# Best breed of chicken for prepping



## bigz1983 (Mar 12, 2017)

I have chickens and I was wondering what breed would be the best for prepping. 

I know that reproduction is important and if the power goes out from a EMP or solar flare wouldn't a breed that goes broody be better? 

Silkies go broody the most but they are small and don't have much meat on them. 

What about a breed like Buff Orpington I read they are known to go broody? 

Any of you guys have suggestions?


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

Duel purpose birds are just that... Lay eggs and when they quit laying eggs they go in the stew pot.

Yeah Buff's are good they do tend to go broody
I raise the Isa Browns for eggs all year I also have Black sex links, Black Copper French Marans and Barred rocks (Plymouth rocks)
Backyard chickens .com is a good place for info

Some breeds you will need to pick for the type weather you live in. For example I also am from meatchicken(michigan) so you want winter hearty breeds.

These are some of my birds playing dead










The eggs from the Black Copper French Maran are the best egg you will ever eat very creamy and thick here is a pic of one


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

bigz1983 said:


> I have chickens and I was wondering what breed would be the best for prepping.
> 
> I know that reproduction is important and if the power goes out from a EMP or solar flare wouldn't a breed that goes broody be better?
> 
> ...


Well I'll be damned !!!! Now there's a prep I don't have ...... EMP proof chickens! :vs_lol:


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

A Watchman said:


> Well I'll be damned !!!! Now there's a prep I don't have ...... EMP proof chickens! :vs_lol:


Hahaha I gotta get me sum of dem right der!


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

A Watchman said:


> Well I'll be damned !!!! Now there's a prep I don't have ...... EMP proof chickens! :vs_lol:


OK, I'm sure you will laugh & @hawgrider will say I worry too much, but this is actually a concern of mine. Right now I only have 7 hens but after a crisis, I would want to vastly increase my flock size. I know I could force some to brood or trade for a broody gal but as opposed to that, I purchased a Hova Bator Low Voltage Genesis Egg Incubator 1588, which can run off 12vdc. This incubator is wrapped in foil, protected from EMP, and in my prepper storage. Go ahead & make fun of me.

I have Buff Orpingtons, Black Sex Links & Barred Rocks and none of mine have ever gone broody but I have a neighbor who's sex link is broody & uses her to grow his flock.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

******* said:


> OK, I'm sure you will laugh & @hawgrider will say I worry too much, but this is actually a concern of mine. Right now I only have 7 hens but after a crisis, I would want to vastly increase my flock size. I know I could force some to brood or trade for a broody gal but as opposed to that, I purchased a Hova Bator Low Voltage Genesis Egg Incubator 1588, which can run off 12vdc. This incubator is wrapped in foil, protected from EMP, and in my prepper storage. Go ahead & make fun of me.
> 
> I have Buff Orpingtons, Black Sex Links & Barred Rocks and none of mine have ever gone broody but I have a neighbor who's sex link is broody & uses her to grow his flock.


I have 9 birds. 2 of my sexlinks like to go broody but I don't play with hatching right now so I throw those broody birds in my broody buster for 3 days to cure them of the broody episode.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

hawgrider said:


> I have 9 birds. 2 of my sexlinks like to go broody but I don't play with hatching right now so I throw those broody birds in my broody buster for 3 days to cure them of the broody episode.


Please explain. I've yet to deal with this issue.

Yesterday I got an egg that made me wonder who the hell put an ostrich in my pen. That thing is twice the size of the largest egg they ever laid. My first thought was, damn, that must have hurt. It will not even begin to fit in the extra large egg crate.


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

I have always favored Rhode Island Reds . Lots of breeds will do look for dual purpose. Try and find a local to you hatchery to use and get a couple of hens to sit for you you can always butcher up excess birds or sell them. 

I notice that the Reds seem to lay better in winter. I use a lamp but would use a solar lamp if the chicken house were not already wired. I have the lamp on a timer comes on at 5 am every morning . I would only have a light at night if they birds were confined. I have had birds not go in the building with the light on then end up spending the night out in the dark. So for me light only in the morning they go in as it starts getting dark and stay in .


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

******* said:


> Please explain. I've yet to deal with this issue.
> 
> Yesterday I got an egg that made me wonder who the hell put an ostrich in my pen. That thing is twice the size of the largest egg they ever laid. My first thought was, damn, that must have hurt. It will not even begin to fit in the extra large egg crate.


