expand...

The Legacy has a good temperament. Believe me you don't want a rooster that big with a bad personality.
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However after hearing Steven talk about how much he sold one rooster for. I don't think most folks will be getting any Legacy breed any time soon, unless if they are rich. I may get some eggs from Steven and try hatching them but they even are pricey
 
That is one interesting breed there.

I'm sorry I didn't explain well. I raised OEGB, Japanese, Dutch, American Gamefowl and bantams in North Pole, AK. For very cold climates and single combs dubbing the comb creates a more cold hardy bird than one with a comb. With single combs intact they must be in a heated building in very cold climates. Without a comb they may be allowed to get in a structure out of the weather that is unheated. Or in the case of some of the American Gamefowl I let free range they would get in evergreen conifers if it was very cold and chose not to go in the barn to roost.
 

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