Please advise best breed for newbie in a cold climate

[susannemw]

I live in Maine and have ordered 4 speckled sussex, 4 araucanas, and 5 RIR's from Mcmurray hatchery for late March delivery. I am now reading about the RIR's being mean and am wondering if I should change my order? Any suggestions as to what breeds play nicest with kids and other birds in the coop?

thanks for any pointers you could give!

 

[ScotianChick]

I have two RIR hens and one roo. It was not my intention to keep my roo but he turned out to be the sweetest I had. Their combs are very prone to frost bite and they aren't very fluffy chickens. You and I have similar climates (Nova Scotia), so I know what you'd be dealing with. If you don't want to deal with frostbite and what a hardy chicken, I'd get Silverlaced Wyandottes. I have three SLW hens and they are really fluffy, chubby, and have small combs. Perfect for this kind of weather. And they're not aggressive either. Well neither are my RIR

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I have four Buff Orpington hens here on Cape Cod. I recommend they highly, both for their "normal" behavior (not extreme) and for their cold hardiness.

 

[Illia]

Your "Araucanas" (actually called Easter Eggers, as hatcheries don't sell real Araucanas) will do the best in your climate. Their pea combs will not get frostbite, and they're generally pretty friendly.

Hatchery Reds may indeed be aggressive, but the odds are probably less than 50/50

Wyandottes are a good cold climate decision, but they're almost never actually friendly, at leas the silver laced ones. . . Got 10 from Murray McMurray 2 years ago and never truly got attached to any of them. Plus I was very disappointed that they weren't as pretty as the illustrations showed, but, hatcheries never really do offer anything like what the illustrations or pictures online show.

 

[Sorin]

I live in Northern NY and we have very cold weather ( 12 below this morning) and I have Barred Rocks,
A Buff Orpington, And Cochins and they all do great in they cold as well as they're all pretty friendly

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I just got my McMurray Hatchery order a few days ago- and they let me change my order a few weeks ago without charging me money. I am pleased with their "Araucanas" - large fowl that they sent. Of course they are little chicks now- my other Easter Eggers that I bought from My Pet Chicken are great. I hope these grow up to be great too.

I have had experience with Golden Sex Links (a Rhode Is. White and RIR cross), and I sold them because they were getting so mean to my EEs that they weren't even letting them eat at all unless the EEs sneaked food. They were even making my Buff Orpingtons be mean, too!!! My BOs are now mellow.

I highly recommend Buff Orpingtons with kids (never know about roos though until they grow up). Also very friendly are Welsummers (McMurray doesn't have them though). Cochins just take the prize for being docile. They are like little dolls. They come in large fowl and bantam. But they go broody a lot = no eggs during that time. But then so do BOs.

I ordered also some white Orpingtons from McMurray. I can't wait to see them grow up. I have two Delaware chicks too - I think they are supposed to be friendly- might want to research that on BYC if you want.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
Henderson's Chart of breeds might help, and also you can click on breeds on byc at the top.

I agree with Illia about Wyandottes not being too friendly. And I have read others say so too.

 

[KimM]

I don't have any experience with RIR, but we live in MA and have EE's, a Speckled Sussex, a Brahma, a Buff Orpington, Black Australorp, Wynadottes, and Barred/ White Rocks. All doing great, even with the horrible cold we've been having. The Buff, Sussex, and Brahma are by far the best of the bunch with the kids. The Buff in particular actually seems to enjoy being held and is very calm.