The broody buster? Yeah its the sure fired fool proof method to put your broody bird back to laying eggs.

Well I thought I had a pic but I do not at this time so...

It is a wire portable large dog kennel cage. The biggest you can get so you have room to put a 7 lbs feeder and a 1 gallon fountain in there with the broody bird.

You take the kennel cage and turn it upside down so the smaller wire pattern is down twoards the ground thats what the bird walks and lives on for the next 3 to 5 day depending how stubborn it is.

The kennel cage has to be elevated off the ground I use milk crates to keep the cage off the ground. So what this method does is provide lots of air flow under the bird which reduces the internal temp of the broody hen. Yes when hens go broody their internal temp has risen and then the mama mode kicks in.

So the only way to get them out of the broody mode is to make them uncomfortable and lower their internal temp pretty cool huh. Ive tried all kinds of different methods when I was a green horn at this and none of them worked until I discovered the "Broody buster" I'll coin the term but I did not invent the method.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

RJAMES said:


> I have always favored Rhode Island Reds . Lots of breeds will do look for dual purpose. Try and find a local to you hatchery to use and get a couple of hens to sit for you you can always butcher up excess birds or sell them.
> 
> I notice that the Reds seem to lay better in winter. I use a lamp but would use a solar lamp if the chicken house were not already wired. I have the lamp on a timer comes on at 5 am every morning . I would only have a light at night if they birds were confined. I have had birds not go in the building with the light on then end up spending the night out in the dark. So for me light only in the morning they go in as it starts getting dark and stay in .


Im running light this year ... no freeloaders If I feed them they are going to lay. Lay eggs or jump in the stew pot Its that simple.

14 hours of light to maintain full production. You can get by with 12 hours but 14 hours is the best.

of course this will wear the birds out sooner but Ill get more.

I never have run any heated bulbs I just use a 40W incandescent. No heat ! The birds don't need it.


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

One of my favorite breeds of dual purpose chickens have always been Rhode Island Reds. Not the best layers in the world but pretty productive in that regard. They can definitely give you a adequately feastively plump fryer for the dinner table too! Not as Broody as the OB's though but seem to do good enough in that aspect. Plymouth Barred Rocks are another one of my favorites breed wise...


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

LunaticFringeInc said:


> One of my favorite breeds of dual purpose chickens have always been Rhode Island Reds. Not the best layers in the world but pretty productive in that regard. They can definitely give you a adequately feastively plump fryer for the dinner table too! Not as Broody as the OB's though but seem to do good enough in that aspect. Plymouth Barred Rocks are another one of my favorites breed wise...


The heritage breeds like Road reds, barred rocks, buffs only lay 150 to 200ish eggs a year depending on breed

The hybrid ISA browns lay over 300 eggs a year.

Leghorns also lay over 300 per year .
As a rough comparison.

There are a few charts out on the web that will tell you what each breed lays.


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Yeah but its hard to reproduce "Hybrids" reliably.

Yeah if it was just about the eggs Leghorns would be one of my first pics but dang those things are scrawny no matter how much you feed them. If I am gonna have fried Yard Bird, I want a side of Pteradacyn. Go Big -or- Stay Home I always say!


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

A lot of talk regarding eating the gals, but the real value in chickens is in the eggs. If you roast a whole chicken, you get around 2000 calories. If a chicken lays 300 eggs a year, that is 70 calories x 300... which is a whopping 21,000 calories per bird per year. Even an older bird, that is only laying 100 eggs a year is providing you with 7000 calories. So especially in a crisis, chickens provide a huge amount of renewable calories for very little input. Mine have lots of room to roam & in a crisis, I'd open up the whole fenced in orchard for the larger flock. My gals eat almost exclusively off the land & eat almost no layer feed. Only thing they really like, that I give them, is oilseed sunflower seed, & that is something I grow. That is why I have an incubator in EMP storage. If I quickly brought my flock up to 100 birds, they would provide 2 million calories a year, just from their eggs. For math sake, an adult uses around a million calories a year: 3000 x 365 = 1,095,000.

So maybe I'm not so crazy to ensure I can quickly incubate a large flock. Seems to me, to maintain a 100 bird laying flock, one might need to hatch somewhere around 50-100 birds a year, where most roosters are raised for meat and pullets replace the worn out hens or ones taken by predators. IMO, hard to find a better renewable source of calories than chickens.


