I need some suggestions...I'm looking for an insanely cold hardy bantam breed that bears confinement really really well. I want to keep them in a hutch breeding situation. My bantam ameraucanas are not handling either well. I was thinking of maybe bantam wyandottes but I'm not sure. I want to keep just quads or trios in a hutch type of enviorment for careful breeding.
Ameraucanas are one of the top bantam breeds for being cold hardy. For your setup, they are superb birds for you. My largefowl black Ameraucans have pretty much lived outside all winter without being any worse for the wear. They have shelter but they are outside from sun-up to sun-down. There are very few other breeds that offer all the wonderful things ameraucanas offer. They already have the pea combs, beards, tight feathering...all making them ideal cold weather birds. Wyandottes are an excellent breed as well, but you do see some other drawbacks with them from time to time. Their wattles get frostbite because they are dipping them in water, and their fertility isn't as great because of the rose comb gene, but that is not to say you couldn't find some that were better than others. Old English bantams are very hardy as well. The males tend to have overly large combs, but you dub those, and that makes them more cold hardy. Depending on what lines you find, hens sometimes have big combs too, but proper ones have nice small single combs that normally don't cause any problems. Old English males from time to time get attitudes, but we've had several silver duckwings over the years that we easy to deal with. Our worst birds for attitudes were the brown reds and the creles, but the hens are always very friendly and easy to get a long with. Most bantam breeds do well in hutches. Our Nankins live in old rabbit hutches and apart from them not getting the benefits of being out on grass (which they are when there isn't snow on the grass and I am home to watch them) they do very well. Our hutches, being old rabbit hutches are completely wire on wood frames, but I have 3/4 to half of each hutch enclosed with plywood on the outside of the wire simply for protection from the wind. The big 4 hole hutch has plexiglass over one wire panel of each compartment, but the doors are open wire and they do well in there. We have some new hampshire bantams if you wanted to try them. They are cold hardy, and easy to hatch. The roosters comb did get frozen a little back when it got really cold in December, but it hasn't slowed him down. I do think your ameraucanas are your best choice. If you have any questions...PM me, I check it about once a day.
