Arizona Chickens

[DesertChic]

Hi all, I am planning on moving to Lake Havasu City within a year or two. In your experience are there any chicken breeds that don't do well in the extreme heat? Thank you!

Bielefelders. I LOVE the breed and my favorite rooster of all time is a Bielefelder, but they do NOT do well with this heat. I used ice, mister, and even air conditioning and still lost one each year to heat stroke. They're beautiful birds, but there are far better breeds to raise here in the desert southwest.

Here's my beloved rooster, Bosch. He's the only one I'm not culling and I'm prepared to bring him into the house for a few hours each day to keep him from overheating if necessary.





The best breed by far, in my experience, is the Naked Neck Turken (NN). They've become my primary breed for both eggs and meat because they require the least amount of care, have amazing and friendly personalities, and are exceptionally hardy and productive. Here are a few of my birds:

 

[Deebee123]

They tell me the orpingtons don't do well because they are chunky.. I am in Tucson and gets hot and dry like LH.
some heat resistant chickens I think are australorpes.. I have a rooster and hen of that breed.. but am pretty new to chicken"ing"
we have only been through one hot summer with the girls... we found fans with misters and frozen veggie treats or frozen melon treats work well. Cool water available and something to dip their tootsies in if that is an option.. must have good shade.. but fans are the most important.. I have found.. it was 117 F last summer

Darn, I have Orpingtons and I love them! But that makes sense because they are so fluffy. I am new to chickens as well. My obsession started last fall after my daughter joined 4H poultry. I have heard good things about Australorps and plan on getting some at some point, so that is good news! Thank you for the advice

 

[Deebee123]

Bielefelders. I LOVE the breed and my favorite rooster of all time is a Bielefelder, but they do NOT do well with this heat. I used ice, mister, and even air conditioning and still lost one each year to heat stroke. They're beautiful birds, but there are far better breeds to raise here in the desert southwest.

Here's my beloved rooster, Bosch. He's the only one I'm not culling and I'm prepared to bring him into the house for a few hours each day to keep him from overheating if necessary.





The best breed by far, in my experience, is the Naked Neck Turken (NN). They've become my primary breed for both eggs and meat because they require the least amount of care, have amazing and friendly personalities, and are exceptionally hardy and productive. Here are a few of my birds:

That's a bummer about Bielefelders. Such a beautiful breed! I will have to try the NN. Very cool looking birds. Thank you

 

[deserteggs22]

Just gonna re-post this for people who missed it:


Hello!
I was wondering if anyone would be interested in helping me out with an online chick order. I found a guy that ships beautiful Lavender Ameraucanas, but he was a 25 chick minimum. So, I was wondering if anyome would like to order some chicks with me so that I didn't have to order so many to fit the order requirements. They also carry bantam buff and Lavender Ameraucanas, bantam vorwerk, lavenvelders, hamburgs, and blue eggers. For large fowl, they carry Lavender, buff, and silver Ameraucanas. Thanks!

Here's the link to his birds:
http://fowlstuff.com/Fowl.html


If interested, please PM me!

 

[ejcrist]

Darn, I have Orpingtons and I love them! But that makes sense because they are so fluffy. I am new to chickens as well. My obsession started last fall after my daughter joined 4H poultry. I have heard good things about Australorps and plan on getting some at some point, so that is good news! Thank you for the advice

Bielefelders. I LOVE the breed and my favorite rooster of all time is a Bielefelder, but they do NOT do well with this heat. I used ice, mister, and even air conditioning and still lost one each year to heat stroke. They're beautiful birds, but there are far better breeds to raise here in the desert southwest.

Here's my beloved rooster, Bosch. He's the only one I'm not culling and I'm prepared to bring him into the house for a few hours each day to keep him from overheating if necessary.





The best breed by far, in my experience, is the Naked Neck Turken (NN). They've become my primary breed for both eggs and meat because they require the least amount of care, have amazing and friendly personalities, and are exceptionally hardy and productive. Here are a few of my birds:

Regarding Orpingtons, I have a trio I'm planning to start breeding next month and I'm down here in the valley just above Carefree Highway where it's about 5-10 degrees cooler than downtown Phoenix but it still gets mighty toasty in the summer. The breeder I got them from raises them in Safford which isn't a whole lot different temperature-wise than where I'm at. I hesitated to get the trio initially but he assured me they do as well as any other birds in the heat, and he has a gajillion of them when I went to his property. So I'm pretty sure they'll do ok unless Havasu is a lot hotter than where I'm at. I think if you put pans of water out for them they'll be fine - that's what mine seemed to like the best during the heatwave last summer.