----------



## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

We like the Buff Orpintons They are broody and of a calm nature. They lay nice big brown eggs.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Joe said:


> We like the Buff Orpintons They are broody and of a calm nature. They lay nice big brown eggs.


This past year I added a Buff Orpington along with 3 Barred Rocks. I had heard the Buffs were very calm & friendly, so when I picked up my chicks last spring, I added the Buff. She is a fine bird but nowhere near as friendly as the Barred Rocks. They love all people who come in their run & allow anyone to pick them up and man, do they ever talk to you. Every visitor that goes down to see my gals always comments about how much they love the Barred Rocks.


----------



## morganrogue (Dec 13, 2017)

******* said:


> This past year I added a Buff Orpington along with 3 Barred Rocks. I had heard the Buffs were very calm & friendly, so when I picked up my chicks last spring, I added the Buff. She is a fine bird but nowhere near as friendly as the Barred Rocks. They love all people who come in their run & allow anyone to pick them up and man, do they ever talk to you. Every visitor that goes down to see my gals always comments about how much they love the Barred Rocks.


I'm glad to know that we aren't the only ones who have unfriendly Buff Orpington's. They lay fine but they are super unfriendly and I've tried everything to get them friendly and used to us but they just won't. I hate it. We used to have Cochin's and they were super friendly.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

I liked this post. I had to look up the word broody.. I need more education on chicken


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

morganrogue said:


> I'm glad to know that we aren't the only ones who have unfriendly Buff Orpington's. They lay fine but they are super unfriendly and I've tried everything to get them friendly and used to us but they just won't. I hate it. We used to have Cochin's and they were super friendly.


All my gals are sociable with me & visitors but the Buff Orpington & the Black Sex Links just don't like to be touched or picked up. The Barred Rocks, on the other hand, are always at your feet & will almost always let you pick them up. My Sex Links are more standoffish than the others. If I sit in my chair, the Barred Rocks will be in my lap in an instant. The Buff will join in after a bit, as long as I don't pet her too much. The Sex Links never hop up on me.


----------



## morganrogue (Dec 13, 2017)

******* said:


> All my gals are sociable with me & visitors but the Buff Orpington & the Black Sex Links just don't like to be touched or picked up. The Barred Rocks, on the other hand, are always at your feet & will almost always let you pick them up. My Sex Links are more standoffish than the others. If I sit in my chair, the Barred Rocks will be in my lap in an instant. The Buff will join in after a bit, as long as I don't pet her too much. The Sex Links never hop up on me.


I'm gonna look into Barred Rocks. We also want Rhode Island Reds. We need a separate coop first so as to introduce the new chickens properly.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## azrancher (Dec 14, 2014)

******* said:


> Yesterday I got an egg that made me wonder who the hell put an ostrich in my pen. That thing is twice the size of the largest egg they ever laid. My first thought was, damn, that must have hurt. It will not even begin to fit in the extra large egg crate.


An egg twice as large as normal is a double yolker, had one of my chicks this year that laid a lot of them before she settled down to just one yolk at a time. Large breed chicks do not make good brooders, I've tried several different breeds and although they want to set, they get bored before the 21 days are up, or if on occasion they do manage to hatch some out, they don't make good moms and will abandon their chicks to be killed by the other hens/roosters. Best bet on brooding your own is the silkie, you can have them on 9-12 large eggs at a time and they do just fine, I've also had good luck with Mallard ducks raising their own.

*Rancher*


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

morganrogue said:


> I'm gonna look into Barred Rocks. We also want Rhode Island Reds. We need a separate coop first so as to introduce the new chickens properly.


You know, the Rhode Island Red makes up 1/2 of the sex links.

My brooder was up in the garage & when time to bring the young ladies down to the coop, I simply tacked up a piece of wire fencing in the coop for a few days, dividing the coop into two sections. I have doors on each side, so I just used that side door to let the old gals out. The automatic door was on the side with the youngsters, so I just disabled it for a few days, as I didn't allow them out during that time. My plan was to fence off a section of the run, outside the youngsters' door, to protect them for the next couple of days but once the young ladies came out, there was very little bullying so I didn't separate them outside. Besides, the young gals were quicker than the older, fatter sex links. So once they were outside together, I removed the wire divider.

