good winter dual purpose breed

[key west chick]

My parents are moving to Kentucky and Im in charge of picking out their chickens. They dont care what color the chickens or eggs are. I need something thats a good egg layer, even in winter, descent meat and free ranges. Not interested in broody behavior. Ive looked into sussex and wyandottes so far. Anything else?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Good choices there you've listed. There are many more. Australorp, Rocks of all kinds, etc. I wouldn't just ignore the Black Sex Links either. Great layers, superb foragers and excellent winter layers. Afterall, it but a Barred Rock x RIR. It's not like it is some kind of strange combo.

 

[Autumnchicken]

I live in northern Illinois, so its plenty cold here. I have buff orps, silver laced wyandottes and rhode island reds. I dont know about meaties but they handled being cooped up for weeks at a time and I got eggs everyday! My fav are the buffs, they are so lovable!

 

[aShMaNv]

I would look into plymouth rocks for sure. Barred are most popular, but all are great layers and in my experience very winter hardy. They also dress out well as meat birds. I would also suggest the Rhode island reds. They are the best layers of the dual purpose breeds and dress out pretty good for meat birds too. Not quite as big as the barred rocks though. They are also pretty cold hardy.

 

[WitksChicks]

I'm in Central Connecticut and have 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Black Stars all fared very well through 2 winters now. Our 1 rescue Leg Horn who has a very large comb (and about 10 months younger than the rest of my flock) also did very well. We just make sure her comb is taken care of when the temps get really close and below freezing.

I just made sure that what I selected was cold weather hardy, and the leg horn, my husband wanted a white egg layer, and he picked her up in PA. She really isn't a rescue (injured chicken), I just tell him that because I think he wanted one of his very own.

 

[crazyhen]

chantecler, Buckeye and wyndotte do not have as large a comb. They will not freeze as bad. I think you can also buy the Rhode Island Red from mcmurray with the small pea comb. Leghorns have a tendency to have big combs and wattles. They have damage in hard cold.
The best layers I had was the Easter Eggers and Orp. They will however go broody occ. My hatchery orps were not bad for it. Gloria Jean

 

[WallTenters]

Dominiques sound like just the breed you're looking for. Very cold hardy (we have had -32 mornings a few times this last winter - the ladies were never phased), superb foragers, only moderately broody so you can stop them if you need to. Broodiness hasn't been a problem at all for us so far.

They lay lots of medium-large light brown eggs all year 'round, and prefer whole grains and bugs that the find everywhere rather than just eating their pellets. The cockerels are especially tasty from 14-20 weeks (we do them at 16 weeks, very nice!). Great heritage breed too!

 

[BarredBuff]

Im in Eastern Kentucky. Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps and Dominiques do wonderful up here. If you let free range from about 6 weeks they do it awesomely. They are hardy and lay all winter plus can be big if fed right.

 

[Pathfinders]

Buckeyes are perfect for Kentucky. Great dual purpose bird that ranges well, lays between 150 and 200 eggs a year, broods their own chicks, and the extra cockerels make great meat birds.

We're in northern KY, where are your parents moving to?

 

[key west chick]

They are moving to Bowling Green. My sister and her family live there. My mom is retiring this summer and they have bought an old totally restored farm house up there.