Creating An extra cold hardy breed - The Cold Weather Egger

[Chickens are awsome]

Have you looked into the Chantecler?

It's a Canadian heritage breed: https://livestockconservancy.org/heritage-breeds/heritage-breeds-list/chantecler-chicken/

I have 2 buff chanteclers but I am looking for a larger body size.

 

[Chickens are awsome]

Like people have said, there are already some really cold hardy breeds out there. I just got a Salmon Faverolles, which has feathered legs and is supposed to be good in the cold.

But why not have more cold hardy breeds? Let's see what you come up with! What breeds are you thinking of mixing together?

I have 2 salmon faverolles but they always stop laying when it gets really cold and just put on weight and end up really fat by the end of winter.

I plan on crossing English Orpingtons, and Jersy giants (both for larger size), onto an olive egger to try and get some blue egg-laying large birds, then cross those onto whichever was not used (ie. English orps/jersey giants) to create the F2's.


But I am also open to suggestions

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I have 2 salmon faverolles but they always stop laying when it gets really cold and just put on weight and end up really fat by the end of winter.

I plan on crossing English Orpingtons, and Jersy giants (both for larger size), onto an olive egger to try and get some blue egg-laying large birds, then cross those onto whichever was not used (ie. English orps/jersey giants) to create the F2's.


But I am also open to suggestions

Cool!

I'm pretty new to chickens and don't really know anything about genetics, so I'm just here to see what you come up with! I don't have much to contribute unfortunately but I wish you luck I live in a cold climate so this topic always interests me.

 

[Amer]

Yellow Skin Color and Yellow Shanks is actually a trait that was a product of an introgression event derived from a Gallus sonneratii a Tropical Jungle Fowl, that this trait gives cold tolerance is a coincidence

Wait, yellow legs lend cold tolerance? This is new to me.

 

[nicalandia]

Wait, yellow legs lend cold tolerance? This is new to me.

@DarJones Brought it Up, I have heard of that somewhere but I can't find any research on the matter.

 

[DarJones]

2000 years ago, all domesticated chickens had white legs. This has been documented and verified from remains found in midden piles. The date when yellow legs showed up is not documented to my knowledge, however, it would probably have been between 500 and 1000 years ago. As domestic chickens were carried further north, yellow legs became the common phenotype while white legs were still common in tropical and some temperate locations. Look closely at existing cold tolerant breeds of chicken and see how many of them have yellow legs.

 

[Amer]

2000 years ago, all domesticated chickens had white legs. This has been documented and verified from remains found in midden piles. The date when yellow legs showed up is not documented to my knowledge, however, it would probably have been between 500 and 1000 years ago. As domestic chickens were carried further north, yellow legs became the common phenotype while white legs were still common in tropical and some temperate locations. Look closely at existing cold tolerant breeds of chicken and see how many of them have yellow legs.

Well then, I’d doubt that. Yellow legged Asiatic breeds are common. Anconas, Leghorns, Buttercups are Mediterranean. Almost all British breeds have white skin (one exception would be Cornish) because this coloring was preferred in carcasses. Most European breeds have white skin.
Meanwhile, yellow became the American color because they didn’t care about the skin color for carcasses and a recessive trait is far easier select for (and all their breeds had Asiatic blood at some point.)

 

[Chickens are awsome]

Here is an F1 (Gen 1) Olive egger pullet with desirable traits ~


Here is another with slightly less desirable traits, she has a larger comb than I would like but her body color is unique. She also has feathered legs. ~
(She was blinking in all the close-up pics )

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Don't forget to base your flock on birds that are actually laying in mid winter. I try to do a winter solstice hatch with whatever I can get from my pens to ensure I maintain winter laying in my flocks. All the right aesthetic traits won't make a lick of difference if you don't have birds that actually lay through the winter! (And there are lots of those.)

 

[samanthaoverton]

Don't forget to base your flock on birds that are actually laying in mid winter. I try to do a winter solstice hatch with whatever I can get from my pens to ensure I maintain winter laying in my flocks. All the right aesthetic traits won't make a lick of difference if you don't have birds that actually lay through the winter! (And there are lots of those.)

Hey forgive my confusion, You mean they hatch on winter solstice or you start them that day? Forgive me again for asking..you do this to carry on the gene pool of the winter layers? This sounds interesting and makes sense to me. I live in north east tn (mountains). We always get snow in the winter. Just being nosy