The youngsters realized the most dangerous time was when coming in at evening and quickly learned to let the old gals in first & get up on the roost bar. So long as the youngsters stayed on the separate lower roost bar, away from the sex links, there was no problem. After a few weeks, there were no run ins at all. I never had any injuries and never even saw a feather pulled. IMO, there is less stress if the gals have plenty of room, in the coop, but especially outside. So to me that is critical for a smooth introduction.


----------



## morganrogue (Dec 13, 2017)

******* said:


> You know, the Rhode Island Red makes up 1/2 of the sex links.
> 
> My brooder was up in the garage & when time to bring the young ladies down to the coop, I simply tacked up a piece of wire fencing in the coop for a few days, dividing the coop into two sections. I have doors on each side, so I just used that side door to let the old gals out. The automatic door was on the side with the youngsters, so I just disabled it for a few days, as I didn't allow them out during that time. My plan was to fence off a section of the run, outside the youngsters' door, to protect them for the next couple of days but once the young ladies came out, there was very little bullying so I didn't separate them outside. Besides, the young gals were quicker than the older, fatter sex links. So once they were outside together, I removed the wire divider.
> 
> The youngsters realized the most dangerous time was when coming in at evening and quickly learned to let the old gals in first & get up on the roost bar. So long as the youngsters stayed on the separate lower roost bar, away from the sex links, there was no problem. After a few weeks, there were no run ins at all. I never had any injuries and never even saw a feather pulled. IMO, there is less stress if the gals have plenty of room, in the coop, but especially outside. So to me that is critical for a smooth introduction.


Excellent ideas! Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

******* said:


> A lot of talk regarding eating the gals, but the real value in chickens is in the eggs. If you roast a whole chicken, you get around 2000 calories. If a chicken lays 300 eggs a year, that is 70 calories x 300... which is a whopping 21,000 calories per bird per year. Even an older bird, that is only laying 100 eggs a year is providing you with 7000 calories. So especially in a crisis, chickens provide a huge amount of renewable calories for very little input. Mine have lots of room to roam & in a crisis, I'd open up the whole fenced in orchard for the larger flock. My gals eat almost exclusively off the land & eat almost no layer feed. Only thing they really like, that I give them, is oilseed sunflower seed, & that is something I grow. That is why I have an incubator in EMP storage. If I quickly brought my flock up to 100 birds, they would provide 2 million calories a year, just from their eggs. For math sake, an adult uses around a million calories a year: 3000 x 365 = 1,095,000.
> 
> So maybe I'm not so crazy to ensure I can quickly incubate a large flock. Seems to me, to maintain a 100 bird laying flock, one might need to hatch somewhere around 50-100 birds a year, where most roosters are raised for meat and pullets replace the worn out hens or ones taken by predators. IMO, hard to find a better renewable source of calories than chickens.


Your right about that....when they are laying they do produce more callories but what do you do when she is laying 50 eggs a year instead of 200 plus a year, continue feeding it and let it die of old age?


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

LunaticFringeInc said:


> Your right about that....when they are laying they do produce more callories but what do you do when she is laying 50 eggs a year instead of 200 plus a year, continue feeding it and let it die of old age?


Right now, in good times, yes. They are pets, no different than my 10 dogs, 4 horses & 2 cats except for the fact they leave behind eggs & great fertilizer as opposed to just poop.

In a crisis, I would manage the flock where that they would be replaced as soon as their egg production dropped appreciably, and then used as meat.


----------



## bigz1983 (Mar 12, 2017)

Right now I have 6 ISA Brown hens, 3 Barred rock hens, 1 Barred rock rooster, 1 Speckled Sussex hen and 3 Silkie hens. 

I bought the 3 Silkie hens and put them in a separate mini coop and my plan is to use them to incubate the eggs of the larger chickens because Silkies are the best mothers. 

