Best breed for pasture & heat?

[Faeshka]

I am trying to figure out which breed will be best for laying eggs where I am. It gets rather hot here but we also had 1 or 2 nights where it was in the 20s this past winter. We also get a lot of intense wind and rain at times. Other times it's rather dry. My plan is for them to live in a tractor+run I can move around my property. I really just need eggs, since the only one here who eats meat is the dog. How friendly they are doesn't matter much, since their job is just to lay eggs. Parasite & disease resistance is very important to me, since I don't want to have to spend a fortune treating them for parasites. Being able to efficiently produce eggs on mostly what they can forage, with minimal supplemental feeding, is also important. Since who knows what feed availability is going to be. Basically I want hens that'll lay eggs with as little input from me as possible.

I was leaning towards Plymouth Rocks, but I'm not sure if they're the best choice. Any suggestions?

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. from the NC Sandhills.

Here's my article on Hot Climate chicken keeping: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hot-climate-chicken-housing-and-care.77263/

How much property do you have available for moving the birds? There are different options that suit different circumstances.

As for breeds, the commonly-available dual purpose breeds are widely adaptable to different climates and management systems. For heat-tolerance the best birds are the lighter-bodied, clean-legged birds with large single combs, but some breeds that don't meet those criteria can do surprisingly well in the heat.

I *personally* like to get my chicks from Ideal because they're in Texas so their breeding birds are automatically selected for heat-tolerance. My best in the heat so far have been the Australorps and the California White.

 

[Faeshka]

I have approximately 10 acres I can move their tractor over.

 

[3KillerBs]

I have approximately 10 acres I can move their tractor over.

A lot of people who have abundant pasture will build a mobile coop on a trailer and use electric poultry netting to make a mobile run.

I don't have a mobile coop, but I use the electric netting to make it possible to move my run a bit around a core area so as to allow parts of it to recover from time to time.

How many hens do you have in mind.

 

[Faeshka]

I don't think I need more than 6. I need to have 2 eggs a day for me and sometimes my dad will eat 3 a day.

 

[NatJ]

You might try White Leghorns.

They are good layers. They are relatively small, and have big combs, which means they do well in hot weather. They tend to be nervous and flightly, which means they can get scared and fly over fences, but if you have them in a covered pen that will not be an issue. Leghorns lay white eggs, so if you want other egg colors you would need to choose another breed.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't think I need more than 6. I need to have 2 eggs a day for me and sometimes my dad will eat 3 a day.

OK. Here is some general information for you:

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

6 hens

• 24 square feet in the coop. 4'x6' is the only really practical build for this given the common dimensions of lumber. If you can't walk into it, put the access door in the middle of the long side to make sure you can reach all areas of the coop because a stubborn chicken WILL press itself into/lay an egg in the back corner where you can't reach.
• 6 feet of roost
• 60 square feet in the run. 6'x10' or 8'x8'.
• 6 square feet of ventilation.
• 2 nest boxes, to give the hens a choice

NOTE: Here in North Carolina I find that unless I can keep my coop in DEEP shade I have to have at least double or triple the suggested minimum ventilation. I strongly recommend open air style coops for the Steamy Southeast.

This is what you want for airflow -- draft-free, but abundant:

If you're going to go with a tractor you need to give them more space than just a coop but don't *necessarily* have to give them a full 8x10.

A hoop coop might be just the thing for you. The ones here that aren't tractors can be converted to tractors:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hoop-tractor.69336/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hoop-coop-brooder-with-roll-up-sides.75720/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-biddie-bordello-a-hoop-coop-run-combo.72189/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/permanent-hoop-coop-guide.47818/

One problem with tractors is that they are hard to predator-proof. Especially, it's difficult to secure them against digging predators. @aart has a tractor with a fold-up wire apron but found it less than perfectly practical in use: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-hoop-coop-chicken-tractor.72211/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I don't think I need more than 6. I need to have 2 eggs a day for me and sometimes my dad will eat 3 a day.

You will need more than six. There are no breeds that reliably lay an egg a day. You won't need a lot more than six - but there will be illness, injury, molts, "mistaken" eggs, broken eggs, etc. Particularly if you are worried about sustainability in the long term. I'd plan 8-10 for 5 eggs a day, reliably. Sometimes you will get more, and can refrigerate, make pasta, breads, angelfood cake, mayonnaise, or any othe the other wonderful things eggs make possible. Sometimes you will get fewer.

As the very wise posters above me have said, small bodies, clean legs, large combs are what you are looking for. Comets meet all those parameters (and all the other commercial RSL varieties - ISA Browns, Cinnamon Queens, Red Stars, etc) but they are all hybrids - won't breed true, and a markedly higher tendency towards reproductive problems - so best avoided in your circumstance.

Were I further along in my culling project, I'd sell you some birds - they are being raised as foragers with decent lay and good resistance to local conditions. But my birds aren't ready to leave the property yet, the qualities I want (and that you would want) aren't there yet.

and I say that not to advertise for myself, but to make a secondary point. Unless you plan to breed, you don't need a "breed". Plenty of mutts will serve your purpose quite adequately.

As to the rest, you need to make a choice about how often (and how) you are going to move your chicken tractor, and how predator/weather proof you want to make it. Some of which will be informed by your land. low slopes, largely flat lands, you can move a lightweight coop easily, and stake it to the ground for weather. Keep it low, build it rounded as a mobile hoop coop and the winds will roll right over it. The worst part will be bringing fresh water all the time.

Or you can build a much heavier structure, move it less frequently with a tractor, ATV, or similar, and mount a solar charger on the structure to power (lightly) an electric fence. Doesn't help with aerial predation, not enough shock for the biggest predators, but plenty to stop a dog, coon, fox, coyote, etc from going thru - then use premier1 or similar to stake out an electric "run" from that large coop once its in position.

options, you have options!

 

[NatJ]

I don't think I need more than 6. I need to have 2 eggs a day for me and sometimes my dad will eat 3 a day.

Does that mean you need 5 eggs every day?
Or does that mean 2 eggs most days, 5 eggs some days?

6 hens certainly should produce 2+ eggs per day, and there will probably be enough more eggs to give your dad 3 eggs sometimes.

You will be without eggs when they molt each fall, unless you save up eggs to last you through that time.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You can also stagger your bird purchases in hopes some come into lay the first year just as others are going into molt, in an effort to partially mitigate the usual fall/winter reduction in egg production. But that would have been better if half were purchased in FebMarch, the other half late May/early June.