Icelandic Chickens

[RedIII]

I kind of have to agree with Judges4. That cooler weather is appealing. My ideal temperature for comfort is in the 60's, but I like winter temperatures a lot more than summer. Heat.....yuck!

Sheriff Mary, love the pictures of Lukka and her brood! She looks like an excellent mommy. And just curious, but how often does Stella come in your kitchen?

 

[mlm Mike]

Reading through the thread (page 705!).

Can I just say that this is the PERFECT weather for me. I think I need to move there. Sigh.

The temp. seems ok, it's the hours of daylight, or lack of, which might get to me.

 

[NotAFarm]

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[BerrytangleFarm]

The temp. seems ok, it's the hours of daylight, or lack of, which might get to me.

Hmmmmmm....the only thing I'd dislike about it was having so much in the summer.

My friends keep telling me to move to Alaska.

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

‎58 more eggs in Incubator today!
I want some more Icelandics to make my flock bigger, and also get a good amount so I can find someone to pass on a flock of them.
Couple of days ago I finally picked up another Ameraucana Rooster (Geoffery's son) Jr., not quite as show quality as geoffery was, but he's not too bad. I now have 4 pure Ameraucana hens. So next hatch will hopefully be alot of of them!... So lets see that puts me at 61 chickens right now. How many can I go?? I will need to build some more coops in a couple months. But I also plan on giving away alot too.

This is just what I was going to do but was worried it wouldn't turn or fry some of the eggs on the top.

Do you guys do this?? Does it work??

 

[The Sheriff]

And just curious, but how often does Stella come in your kitchen?

No chickens in my kitchen! That is my screen room / sunroom where I keep the incubators and brooders. She usually just comes to the sliding glass door and if I'm out there, she gets a treat. She's spoiled but not spoiled enough to eat in the kitchen!

 

[Icelander]

Quote:
I think Iceland and Alaska are both lie about 66 degrees North, although I think Iceland tends to be warmer than most of Alaska due to the Gulf stream. I was Iceland in early July and there was NO darkness. The sun went below the horizon for a few hours but not far enough to make it dark (I call it "greylight", it's like a very cloudy afternoon). I didn't actually find it to be a problem when I lived there because it happens so gradually you have time to adjust. However, when you jet in from the U.S. or from mainland Europe and all of a sudden the lights are on all the time... let's just say I'm thankful we brought sleepmasks

It's great that Judges4 reposted this temperature chart so folks can see the temperature of the Icies' natural habitat, in Fahrenheit. Keep in mind, however that in Iceland henhouses are generally sturdy and insulated many are heated (geothermal heating is very cheap in many places in Iceland) to keep the temperature in the 50's. The chickens maybe able to survive the above temps but are not particularly comfortable when it drops below 50 F, they're not penguins

 

[RedIII]

Icelander, I had wondered how the chickens coped with such low temperatures. It makes sense that they'd be in insulated coops. I still love that they come from a climate like that in Iceland, though. It makes me less worried about when it snows here, since I know some breeds are definitely not suited to colder climes

 

[Icelander]

Icelander, I had wondered how the chickens coped with such low temperatures. It makes sense that they'd be in insulated coops. I still love that they come from a climate like that in Iceland, though. It makes me less worried about when it snows here, since I know some breeds are definitely not suited to colder climes

They definitely seem to be cold-hardy, at least to Icelandic temperatures. Some have even survived on their own on a small island off the coast for several years! Survived probably being the key word. We've had to hunt some of our free-ranging sheep that have gone feral and refuse to get herded back to civilization, which has upset some folks that don't understand that the life domesticated animals have in the wild isn't exactly the romantic type they're thinking of. It's usually just survival, and barely that.

With respect to the few that don't give their chickens insulated coops in Icelandic winter...

 

[NotAFarm]

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