DesertChick - You have a rooster named Bosch, like in Bosch power tools? At the moment I have Hoss, Little Joe, Matt Dillon, and Winston (Orpington) but I'll be keeping one each of the Naked Neck and Brown Leghorn cocks I have so I'll need names for them. I'm running out of 1960's western TV show names so maybe I'll call them Makita and Milwaukee - what do ya think?

 

[BlueBaby]

Regarding Orpingtons, I have a trio I'm planning to start breeding next month and I'm down here in the valley just above Carefree Highway where it's about 5-10 degrees cooler than downtown Phoenix but it still gets mighty toasty in the summer. The breeder I got them from raises them in Safford which isn't a whole lot different temperature-wise than where I'm at. I hesitated to get the trio initially but he assured me they do as well as any other birds in the heat, and he has a gajillion of them when I went to his property. So I'm pretty sure they'll do ok unless Havasu is a lot hotter than where I'm at. I think if you put pans of water out for them they'll be fine - that's what mine seemed to like the best during the heatwave last summer.

DesertChick - You have a rooster named Bosch, like in Bosch power tools? At the moment I have Hoss, Little Joe, Matt Dillon, and Winston (Orpington) but I'll be keeping one each of the Naked Neck and Brown Leghorn cocks I have so I'll need names for them. I'm running out of 1960's western TV show names so maybe I'll call them Makita and Milwaukee - what do ya think?

What color are your Orpingtons? I'm looking for a blue male to start another pen, and I would then look for the unrelated females to him.

 

[ejcrist]

What color are your Orpingtons? I'm looking for a blue male to start another pen, and I would then look for the unrelated females to him.

Mine are buff. If you have a hard time finding a blue male I believe you could use a black and a splash. I think blue parents will only produce about 25% blue offspring with the rest being black and splash whereas black and splash will produce 100% blue. I'm new to the genetics stuff so don't quote me on that but I think that's correct. Also I don't know if it's any easier getting black or splash - just a thought though.

 

[BlueBaby]

Mine are buff. If you have a hard time finding a blue male I believe you could use a black and a splash. I think blue parents will only produce about 25% blue offspring with the rest being black and splash whereas black and splash will produce 100% blue. I'm new to the genetics stuff so don't quote me on that but I think that's correct. Also I don't know if it's any easier getting black or splash - just a thought though.

Well, I guess that the color genetics are like the Australorps are. The splash with the black produces 100% blues. Splash with blue produces 50% blue and 50% splash. Black with blue produces 50% black and 50%blue. Blue with blue produces 50% blue, 25% black, and 25% splash. Breeding the blues back to the blacks helps to better the feather lacing color on the next generation of the blues. It's also better to breed the splashes back to the blues, to keep the nicer splash patterns going.

 

[ejcrist]

Well, I guess that the color genetics are like the Australorps are. The splash with the black produces 100% blues. Splash with blue produces 50% blue and 50% splash. Black with blue produces 50% black and 50%blue. Blue with blue produces 50% blue, 25% black, and 25% splash. Breeding the blues back to the blacks helps to better the feather lacing color on the next generation of the blues. It's also better to breed the splashes back to the blues, to keep the nicer splash patterns going.

You're right on the money with the combos. Ameraucana's are exactly like that. I don't believe I've ever seen a splash Orpington but they might be out there. You see - a little knowledge can be dangerous and I'm a prime example.

 

[BlueBaby]

You're right on the money with the combos. Ameraucana's are exactly like that. I don't believe I've ever seen a splash Orpington but they might be out there. You see - a little knowledge can be dangerous and I'm a prime example.

That's because the Orpingtons were used in being able to help create the Blue and Splash Australorps that are going on now. It created a little bit bigger Australorp that can produce more than the 5 a week egg that the Orpingtons average. Also, the Orpingtons were part of the mix that the Australians used when they created the Australorps.