I'm wondering if I should have just got a large breed that is known to go broody instead of getting Silkies.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

******* said:


> You know, the Rhode Island Red makes up 1/2 of the sex links.
> 
> My brooder was up in the garage & when time to bring the young ladies down to the coop, I simply tacked up a piece of wire fencing in the coop for a few days, dividing the coop into two sections. I have doors on each side, so I just used that side door to let the old gals out. The automatic door was on the side with the youngsters, so I just disabled it for a few days, as I didn't allow them out during that time. My plan was to fence off a section of the run, outside the youngsters' door, to protect them for the next couple of days but once the young ladies came out, there was very little bullying so I didn't separate them outside. Besides, the young gals were quicker than the older, fatter sex links. So once they were outside together, I removed the wire divider.
> 
> The youngsters realized the most dangerous time was when coming in at evening and quickly learned to let the old gals in first & get up on the roost bar. So long as the youngsters stayed on the separate lower roost bar, away from the sex links, there was no problem. After a few weeks, there were no run ins at all. I never had any injuries and never even saw a feather pulled. IMO, there is less stress if the gals have plenty of room, in the coop, but especially outside. So to me that is critical for a smooth introduction.


FYI -
2"X4" can be hard on their feet and cause "bumble foot." You may want to trim an 1/2 or so off those 2x4" 's and really round off the edges. Make them more like a round log or tree branch.


----------



## BlackDog (Nov 23, 2013)

I'm glad to know there are some chicken ranchers here. I'm just starting my chicken education. We adopted our neighbors chickens about a month ago when they had to relocate after a house fire.

We had 6 hens and a rooster to start but one of the hens didn't come back the third night after I moved their coop to our yard. I guess something got her. We've got a couple barred rocks, a couple what I think are ausralorps and what I think is an is a brown. I'm not sure what the rooster is but I'm guessing some kind of silky.

This works out great because I've been wanting chickens for a while but hadn't gotten off my ass and done anything about it. As has been mentioned...what a great prep! Plus they're just cool birds, and I'm sure tasty, too.
Some were molting so I'm only getting 1 egg a day right now but I get two every now and then.
I'm hoping a couple will go bloody at some point so I can see if the flock can regenerate itself. I'm planning on buying a few as well. Ideally, I'd like to have ten or twelve birds.

Bwack-bwack-bwaaaack!



Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

hawgrider said:


> FYI -
> 2"X4" can be hard on their feet and cause "bumble foot." You may want to trim an 1/2 or so off those 2x4" 's and really round off the edges. Make them more like a round log or tree branch.


Yep, that I know. The 2x4 you see is not a roosting bar but a step to assist the big gals in getting up & down off the high roost. The roosting bars are the small tree branches that were cut for that purpose, to better simulate what they would naturally roost on & allow their toes to naturally wrap around the curved, textured surface. All my roosting bars are branches, even the small one in the background that the youngsters are using. I brought that down from their brooder. The low roosting bar you now see under the 2x4 was just there for a few days while the birds were separated during integration. It now is over on the far side of the coop, where the smaller one is now pictured.

My gals are pretty heavy and I noticed they struggled getting off the high roost... thus the 2x4 step. It has helped greatly.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

I see a lot of folks using them as roosts. It also exposes their feet to the cold up here in the Northeast.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

hawgrider said:


> I see a lot of folks using them as roosts. It also exposes their feet to the cold up here in the Northeast.


If you read online. some folks say chickens like to roost on a flat surface, so these folks say turn the 2x4 with the 4" side up... like my step. Others say, if using a 2x4, turn the 2" side up & round the corners so that they can wrap their toes around it. My feeling is to replicate what they do naturally and use rounded branches... small one in the brooder & larger for adults. Seems logical to me, their feet are designed to wrap around a branch. On what tree would they ever find a 4" flat, smooth surface?

Proof is, none of my birds ever sleep on the 2x4. They always choose a branch. Normally, they like the tallest roost but I've noticed on cold nights, they mostly choose the lower one on the other side of the coop. There is a window up there on the upper roost, of course covered in hardware cloth, which they love on hot summer nights and really, most nights. The lower roost doesn't have a window & is across from the heated waterer, so they seem to like it on cold nights. Not that I watch them at night but I clean their coop & run each day, so I see the evidence of where they sleep.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

BlackDog said:


> This works out great because I've been wanting chickens for a while but hadn't gotten off my ass and done anything about it. As has been mentioned...what a great prep! Plus they're just cool birds, and I'm sure tasty, too.


Yes, they are very cool animals. Everyone that visits my farm spends more time with them than the horses. And yes, they are a great prep because they provide food for you most every day. With as many eggs they can lay, with an incubator, one could do as I plan, and quickly increase a flock ten fold. As a prepper, I have my food stores but just as importantly are items that replenish themselves. For me, besides chickens, that is why I have a catfish pond & feed them daily when warm. Add in a nice garden with open pollinated seed, maybe an orchard and you are well along on the journey toward self sufficiency... a prepper's dream.



