Starting a Heritage Breeding Program

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

I *personally* have avoided adding Buckeyes to my flock because they were specifically bread for cold-tolerance rather than heat-tolerance.

Features that favor heat-tolerance include:

Clean legs
Large single comb
Harder/tighter feathering (instead of soft, fluffy feathering)
Lighter build

But then you get into oddities like the weird heat-tolerance of many Brahmas -- who are everything that a heat-tolerant chicken shouldn't be and yet often do well.

Go figure.

One thing I've done is to try to order my birds from southern hatcheries, on the theory that their breeding stock is automatically selected for heat tolerance regardless of breed. Ideal is my favorite.

You could try ordering several birds of each breed you are thinking of, raising them for a year, and seeing which you like best/which are doing best in your specific situation.

I completely agree about Brahmas tolerant to heat. I have two dark ones. We have a dry heat, and they don't mind. They do better than my other girls all put together!