Replacement- Heat tolerant, colored egg chickens

[CabritaChicks]

After doing quite a bit more research, I realized there was an important factor I hadn't fully considered—I really enjoy close interaction with my chickens. At the moment, all of them love attention, except for my jungle fowl. Despite being raised from an egg alongside the others, she’s skittish, elusive, flighty and honestly, a bit frustrating at times as she is a tweaker.

• Temperament (friendly)
• Shipping available
• Breed availability

While looking into heat-tolerant breeds, I noticed that many of them tend to have similar temperaments—more flighty and independent. It’s not a guarantee, of course, but it did make me pause. As I continued researching, I also discovered that a surprising number of hatcheries won’t ship to my location.

Thankfully, Meyer Hatchery is willing to ship here- large selection and have availability in late sepember/october (many wouldn't have chicks till july next year), so I began narrowing my search to breeds that are described as friendly, lay a mix of colorful eggs, and can tolerate heat. I didn’t initially expect Easter Eggers to be heat-tolerant, but several sources suggest they are.

I’m not completely set on these breeds—I just found that it’s easier to meet the minimum order requirement with a large hatchery that offers a wide selection. I’ve had trouble finding a hatchery located in Florida (which would mean a shorter shipping distance), but that might just be due to how my search results are filtered.

Anyone have any thoughts?
Haven't confirmed any of these yet, just thinking through it. I may get all or just 3.

The two roosters, I thought might blend well if I was to hatch fertilized eggs in the future with my current flock or new female selections- the Wheaten olive egger female I find amazingly stunning in her cream glory).

 

[UncleChuck]

After doing quite a bit more research, I realized there was an important factor I hadn't fully considered—I really enjoy close interaction with my chickens. At the moment, all of them love attention, except for my jungle fowl. Despite being raised from an egg alongside the others, she’s skittish, elusive, flighty and honestly, a bit frustrating at times as she is a tweaker.

• Temperament (friendly)
• Shipping available
• Breed availability

While looking into heat-tolerant breeds, I noticed that many of them tend to have similar temperaments—more flighty and independent. It’s not a guarantee, of course, but it did make me pause. As I continued researching, I also discovered that a surprising number of hatcheries won’t ship to my location.

Thankfully, Meyer Hatchery is willing to ship here- large selection and have availability in late sepember/october (many wouldn't have chicks till july next year), so I began narrowing my search to breeds that are described as friendly, lay a mix of colorful eggs, and can tolerate heat. I didn’t initially expect Easter Eggers to be heat-tolerant, but several sources suggest they are.

I’m not completely set on these breeds—I just found that it’s easier to meet the minimum order requirement with a large hatchery that offers a wide selection. I’ve had trouble finding a hatchery located in Florida (which would mean a shorter shipping distance), but that might just be due to how my search results are filtered.

View attachment 4183081

Anyone have any thoughts?
Haven't confirmed any of these yet, just thinking through it. I may get all or just 3.

The two roosters, I thought might blend well if I was to hatch fertilized eggs in the future with my current flock or new female selections- the Wheaten olive egger female I find amazingly stunning in her cream glory).

I live in Florida and started with a bunch of Ameraucana and marans mixes. I've noticed the same thing with the heat plus humidity causing heat stress specially in birds with muffs and feathered legs.
From the information I've compiled, combs and wattles do serve for heat dispensation, however, large combs and wattles lose their effectiveness in high humidity.
I'm going to be replacing my Ameraucana and Marans OE and EEs with CCLxBielefelders, auto-sexing, friendly, completely different ancestories so high heterosis (hybrid vigor).
Get the legbars for sure.

 

[CabritaChicks]

I live in Florida and started with a bunch of Ameraucana and marans mixes. I've noticed the same thing with the heat plus humidity causing heat stress specially in birds with muffs and feathered legs.
From the information I've compiled, combs and wattles do serve for heat dispensation, however, large combs and wattles lose their effectiveness in high humidity.
I'm going to be replacing my Ameraucana and Marans OE and EEs with CCLxBielefelders, auto-sexing, friendly, completely different ancestories so high heterosis (hybrid vigor).
Get the legbars for sure.