BlackDog said:


> Some were molting so I'm only getting 1 egg a day right now but I get two every now and then.


Yes, molting will stop egg production but unless you are running lights in the coop at night, so will the short days of winter. Some folks turn on lights early in the morning to get more eggs, but during normal times I choose to let nature decide what is best for them. I figure they deserve a rest.

If you do the lights to increase winter egg production, remember to extend the light period in the morning, where the lights come on in the dark & go off when it is light. They are night blind, so if you leave the lights on in the early evening & turn them off while nighttime, the coop goes from bright light to instant darkness, and the gals will not be able to find their roosts.


----------



## MountainGirl (Oct 29, 2017)

Any tips or ideas about keeping chickens in the light over winter? Being off-grid, we have to really keep our wattage consumption down and only have 10hrs of daylight... would LED bulbs work for this? This is the main reason we haven't done chickens yet, though having the eggs would be wonderful. Not sure how many birds yet either...or what kind of coop for snow country, etc...actually we dont know anything yet, lol, but its one of the things we're trying to figure out now & hope to start this spring. Thanks!


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

MountainGirl said:


> Any tips or ideas about keeping chickens in the light over winter? Being off-grid, we have to really keep our wattage consumption down and only have 10hrs of daylight... would LED bulbs work for this?


I don't think the chickens read reviews on bulb type. 

Only thing that matters is getting it bright enough to fool their system into thinking the days are longer. I don't think it takes a whole lot of light but bet the folks that have done it can let you know.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

MountainGirl said:


> Any tips or ideas about keeping chickens in the light over winter? Being off-grid, we have to really keep our wattage consumption down and only have 10hrs of daylight... would LED bulbs work for this? This is the main reason we haven't done chickens yet, though having the eggs would be wonderful. Not sure how many birds yet either...or what kind of coop for snow country, etc...actually we dont know anything yet, lol, but its one of the things we're trying to figure out now & hope to start this spring. Thanks!


Yes LED will work. You will need 12 to 14 hours of light per day. So that means you will need to run that LED bulb in the coop all day because chickens in the winter where its cold are wussy's and they will hang out in the coop all day long except to come out for a drink of water and a nibble of some feed. I don't run any heat for my birds. If your mission is eggs run the light.

Yes it will wear the birds out sooner but so what! I want eggs all winter that is why I go through all the work.

Every time they molt they will lay less eggs.


----------



## MountainGirl (Oct 29, 2017)

hawgrider said:


> Yes LED will work. You will need 12 to 14 hours of light per day. So that means you will need to run that LED bulb in the coop all day because chickens in the winter where its cold are wussy's and they will hang out in the coop all day long except to come out for a drink of water and a nibble of some feed. I don't run any heat for my birds. If your mission is eggs run the light.
> 
> Yes it will wear the birds out sooner but so what! I want eggs all winter that is why I go through all the work.
> 
> Every time they molt they will lay less eggs.


Thanks, hawgrider. I wasn't sure if the full-spectrum light was needed; LEDs dont draw much so that might work out. Yeah they'd be in all day up here; water would have to be inside or they'd be lickin on an ice block. Do chickens lick? LOL Time to google 'raising chickens in snow country'. We need coop ideas, too. Tks again.


----------



## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

MountainGirl said:


> Thanks, hawgrider. I wasn't sure if the full-spectrum light was needed; LEDs dont draw much so that might work out. Yeah they'd be in all day up here; water would have to be inside or they'd be lickin on an ice block. Do chickens lick? LOL Time to google 'raising chickens in snow country'. We need coop ideas, too. Tks again.


I use a chicken fountain hot plate. It keeps the water from freezing by kicking the heating element on/off based on temperature. But one of those may not work for you being off grid.

My coop is not insulated. The birds huddle together on the roost when the temps are really really cold.

Make sure what ever coop design you use that its very easy for you to clean and gather eggs and in your case room for food and a water fountain.

Now keep in mind though if your water fountain is inside of a small coop the moisture can cause issues like frost bite on the combs.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

My somewhat limited experience is older birds are more affected by the shorter days of winter. My 3 older sex links pretty much completely shut down in winter but each of my 4 gals who were born this spring are giving me about an egg every other day, with the shortest day of the year almost here. So what that means for me is, I still get all the eggs my wife & I need, even in winter. Now in summer, I'm giving eggs away like crazy as we sure can't eat all the eggs they produce.

