Heat Hardy Birds

[omahalostpunk]

Is there a rule as to what is to cold for heat hardy birds?

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
There doesn't even seem to be a set rule on what is too cold for COLD hardy birds...lol. A lot seems to depend on what the bird has become acclimated to, a lot seems to depend on how a person views their animals. Maybe if you name the breeds you have or are interested in, folks will be able to advise you better (although you will get a mix of opinions). Included your area.

 

[jomoncon]

I'm a new chicken owner - or should I say a new person owned by chickens. I did a lot of research on this forum & in books about chickens before I got my little ones & realized that heat can be as bad or worse than cold on chickens. Since I live in hot, humid New Orleans, this was a real concern for me. I finally settled on RIRs, but since I got them this past October, I really don't know how they'll fare in the heat. My coop has a lot of wired, open areas, and the run is covered. I guess I'll just have to wait until next summer to see how they'll make out. I need to do some browsing through last summer's postings to get more opinions on summer heat.

 

[7L Farm]

Quote:
I have 10 RIR hen's & they fair-ed the brutal heat we had this past summer. But I did build the coop for hot weather not so much for the cold. It's positioned under a big hack berry tree & three sides have big windows at the top. With the north wall completely closed.

 

[jomoncon]

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll have to wait & see how my RIRs react to the heat next summer. Unfortunately, I didn't have a big tree to build the coo under, so I'll have to do whatever to keep the coop cool.

 

[easttxchick]

The Production Reds were specifically bred to be heat tolerant.
ALL of my birds did OK this past summer(especially my Sumatras) and it was HOT!

Gee, I should have read your question...

Since it's been cold, my heat hearty ladies have been OK-they just fluff up their feathers and try to stay out of the wind. I suspect we share pretty much the same climate. Keep them dry and out of the wind and they will be fine.

 

[sharol]

I ordered chickens from MPC last summer, and I specifically chose breeds that were listed as hardy in the heat and cold on the chart at:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

They did fine last summer in 106 degree days (as long as they had water and some ice bottles for a place to cool off). I chose Delawares, Easter Eggers, GLW, Partridge Rock, Welsummer, and Golden Campine. Only the Campine may have problems with her comb in the cold. I'll see how the winter goes and then next summer when they are fully adult I'll see how they do.

 

[omahalostpunk]

I will be living in the midwest. I know it can get up to 115 and 100 humidity in the summer months and have seen it as low as neg 20 with a wind chill to boot in the winter. I figure that climate I will deal with both extremes. I'm not sure just what breeds I want for sure. I just haven't seen any imformation about what is too cold for birds that don't handle the cold well.

Breeds that come to mind for me are
Sumatras
Egyptian Fay
White Faced Spanish

 

[omahalostpunk]

I'm also assuming that if a breed bares heat well it doesn't bare the cold well. I don't know if that is right or not either.

 

[PineappleMama]

Our GSLs are still laying well and we've hit freezing already... they slowed when it got uber hot back in Aug/Sept, but picked up again once the temp went down a bit. No health issues in either the hot or the cold so far. *knocks on head*