So I'm just thinking about chickens for next spring. I am looking more for laying hens, but will take them for meat when the time comes. I have narrowed it down to two breeds..Plymouth Rock & Brown Bovine. Anyone have any experience with these breeds? I am especially interested in hardiness to cold. I know I will have to heat the coop in winter, but to what degree? Any advice is welcome.

I'm a barred Plymouth rock fan, good for meet and eggs and found to be very tough to handle an Ontario winter. The last flock I bough from day old chick seem to be a little metal though, they keep eating the ridged Styrofoam around the base of my house, I mean they eat lard amounts of it. I had to place wood all along the wall.

Chickens are actually really easy to keep, they don't need to have a large space. In a nutshell, there are 3 types of chickens: layers, makes eggs well but not so good for meat after they reach maturity, but you can still eat them if you have to. There are also meat birds; grow fast but make little or no eggs, and then there are dual birds: good for meat and can lay eggs but not as many as layers such as Leghorns. If you only want a few laying hens, invite the roosters to dinner. Hens don't make much noise or fuss as a rooster.

In the winter they need a heat lamp when getting below -10 C, other than that, they prefer not to be too hot. A water dish that heat when sub zero is recommended, and they can eat anything and everything. layer and bird ration is available at any farm supply store and most of the kitchen scraps can go to the chickens.

Chickens will also eat all the bugs in your garden and will completely rid your yard of ant hills. If you have a fenced yard, just let them roam around to do chicken things. They will go to bed in their house all by themselves at the exact same time every evening. The more bugs and fresh grass they eat, the more orange and flavorful the eggs become. You will never go back to store bought eggs after having your own fresh from the back yard. I get 7 to 10 eggs per day.

I love Barred Rocks too. How many are you thinking of getting Denob?

The barred rocks are indeed very easy keepers, good layers, good meat birds, good free rangers.. Just how back to nature do you want your hens to be.. while it is very nice to have a heated pan and heat in the house, its not required provided you are willing to go back to some of the older ways of doing things, warm water twice a day from the house will work just fine, the girls will get used to drinking their fill at that time and eat snow if they want to.. You can create a nice warm floor by deep litter composting on it, and with a double hanging blanket doorway and a good coop, lots of bedding and the old wool stripes trick (cut a wool blanket into peices, hang them over the rows over a wood dowl, clipped into place and leave spaces, chicks and when needed the hens move into them and create very warm bed quarters (because these hand two feet off the floor and down, that is part of the reason you need the deep pack method.

In regards to being cold hardy, medium sized birds seems to do very well, if you have the choice, pick both boys and girls with smaller combs, less heat loss and less change of frost bite when out in the yard, I have heard folks talk about their birds not coming out but all mine do other then in the worst blizzards when I lock them down.

If you are going to heat the coop, just take it to just above 0 is all they need in that regard to thrive, its the light that is needed to keep them laying, not the heat, I use solor powered lights to provide extra light in winter.

If you are looking for a nice meat and egg bird, do consider that ducks could work just as well for your needs as chickens, my layer ducks easily match the laying chickens for the number of eggs produced in a year, and my meat ducks far out breed, and outproduce my chickens in terms of meat per pd cost compared to feed, and they are not near as hard on the yard, while still giving you great compost, just throwing it out there..

Chickens and ducks were the first farm critters to be got within weeks of arriving to the farm in the spring and I am currently bringing in about a couple dozen a day at the moment between all the different fowl I have at the moment..

I agree with the duck motion - I love my ducks. They sit really well - my chickens have been hopeless! I've not had one chcken batch hatch out so far and I've had 10 ducklings last year and three are sitting right now - lots of ducklings in our future! Not sure if you will want to butcher your own - I'm guessing you'll get around to doing that eventually but if you want to take them to a butcher (which you need to do if you are planning to sell any of the meat) the cost for butchering a chicken around here is $3.10 and the cost for a duck is $6.10 - apparently it's harder to pluck the feathers so it takes longer. Just something to consider.

