- Feb 4, 2011
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I don't currently have chickens but we have bought a house on a small piece of land and plan to get them. We have raised chickens before but at the time, we lived in the midwest and had Barred Rocks. Here, I am not sure they are a good idea.
Can someone tell me what breeds would be best for very high average temperatures? I know there is a chart elsewhere on this site that mentions a couple of breeds that do well in heat -- but "heat" is a relative word. One person commented that to him, "heat" mean termperatures in the 90's several days a year. Well...here we have over 100 days of temperatures over 100 and since I've lived here, the highest has been 118. In the early 90's, it got to 122. 114 -117 for days at a time isn't that unusual. So I really want chickens that tolerate heat!
If
I will, of course, have shade available for them and an automatic water system so that they will never run out of that, no matter how much the dry air causes evaporation. If nec, I can even rig up a mist system to cool an area down but the less often I have to do that, the better.
I prefer the strengths of Barred Rocks - they were calm, friendly, were great layers and were also good for eating. If I couldn't have both, I'd take the layers. I'd really prefer not to have the flighty type. But again, I don't know what can tolerate this heat and may need to compromise.
Any suggestions? Any Arizona/California extreme desert dwellers/chicken lovers out there?
i'd appreciate any tips.
My chickens in in the midwest were free ranged -- can't really do that here, I don't think, at least not completely. What is the next best thing as far as feed?
Can someone tell me what breeds would be best for very high average temperatures? I know there is a chart elsewhere on this site that mentions a couple of breeds that do well in heat -- but "heat" is a relative word. One person commented that to him, "heat" mean termperatures in the 90's several days a year. Well...here we have over 100 days of temperatures over 100 and since I've lived here, the highest has been 118. In the early 90's, it got to 122. 114 -117 for days at a time isn't that unusual. So I really want chickens that tolerate heat!
If
I will, of course, have shade available for them and an automatic water system so that they will never run out of that, no matter how much the dry air causes evaporation. If nec, I can even rig up a mist system to cool an area down but the less often I have to do that, the better.
I prefer the strengths of Barred Rocks - they were calm, friendly, were great layers and were also good for eating. If I couldn't have both, I'd take the layers. I'd really prefer not to have the flighty type. But again, I don't know what can tolerate this heat and may need to compromise.
Any suggestions? Any Arizona/California extreme desert dwellers/chicken lovers out there?
i'd appreciate any tips.
My chickens in in the midwest were free ranged -- can't really do that here, I don't think, at least not completely. What is the next best thing as far as feed?
