These meat breeds good for North Idaho?

[jasmer]

We want to develop a sustainable meat flock, and have narrowed down our list to Buckeyes, Dorkings, and Jersey Giants. We want to raise all three and see which we like best. We get below freezing in the winter, we can provide heat lamps and such but do these breeds tolerate close confinement reasonably well during the winter months and can they handle the cold?

Also can anybody suggest some hatcheries? Know of any that emphasize size and/or broodiness?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Dorkings are supposed to be winter layers so I think they'd be ok but the other 2 certainly won't need any heat.
The heat lamps would only be needed for the 5 weeks or so when they're young but if you are doing a sustainable flock you probably won't be brooding this time of year (like I do).
I've never known of a problem with JGs or Buckeyes handling cold.
Dorkings do go broody, Buckeyes sometimes but I've never had a JG go broody.
If you want to raise a lot of meat you may want to invest in an incubator.

 

[jasmer]

Thanks for the reply. We might get an incubator, but we want to do this as old fashioned as possible. We want to go off grid, and keeping electrical contraptions to a minimum is kind of part of that. We're weird like that. But if we do like the JGs best it's good to know beforehand because if we have to get an incubator to keep a breed we really like that's no big deal. Maybe we can play around with crossing some broody dorkings in and see what happens.

Also do you think buckeyes and dorkings are a good choice to feed a family of 4, with regards to carcass size?