I agree with farmgal - no heat in the coop for my chooks all winter but I did have heated water bowls in the worst of winter - more because we were a little bit lazy and didn't want to do chores three times a day 🙂

I agree with farmgal - no heat in the coop for my chooks all winter but I did have heated water bowls in the worst of winter - more because we were a little bit lazy and didn't want to do chores three times a day 🙂

You have to look at the location concerning heat. In Edmonton we had several cold spells of -30 to -35c. Its not that the birds will all die from the cold ( some will) but they will stop laying from the stress of the cold. If they stop laying, it may take several weeks for them to start again. I have friends near Vancouver, they require no extra heat at all.

One really good resource that I looked at before we jumped into the chicken coop, was www.backyardchickens.com

That's true - we have temps that are that cold as well but my birds are in a barn not an outdoor coop. Heating the coop with no airflow (because you want to keep the heat in) can cause respiratory distress and with chickens you don't get sick birds - you get dead birds. We didn't lose any to the cold nor did they stop laying but everyones situation is a little different so it's good to think about it.

While I agree that each area and the local typical temps are something to consider when you are building and running your coop, i was born and raised in alberta, mostly central and northern, have family in the yukon and have lived in NWT, and have successfully raised chickens in unheated coops in all the different places I have lived. I have however done things the way my grandfather taught me to keep the birds alive and laying.

I do agree that having a barn is a great! help, I have very fond memories of seeing the chickens sleeping on the work horses and the cows in the barn, but so did some of the barn cats. Never seen a chicken sleep on a goat though.. I guess my point is that while I agree that having heat is nice, if you can't provide it, you can work around it if you want to.

Never seen a chicken sleep on a goat though.. I guess my point is that while I agree that having heat is nice, if you can't provide it, you can work around it if you want to.

My brother has chickens that will sleep with the goats in their shelter, 🙂 but its still not a barn.

If I had more than just a few acres I would build a barn and get a few more critters. For right now and where i am, a dozen chickens, a few cats and dogs are enough to keep me busy, Any more would be a burden on my time and resources.

My whole point is that a small hen house and a cheap heat lamp works really well for those of us that want a few chickens and eggs. Its not enough to put you into business, but its easy and enough to self-sustain. A half dozen chickens can live in a medium size dog house, as long as they can get out during the day.

I love Barred Rocks too. How many are you thinking of getting Denob?

I figure on starting with 8 - 12 layers...wish I knew a way to keep a rooster quiet though!

I figure on starting with 8 - 12 layers...wish I knew a way to keep a rooster quiet though!

A sharp knife keeps them quiet.

Unless you have your chicken coop a half mile from your house, its easier to put the roosters into the freezer when they are big enough. Chicks were less than a buck each 2 years ago when we picked up our last ones. My brother tends to keep a few young roosters and one mature breeding rooster in his pen, so I can always get one if needed or if chicks were hard to come by. 8 to 12 laying hens are almost no trouble at all and don't make too much fuss or noise, but the breeding thing becomes a different game. My nephews like to have their own baby chicks and its quite educational, but i can't be bothered unless there is a shortage of new birds. I really have no intentions of being a farmer, but a few fresh eggs are tasty and rewarding when they come out of your back yard.

My family kept chickens when I was a boy and although I do not have a coop at the moment they are definitely part of my long term plans. Too bad the by-laws where I currently live don't allow them or I would have some in the city for sure. As far as I know you do not need to use a heat lamp in Southern-Central Ontario as long as you build a properly insulated coop. The water might freeze but as long as you change it daily the chickens will be fine. Some breeds do better than others in cold so get the heartiest cold weather breed you can find.

A sturdy coop with a proper door latch and roaming dogs will keep the chickens safe at night.

Bartering for a good breeding stock post-SHTF near my survival retreat could be an option that is why it pays to know some of the local farmers.

I don't use heat in the chicken coop in winter, nor heated water. they eat snow, if there water freeze's. I use the deep bedding method and put plastic over the screening for the winder. there own body heat seems to keep it good for them. I do get eggs through out the winter, just less of them. I get mix chicks in spring, and the first roster to speak gets to be dinner.
I finally after having chickens for years had a hen go broody, and I so wanted to have her sit on eggs but had no roster with them at the time. I have a incubator and did hatch one egg out of 2 doz. lol we called it little peep, and the husky killed it in the end.