Hardiest breed?

[Snadger]

I was wondering what the hardiest breed of chickens were? Whatever they are I think I need some after the stinking summer we've had.

Don't care whether they are pure breeds or hybrids either!

[RedThorn]

Would of said a Dorking as it's been around for so long.... but based on your other post, not sure now

[Snadger]

Would of said a Dorking as it's been around for so long.... but based on your other post, not sure now

That was my original thinking..................but remember the Romans brought them here from ITALY which has a tad different climate to ours!

[SuzyB]

I've just been googling the same question - results came out with Blackrocks quite a lot. Im sure someone else could say whether thats true or not?

[RedThorn]

That was my original thinking..................but remember the Romans brought them here from ITALY which has a tad different climate to ours!

and nigh on 2000 years to acclimatise!

[Flummery]

Blackrocks are tough. They were my first choice but I couldn't get them round here this year.

[Suechooks]

Yes I was going to suggest Black Rocks. I think they were originaly developed in Scotland so should be tough!

[RichmondHens]

Depends what you want them to be hardy against. Any breed can fall foul of illness.

Sorry to hear about your birds Snadge, but they may well be hardy enough. You keep yours on an allotment, if I remember correctly, with other birds kept on the allotment too? Therefore the risk of picking up an airborne infection from someone else's birds is fairly high. Doesn't matter what breed they are, if something is "going round", then watch out!

[Snadger]

I think black rocks are a hybrid of a Barred Plymouth Rock hen with a Rhode Island Red cockerel if I'm not mistaken?

I have also heard that one of there negative traits is feather pecking............to the extent of drawing blood!

[Snadger]

Depends what you want them to be hardy against. Any breed can fall foul of illness.

Sorry to hear about your birds Snadge, but they may well be hardy enough. You keep yours on an allotment, if I remember correctly, with other birds kept on the allotment too? Therefore the risk of picking up an airborne infection from someone else's birds is fairly high. Doesn't matter what breed they are, if something is "going round", then watch out!

By hardy I mean tolerant of cold winds which sweep across the allotments and generally damp weather.
My chooks have access to a covered area but prefer to sit out in the rain quite often.
As we approach winter, and especially with my Minorca's being less than hardy, I'm going to have to re billet them in a large greeenhouse.

[Suechooks]

I think black rocks are a hybrid of a Barred Plymouth Rock hen with a Rhode Island Red cockerel if I'm not mistaken?

I have also heard that one of there negative traits is feather pecking............to the extent of drawing blood!

I've only got 1 but she certainly doesn't do anything nasty! She's in the middle to top range of pecking order and gets on with pretty much everyone.

[Hilary B]

My first chooks (30 years ago) were Black Rocks, and they were the only ones we ever kept 'in' for longer than 'acclimiatising' (and that was because we had too many neighbours who didn't mind the clucking, but would have got annoyed about stray hens in the veg patch). Never saw any feather pecking in our bunch!

[Birdie Wife]

I lost both my Dorkings in the dog attack I didn't find them to be the hardiest chickens, they have quite loose feathering which I suppose is bred into them to make it easier to pluck them (they were orginally bred for meat). My hardiest birds are the Scots Dumpies and a x game hen that I had - I think almost all the game breeds (eg Old English Game) are really hardy. Others that I've heard are really hardy are the other Scottish breed, the Scots Grey, and Black Rocks as already suggested.

[bluemoon]

I went for hardy breeds as, like you, we're on a windswept, lottie. My first choice was Rhode Islands Reds, they can tolerate living outdoors in seriously sub-zero temperatures (minus 22C for weeks at a time apparently), but do need a snug house to sleep in if they are to keep laying all winter. Marans are hardy too, surprisingly as they were originally bred in France, but then northern continental Europe does have colder winters than we do. Have to admit I would have thought the Dorkings would have been hardy, and have even considered getting a trio myself, OK, so they originated in Italy, but they've had 2000 years of natural selection of sorts, in that any which didn't survive a British winter were no longer around to breed the following spring, which should have toughened them up. Perhaps you were just very unlucky with yours?

[Birdie Wife]

They are fairly hardy I suppose, just not as much as other breeds! We've had winters here where the nights go down below -20deg and they have survived okay - it's just they don't look very comfortable in wet and windy conditions, especially when they wind blows their skirts up the wrong way!! As long as they have good shelter, I wouldn't discount them out of hand if you like the look of the breed (and they do have lovely temperaments )