cubalaya's and malay's hardiness

[IcameIsawIleft]

I was wondering how well cubalayas and malays do in cold weather. I live in Idaho and it gets zero degrees easy every winter. Basically I just want to know if it would be really miserable for them if they would make it.

 

[DTchickens]

As far as i know, all oriental gamefowl have hard times in cold weather.. But plenty of people own them in cold areas you just have to have the right set ups.. As for the cubalayas im not sure.

 

[Randy]

I thought pretty hard about getting some malays but after researching I found that they weren't cold hardy at all so I had to take a step back and think it over. Then after seeing a Siapan from mid Missouri that had most of his toes frozen off it's got me leaning toward not getting any.

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
That can happen to any breed, it's just conditions in the toe etc area.. The hardiness is more of they can freeze to death because they don't have many feathers, and they're hard/tight so not much for warmth.

 

[Dirt Road]

That can happen to any breed, it's just conditions in the toe etc area.. The hardiness is more of they can freeze to death because they don't have many feathers, and they're hard/tight so not much for warmth.

Not sure if I can completely agree. Turkens have fewer feathers than most chickens, and survive the cold nicely. I lost a Tomaru long crower cross a couple of years ago because it froze a foot. He was as well feathered as the other birds in the same coop which were unaffected, other than a few nipped combs.

Jim​

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
Not sure if I can completely agree. Turkens have fewer feathers than most chickens, and survive the cold nicely. I lost a Tomaru long crower cross a couple of years ago because it froze a foot. He was as well feathered as the other birds in the same coop which were unaffected, other than a few nipped combs.

Jim

But it can happen.. To any breed. It just depends on where at, conditions you house them in, and plenty of other's.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

DT is right. As long as you house your fowl according to the weather your area has, they'll be just fine.

Cubalaya are pretty hardy fowl, it takes a lot to get them down. They will go down though, if not taken proper care of. Give them plenty of space, some shelter from extreme weather, food, and water, and they'll thrive. They are not as hard feathered as the Malay, so they tend to handle freezing temperatures better.

Due to the Cubalaya being longtailed fowl, you'll need to make sure they don't sit around in the mud much. I had to periodically rinse the mud from the tails of my cocks this past spring because of the constant rain we were getting.

Higher roosts work better for them, about 5 ft or even higher if possible. This helps keep their tails out of the muck that builds up under roosts.