Surviving Minnesota!

[holm25]

@xXStringbeanXx I strongly recommend Buckeyes. Very very hardy birds with great Temperaments and great layers. Also good for the table after they have slowed down on production. Are you looking for DP birds or just layers? Breeding or just layers? Rooster or just hens? I also would recommend Orpingtons or Dominiques. I have had hatchery Orpingtons before and they are OK but you will find birds you get from a breeder will be much better in most every way.

 

[BantyChooks]

@xXStringbeanXx I strongly recommend Buckeyes. Very very hardy birds with great Temperaments and great layers. Also good for the table after they have slowed down on production. Are you looking for DP birds or just layers? Breeding or just layers? Rooster or just hens? I also would recommend Orpingtons or Dominiques. I have had hatchery Orpingtons before and they are OK but you will find birds you get from a breeder will be much better in most every way.

Chanteclers all the way!

 

[jerryse]

 

[xXStringbeanXx]

Just a warning... what hatcheries and websites tout as 'good for cold weather' and 'cold hardy' really have the invisible prefix 'if you think MO is a cold state'.

Hey now! I grew up in Missouri before I moved up here about five years ago. There’s days it hits the teens...

The ISA Browns are the SO’s pick as he wants a productive layer and is willing to only keep them the two years or so they lay. I want the brahmas to be my keeper hens and talked him into some of them. We considered a lot of the Dual Purpose birds but I guess the production of the ISAs is what sold him. And then the Husky Reds were the meat bird choice. Our local feed store recommends Hoover’s Hatchery and orders through them, so that kind of what our selection is. Also, we are looking to go hens only for this first time around and then look at a roo or two to start self hatching after that.

Are DP birds the way to go instead? How do you select who to eat and who to keep if so?

I should add that we are looking only for brown egg layers.

 

[xXStringbeanXx]

I almost said that too, but I was trying not to be too overbearing. I am pretty strongly biased against ISA browns.

Not overbearing! I am brand new to all this and love learning new things. Peoples experiences are the best to learn from!

 

[BantyChooks]

Hey now! I grew up in Missouri before I moved up here about five years ago. There’s days it hits the teens...

The ISA Browns are the SO’s pick as he wants a productive layer and is willing to only keep them the two years or so they lay. I want the brahmas to be my keeper hens and talked him into some of them. We considered a lot of the Dual Purpose birds but I guess the production of the ISAs is what sold him. And then the Husky Reds were the meat bird choice. Our local feed store recommends Hoover’s Hatchery and orders through them, so that kind of what our selection is. Also, we are looking to go hens only for this first time around and then look at a roo or two to start self hatching after that.

Are DP birds the way to go instead? How do you select who to eat and who to keep if so?

I should add that we are looking only for brown egg layers.

Sounds like they might work for that situation. If I were keeping birds for 2 yrs only, butchering after, not breeding, and didn't care about temperament, then they'd be my #1 pick. But my flock is not being built around any of those things; so I don't care for them at all. ISA browns are dual purpose, by the way. They eat like DP birds too. Little fatties.

In the long run, I want birds that live long lives and are productive for said long life. Eggs for at least 5 years shouldn't be unreasonable. I want docile, intelligent birds that are range wary and can take care of themselves. I don't want frostbite, which means all single comb birds are out. I don't like the boring old plain Jane colour patterns either. In the end, I chose Partridge Chanteclers and Silver Ameraucanas. So far the Chanteclers are perfect and the Ameraucanas are pretty good. A tad ditzy, but with time I think I can breed them to be a little more intelligent. Hawks help with that.

I like the heritage DP birds. I select keepers partly by going off the American Standard of Perfection and choosing those closest to standard. Of course, health and production comes first; all poor doers remain out of the breeding pen forever no matter the colour and type perfection they may have. In this climate the weather does culling for us too. Anything not at least decently hardy tips over dead about mid-January.

 

[duluthralphie]

You can find other birds that will lay nearly as much as the ISA do.

Unless you plan to keep lights on them year round they will all stop laying in November around here.

You can pick birds that do better in the cold and have a larger bodies (IMHO). The Buckeyes and Chanticler come to mind. The DOM's are laying machine but they are not a huge bird, but with them you have the pleasure of knowing you are keeping an endangered breed alive. They are friendly, not S Sussex friendly but not bad.

The Buckeyes are a large bird. That is winter hardy. I have no idea about how they lay. Whatever you get I suggest it not have a single comb, unless you plan to heat the coop and do not mind winter dubbed combs. I do not.

Toads are great layers, but they do eat a little bit more than the others......They are also a tad fickle to raise right now....BUT nothing compares to them in size.

It is fairly easy to pick which DP bird gets eaten. The largest, the meanest. the one you don't like and so forth. They are not all luvable. Some can be complete Norwegians....

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Hey now! I grew up in Missouri before I moved up here about five years ago. There’s days it hits the teens...

The ISA Browns are the SO’s pick as he wants a productive layer and is willing to only keep them the two years or so they lay. I want the brahmas to be my keeper hens and talked him into some of them. We considered a lot of the Dual Purpose birds but I guess the production of the ISAs is what sold him. And then the Husky Reds were the meat bird choice. Our local feed store recommends Hoover’s Hatchery and orders through them, so that kind of what our selection is. Also, we are looking to go hens only for this first time around and then look at a roo or two to start self hatching after that.

Are DP birds the way to go instead? How do you select who to eat and who to keep if so?

I should add that we are looking only for brown egg layers.

Don't bother trying to tell these folks it gets cold in Missouri. . . they will just tell you to go boil your head or canoe off a cliff!!

 

[BantyChooks]

Don't bother trying to tell these folks it gets cold in Missouri. . . they will just tell you to go boil your head or canoe off a cliff!!

Wasn't there another good insult I used once? Go jump in one of your nice un-frozen lakes?

 

[BantyChooks]

Toads are great layers, but they do eat a little bit more than the others......They are also a tad fickle to raise right now....BUT nothing compares to them in size.

You forgot to warn her that the cocks of that breed like to try and do nasty things to the hand of the cat salesman.

I'm still cracking up over that. Oh... and I think any chicken the size of a propane tank eats more than a little bit over average, eh?