A Guide to Heat-Tolerant and Cold-Hardy Chicken Breeds
Learn How to Protect Chickens From Frostbite and Heat Exhaustion
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Although it’s easier to keep chickens warm vs. cool, it’s important to choose the correct breed for your location, whether that be a cold-hardy chicken or a heat-tolerant chicken breed. Because let’s face it, the weather plays an important part in our lives. There’s a reason it’s the most-watched part of our nightly news. It affects us and it affects our chickens. Every year there are stories of folks that bought the wrong breed for their climate and experience losses, have unhealthy chickens, or end up bringing their birds inside where the climate is more moderate. Don’t let this happen to you! Make sure to pick a breed that will live comfortably in your climate. Your birds will thank you for it!
What Makes a Cold-Hardy Chicken Breed?
A cold-hardy chicken is often nicely feathered along with small combs and wattles that reduce frostbite chances. While we find cold weather to be a pain, always having to bundle up when we go outside to refill chicken feeders and waterers, our birds often adjust quite well. In winter you’ll find your birds will roost closer together creating lots of body heat. You’ll also find them hunkering down on their roosts making sure their legs and feet are tucked under for extra heat and protection. Many birds will fluff their feathers keeping body heat closer to the skin.
While it’s always important to make sure your coop is clean and dry, it’s key in winter. Moisture build up, from dripping waterers and excrement, can lead to high levels of ammonia which can damage your chicken’s lungs. Also, excess moisture leads to chicken frostbite. Make sure your coop is not drafty but does have ventilation allowing moisture to escape. And, for cold-hardy chickens with feathered legs and feet, make sure they have a place to get those feathers dry. Otherwise, those areas are more prone to frostbite with wet, frozen feathers. Frostbite can happen in a matter of minutes, so make sure to monitor your birds and their environment.
Popular Cold-Hardy Chicken Breeds
• Black Australorp
• Brahma
• Buckeye
• Cochin
• Delaware
• Dominique
• Easter Egger
• Jersey Giant
• Naked Neck
• New Hampshire Red
• Orpington
• Plymouth Rock
• Rhode Island Red
• Salmon Faverolles
• Sex Link
• Sussex
• Welsummer
• Wyandotte
What Makes a Heat-Tolerant Chicken Breed?
You’ll find that many heat-tolerant chicken breeds have a large comb and wattles; especially the Leghorn which is known for its heat tolerance. The comb and wattles act as air conditioners. As warm blood is pumped to those parts, heat is lost as it is dispersed over a large surface area.
Heat is probably the hardest weather condition to deal with when it comes to chicken keeping. You can warm up in winter in a variety of ways. But cooling down is much harder. Heat alone can be tough, but heat and humidity are the worst. Chickens will naturally seek out cooler areas of a backyard and then hunker down during the hottest part of the day.
You can help your chickens stay cool by providing shade areas with plants, trees, or structural overhangs like decks. Also, provide a few more waterers during warm weather and place them in shady areas that are cooler. That way your chickens don’t have to move far to get hydrated. Hang a fan in the coop to promote air movement even during the summer nights when temperatures don’t cool much. Give your birds some cool and hydrating treats like chilled blueberries and watermelon. And make sure not to play with them too much. The more active the bird, the warmer the bird!
Popular Heat-Tolerant Breeds
• Black Australorp
• Brahma
• Delaware
• Leghorn
• New Hampshire Red
• Plymouth Rock
• Rhode Island Red
• Sussex
Which type is best for your location, a cold-hardy chicken breed or a heat-tolerant one? And which specific breed is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!
You should add the best cold weather chicken breeds, created in and for Canada, the Chantecler and rhe Partridge Chantecler.
wanted to add Mille fleurs. I figured you’d left them off because they were rare in the United States.
These chickens are incredible when it comes to cold weather. Now I live in the south and it rarely gets below 9 degrees Fahrenheit here. I chose 9 because that was the last really cold we had. I live about an hour off of the North Carolina South Carolina border and it rarely even gets below 25.
My point being that these birds would rather sleep outside on a roost than in a heated coop. I don’t know what it takes to make them go inside but, 9 degrees does not. I finally gave up and built the roost inside so they are forced to go in from the Run. Because, I don’t know at what temperature frostbite sets in.
Belgians and d’Uccle is another name for these birds.
I’ve got 9 of the cold tolerant breeds. Mine have free access via a “doggie” door. My Cuckoo Maran rooster is one of first outside and always last inside, all year long. He likes eating with the 14 ducks. I think he thinks he’s part duck. There’s several places they all can get out of the cold without going in the main coop – a dog house and 2 small covered coops. A few of my roosters have had frost bite but they seem to be the ones outside 6-8 hours a day, going in briefly maybe for a bite. On colder days, I’ve tried taking them back inside only to run back outside seconds later. Usually it’s anywhere from 5° up to 20° warmer inside coop. They create so much heat, snows done melted off roof on their side, shed side is still covered even with opening at top of common wall.