Very interesting! Someone also recommended the Basque Hen- they lay cream colored eggs. So I added one to my cart as well.

 

[UncleChuck]

Very interesting! Someone also recommended the Basque Hen- they lay cream colored eggs. So I added one to my cart as well.

View attachment 4183085

I would expect them to be pretty heat tolerant, absolutely!
the CCL should throw sexable chicks from either of your roosters, too, since they appear to both be double barred.

 

[fluffycrow]

After doing quite a bit more research, I realized there was an important factor I hadn't fully considered—I really enjoy close interaction with my chickens. At the moment, all of them love attention, except for my jungle fowl. Despite being raised from an egg alongside the others, she’s skittish, elusive, flighty and honestly, a bit frustrating at times as she is a tweaker.

• Temperament (friendly)
• Shipping available
• Breed availability

While looking into heat-tolerant breeds, I noticed that many of them tend to have similar temperaments—more flighty and independent. It’s not a guarantee, of course, but it did make me pause. As I continued researching, I also discovered that a surprising number of hatcheries won’t ship to my location.

Thankfully, Meyer Hatchery is willing to ship here- large selection and have availability in late sepember/october (many wouldn't have chicks till july next year), so I began narrowing my search to breeds that are described as friendly, lay a mix of colorful eggs, and can tolerate heat. I didn’t initially expect Easter Eggers to be heat-tolerant, but several sources suggest they are.

I’m not completely set on these breeds—I just found that it’s easier to meet the minimum order requirement with a large hatchery that offers a wide selection. I’ve had trouble finding a hatchery located in Florida (which would mean a shorter shipping distance), but that might just be due to how my search results are filtered.

View attachment 4183081

Anyone have any thoughts?
Haven't confirmed any of these yet, just thinking through it. I may get all or just 3.

The two roosters, I thought might blend well if I was to hatch fertilized eggs in the future with my current flock or new female selections- the Wheaten olive egger female I find amazingly stunning in her cream glory).

I think those are great breeds and mixes! You’ll see which work best, and as they mix with your current birds, every generation will get better at heat management.

This is a recommendation simply from my observations, you are welcome to follow it, and other peeps are of course welcome to disagree. The roosters here have much more active lives than the hens; guarding the group, watching out for aerial and terrestrial predators, guiding hens to and from nest and forage sites, searching for said spots, crowing and of course mating. As such, I find that their need for cooling off is much greater, and partly why I believe they possess larger combs and wattles than the hens in the first place.

That’s all to say that maybe it would be a good idea for any bearded, pea, or lesser combed birds to be female, while your roosters all have large single combs, no leg feathering, a sleek build and normal feathering.

Best of luck, and please update us with your final decisions!

 

[CabritaChicks]

Okay, so my husband finally snapped and hit me with the classic: “JUST PICK SOMETHING!” I mean, fair—but I’m a scientist. I don’t make decisions without researching until my eyeballs threaten to quit. That said… I finally pressed the button. I think I picked a group that’ll mesh well with everyone (fingers crossed, no feathered drama).

I did skip the Andalusian, though. As much as I love their look, I kept seeing red flags—lots of reports about them being flighty, a little too spicy with humans, and total coop tyrants. Like, henhouse mean girls. Sure, it all depends on how they’re raised, and anecdotal info isn’t gospel—but I’m not looking to host a poultry version of Survivor on my property.

To be delivered Sept-30- Oct 2nd.
So now I have checked all the boxes:

• bought local chicks
• raised mystery chickens from eggs that flew over 3,800 miles to me
• raised gifted wild jungle fowl egg
• and now ordered planned breeds- the opal even being 68 bucks! (yikes)