Hello from South Australia

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ChickenCanoe,

Yes, I'm in the south so you're pretty much right. Summers are usually around 40 degrees (Celsius) during the day and about 30 at night, but we've been having mild summers recently so it's only been reaching that for a few weeks rather than months... about 35 during the day seemed to be normal over December/January/February this summer. Winters aren't exactly what I'd call cold (my father's English and he used to live in Austria, I've been back there a few times over Christmas), it's usually about 15-20 during the day and single figures at night. It never gets below zero here. It's very dry, not humid like up north.

I'm trying to go slowly with chicken purchasing at the moment (it doesn't seem to be working...), but Welsummers, Sussex, Marans, and a black/white barred breed of some sort are on my wish list. Do you reckon they'd all cope all right in my climate? What reccomendations do you have based on the climate? I'm most interested in good layers of interesting-looking eggs (hence my not-Araucanas and the Welsummers and Marans on my wish list) as I reckon interesting-looking eggs would sell better.

Thanks and God bless,
from Rachel.
 
Wow, that's pretty hot. Those are the same as our high temps but we have lots of humidity too (year round). And our winter temps can get to -20 C or lower at night but that's usually only a week or two.
Chickens suffer from heat much more than cold. That said, I haven't lost any of the breeds in my signature from heat. Lots of shade and my coops are elevated so they hang out underneath during the day. They like foot baths in the heat.
I like a variety of interesting egg colors too, probably the main reason I have so many breeds.
Many Mediterranean breeds can handle the heat better like Catalanas. But most of them are white egg layers.
An exception is Penedesenca and someone told me there were some in Australia. Good layers of nice dark egg.
 
Hi! :welcome from South Australia! (How ironic, we have the same name and are very close in age. :lol:)

I live in the city though, so different lifestyles there. Good luck with your flock, sounds like you have the plan and the drive to see it through... always tossed around ideas of making money off eggs too, but our garden is much too small to keep enough chickens to possibly start thinking about that.

We have one grouchy old ex-layer too. The other one conked out mid-way through last year, but this one is a tough old cookie and has been hanging on.
 
Hi Chicken Goddess,

I know that Keelan's Grain & Fodder sells white Leghorn chicks from time to time. That's in Payneham/Campbelltown area, on Payneham Road I think (north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide). They also sell ISA Brown and Australorp chicks. I can recommend their chicks, I've never had any die on me and the people in there are very friendly.

As for the others, I don't know of anywhere that sells them. Mount Barker Grain & Fodder might have them, they get all sorts of birds through there as people sell their chooks to the place who sell them on, but you've really got to just get in there at the right time and get lucky (I do know they have a steady supply of Marans chicks now, though). My best advice for Araucanas and Ameraucanas is to look on Gumtree - I have seen Araucanas on there occasionally (There's a guy up near Gawler who keeps obscure breeds like that).

from Rachel.
 

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