Chickens for warm weather.

[tadaen sylverma]

The more I've read here and thought about things my plans have changed a bit. I had originally intended on 30 or so birds (for meat primarily) but I need to scale back due to lack of good places to build a coop / run for them. One thing I noticed just today when I happened to be looking at my options on a hatchery website (we ordered from the 17 years ago and everything was perfect from them) and the warm weather chickens caught my eye. I never considered a chicken to really be to good or bad for the weather.

Tucson, Arizona. Summers around 100 degrees or so give or take 10 at peak. I was looking at some white wyanadottes, barred rocks, and buff orphingtons. They are not listed as warm weather chickens though and I would hate to buy what I want for looks but have them to be tortured due to the heat. I would set up a misting system during the summer.

TLDR. With the above location should I focus on the so-called "warm weather birds" or ... the ones I liked above (non of which are on the warm weather list).?

 

[Ruthster55]

Might be helpful if you could give more details about the coop site. Will they have any shade?

 

[tadaen sylverma]

I have a 12x12 area to work with for a run, coop probably 12x3 of that. I can build the coop outside of the 12x12 if need to. I had intended to put the coop on the west side of it and the coop would provide the run with shade for the worst of it. If I put the coop on the north side of it I would line the west wall entirely with a mesh designed to provide shade? Don't know what it's called exactly. Full coverage of the west wall minus the door itself into the run. Probably wrap it over the roof as well as it will be a steel tube structure with heavy 1/2" squares cutout galvanized steel mesh (same stuff we wrapped the garden in to keep out pests and birds.)

I am only figuring 10-12 birds at this point as I don't have the room for 30. Plus a bit of figuring about and I can do most of my plans with just a handful, no reason to go big scale on this. They will occasionally have supervised free ranging in the yard but mostly in the run / coop because of coyotes and hawks and such.

*EDIT* Might build a secondary section where I can put a rooster and 1-2 hens and let them do their thing.

 

[Alaskan]

Well, you could do misters and such, if you know how to set those things up, and have the water and electric to run them.

Or, you could pick a breed that does well in baking heat.

With temps like that, you really want to look at the hot weather coops, the ones where the coop is really just a predator proof run with a roof to keep off the sun and the rain (when it happens). So, the run should be almost completely open, just hardware cloth. Maybe one solid wall to block wind if you have a lot of it. Or one wall of almost always open shutters that can be closed if a big storm passes through, but most of the time everything is open so that even the smallest breeze can go through.

 

[Alaskan]

There are several threads on here with pictures of hot weather coops, but I think this one has the most.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/163417/please-show-me-your-hot-weather-coops

 

[tadaen sylverma]

There are several threads on here with pictures of hot weather coops, but I think this one has the most.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/163417/please-show-me-your-hot-weather-coops

I do appreciate the link toward coops. I will have to change my plans a bit I see. Nevermind about the original question. As I'm limited to 12 or so total it isn't enough to place an order for certain breeds. I will just call around to find what breeds they have locally. I would imagine the ones they sell right here in the city are ok for the climate out here.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Greetings from a fellow Tucsonan. All of the breeds you listed will do fine here; we have several excellent breeders locally too. Come by the Arizona thread for ideas about coops suitable for our brutal summers.