You can use some strategies to ensure you have eggs in winter without lights, if you so choose.. Below is a link of a study conducted by Mother Earth News. In early fall, before they slow down, build up your stock of eggs in the refrigerator. I never wash my eggs as that removes the protective covering on the eggs. Fresh, unwashed eggs will easily last for 2 or more months in the refrigerator (the Mother Earth study eggs lasted 7 months), so we just eat the oldest first. As you move into winter, your gals will still be laying but will slow down, so your egg inventory steadily is reduced but depending on your usage, not by much. Then as time passes, and the inventory runs very low, the gals start laying again. We rarely, if ever purchase eggs... even in winter.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-eggs-zmaz77ndzgoe


----------



## MountainGirl (Oct 29, 2017)

hawgrider said:


> I use a chicken fountain hot plate. It keeps the water from freezing by kicking the heating element on/off based on temperature. But one of those may not work for you being off grid.
> 
> My coop is not insulated. The birds huddle together on the roost when the temps are really really cold.
> 
> ...


It's low humidity up here even in winter but I can see how moisture could build up in a small coop, yeah. Thanks for that.



******* said:


> My somewhat limited experience is older birds are more affected by the shorter days of winter. My 3 older sex links pretty much completely shut down in winter but each of my 4 gals who were born this spring are giving me about an egg every other day, with the shortest day of the year almost here. So what that means for me is, I still get all the eggs my wife & I need, even in winter. Now in summer, I'm giving eggs away like crazy as we sure can't eat all the eggs they produce.
> 
> You can use some strategies to ensure you have eggs in winter without lights, if you so choose.. Below is a link of a study conducted by Mother Earth News. In early fall, before they slow down, build up your stock of eggs in the refrigerator. I never wash my eggs as that removes the protective covering on the eggs. Fresh, unwashed eggs will easily last for 2 or more months in the refrigerator (the Mother Earth study eggs lasted 7 months), so we just eat the oldest first. As you move into winter, your gals will still be laying but will slow down, so your egg inventory steadily is reduced but depending on your usage, not by much. Then as time passes, and the inventory runs very low, the gals start laying again. We rarely, if ever purchase eggs... even in winter.
> 
> https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-eggs-zmaz77ndzgoe


Good tips and link, thanks!

-------------

How feasible would it be to buy chickens in the spring, have eggs all summer & store some ahead, then butcher all of them & start with a new flock the next spring? Meaning - not winter over chickens at all. I know it would not likely be $$$ smart... but are there 'chicken reasons' this wouldn't be an option? _(And, if that last question doesn't show you how clueless I am, nothing will LOL)_


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

MountainGirl said:


> Yeah they'd be in all day up here; water would have to be inside or they'd be lickin on an ice block. Do chickens lick? LOL Time to google 'raising chickens in snow country'. We need coop ideas, too. Tks again.


Nope, they don't lick ice. I use a K&H Pet Products Ultimate Stock Tank Deicer w/ Cord Clip Red 250W in my buckets to keep them from freezing.










We built my coop in my shop and maybe these pics will give you some ideas. I do realize you have to worry about cold more than me where I have to worry more about heat.


----------



## MountainGirl (Oct 29, 2017)

Nice, *******!
And yeah, we couldn't use heaters at all. We do use hi wattage things (toaster, coffeepot, etc) but only for short time spurts. (Except in the summer, when we get more juice coming down the hill than we can use, lol)


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

MountainGirl said:


> How feasible would it be to buy chickens in the spring, have eggs all summer & store some ahead, then butcher all of them & start with a new flock the next spring? Meaning - not winter over chickens at all. I know it would not likely be $$$ smart... but are there 'chicken reasons' this wouldn't be an option? _(And, if that last question doesn't show you how clueless I am, nothing will LOL)_


You'd be killing the gals just as they started laying full size eggs. Just find you a cold hardy breed. They are tough. Folks in Canada raise them without heat so I bet you could.


----------



## bigz1983 (Mar 12, 2017)

The issue I'm having with the Silkie hens is their feathers don't repel water. 

They have feathers on their feet so they hold the snow/ice. 

Silkies are also prone to scaly leg mites and they can't live with my large chickens.


----------

